ICANN Announces Decision on Registry Agreement for [...]

(2 April 2001) Marina del Rey, California, USA. The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) today approved proposed revisions to the agreement with VeriSign, Inc. pursuant to which VeriSign operates the .com, .net, and .org registries.

The revised agreements, which are subject to ratification by the USDepartment of Commerce, would significantly restructure the contractualrelationship between ICANN and the operator of the world's largest domainname registries. The one existing agreement would be divided into separateregistry agreements for each of .com, .net and .org, and each would besubject to an individual term. The .org agreement would expire on December31, 2002, and VeriSign would not be eligible to seek to renew it. The .orgregistry would then be turned over to an as yet unspecified not-for-profitorganization. The .net agreement would expire on January 1, 2006, and itwould then be subject to a competitive renewal process in which VeriSign andall other interested parties could participate. The .com agreement wouldexpire on November 10, 2007, and VeriSign would have a right at that time torenewal for a new four-year term if it satisfies the criteria set forth inthe agreement.

In addition, each of the new agreements generally conform to the newtemplate registry agreements negotiated with the operators of the new TopLevel Domains recently approved by ICANN. This virtually eliminates theunique treatment of VeriSign that was the product of its pre-ICANN legacyand placing VeriSign on the same contractual footing as all other ICANNregistry operators.

The ICANN Board had requested "all members of the Internet community,including the Names Council and any of the constituencies and otherparticipants in the Domain Name Supporting Organization, to provide commentson the substantive merits of the proposal." There have been extensivediscussions throughout the ICANN community regarding the advantages anddrawbacks of the proposed revisions to the agreements. The Board carefullyevaluated all comments received in reaching its decision, and the finalagreements with VeriSign include a number of suggestions contained incommunity recommendations and comments.

ICANN's President and CEO M. Stuart Lynn said: "The new agreements alsoprovide other substantial benefits, several of which are the direct resultof recommendations from ICANN's Names Council and its memberconstituencies.

These benefits include requiring VeriSign:

1. to provide $5 million to the non-profit entity ultimately selected tooperate the .org registry beginning January 1, 2003;

2. to commit to the investment of at least $200 million in research &development and infrastructure spending. One of the goals of this investmentis to focus on the development of a universal WHOIS capability that wouldwork across all the Top Level Domains in the Domain Name System;

3. to pay its full fair share of ICANN's expenses without any limitationsof the kind contained in the original agreement;

4. to agree to charge all ICANN-Accredited Registrars the same fees forregistering names in all the registries it operates;

5. to agree to eliminate the $10,000 one-time fee charged to new registrarsfor initial access to the VeriSign registries;

6. to eliminate or significantly reduce (depending on the number of namesinvolved) the fee resulting from the acquisition by one registrar of afailing registrar, where ICANN certifies that such a transfer would servethe general community interest in stability;

7. to agree to an additional set of monetary sanctions for violations ofICANN rules regarding separate operation and prohibitions on informationflows between registries and affiliated registrars (if such rules applyequally to all competitive registries); and

8. to provide 90 days advance notice of new or significantly changedregistry services (again, if such rules apply equally to all competitiveregistries).

VeriSign also agreed to a number of technical and conforming changes in thedraft agreements. These agreements had previously been publicly distributed.

ICANN Chairman Vint Cerf said, "These new agreements are a significantimprovement over the original agreement negotiated in 1999. The DNS worldand ICANN have changed enormously since then, and VeriSign's acquisition ofNetwork Solutions in 2000 means that company has undergone significantchange as well. These new agreements reflect both the increasing maturityof ICANN and evidence that VeriSign wants to be a cooperative participant inthe ICANN process. The normalization of this relationship is an importantstep toward the Internet community's goal in establishing ICANN -- creatinga mechanism to ensure effective private-sector administration of thiscritical global resource for communication and commerce."

The original agreement had granted VeriSign an automatic right to operateall three registries until 2007, provided VeriSign sold its registrarbusiness by May 10, 2001. The new agreement does not require the sale of theregistrar business but continues and strengthens the requirements thatVeriSign not favor its affiliated registrar operations in any way overunaffiliated registrars. These include a requirement that the registrarbusiness be operated in a separate subsidiary.

For more information on the ICANN / VeriSign registry agreement see,http://www.icann.org.