The gTLD Registry Constituency submitted a Supermajority opinion to ICANN on April 13, 2009 calling for a new section 2.8 in the new gTLD Agreement contained within the Second Version of the Draft Applicant Guidebook.

This newly proposed revision states:
"Registry Operator must use only ICANN accredited registrars in registering domain names. Affiliates of Registry Operator or of any entity providing Registry Services for the TLD may be ICANN-accredited registrars, provided that such Affiliates or entities providing Registry Services for the TLD may not distribute domain names in the TLD unless (i) the TLD is a “single registrant” TLD, or (ii) the TLD is “community-based”, provided however that in such event (a) the Affiliates or entities providing Registry Services for the Community-based TLD together may act as a distributor for no more than 50,000 names registered in the TLD and (b) neither Registry Operator nor any entity providing Registry Services for the Community-based TLD may themselves act as an authorized registrar, reseller or distributor of domain names within the TLD through the same entity that provides Registry Services for the TLD. Registry Operator must provide non-discriminatory access to Registry Services to all ICANN accredited registrars that enter into and are in compliance with Registry Operator’s registry-registrar agreement for the TLD. Registry Operator must use a uniform agreement with all registrars authorized to register names in the TLD, which may be revised by Registry Operator from time to time, provided however, that any such revisions must be approved in advance by ICANN."

The voting members of the gTLD Registry Constituency include:

1. Afilias (.info)
2. DotAsia Organisation (.asia)
3. DotCooperation (.coop)
4. Employ Media (.jobs)
5. Fundació puntCAT (.cat)
6. mTLD Top Level Domain (.mobi)
7. Museum Domain Management Association – MuseDoma (.museum)
8. NeuStar (.biz)
9. Public Interest Registry (.org)
10. RegistryPro (.pro)
11. SITA (.aero)
12. Telnic (.tel)
13. The Travel Partnership Corporation – TTPC (.travel)
14. VeriSign (.com, .name & .net)

The attached opinion notes the vote on this issue:

Regarding the issue noted above, the level of support in the RyC is summarized below.
1. Level of Support of Active Members: Supermajority
1.1. # of Members in Favor: 11
1.2. # of Members Opposed: 2
1.3. # of Members that Abstained: 1
1.4. # of Members that did not vote: 0

The votes against this provision were from VeriSign and RegistryPro who also supported Registry-Registrar Separation but preferred different language for section 2.8.

The submission of the comments can be found at http://forum.icann.org/lists/2gtld-transition/msg00018.html

Attachment	Date	Size
13 April 2009 RyC Comments on Separation.pdf	23/06/09 9:21 pm	302.8 KB