The "Statement of Principles"

[Kent Crispin <kent@songbird.com>]

To gtld-discuss:

While you are twiddling your thumbs waiting for the white paper, 
here's something to think about:

Appended is a draft "Statement of Principles".  It is intended that a 
signature on this document would be sufficient to become a member of 
PAB.  Note that signatures must be from bona fide entities.

Also note that explicitly, a signature does not legally bind a
signatory to anything.  Thus, membership is essentially open --
instead of charging $35/year or something like that, the basic
membership requirement is being a bona fide entity with sufficient
interest to go to the trouble of submitting a signature.



   STATEMENT OF PRINCIPLES CONCERNING GENERIC TOP LEVEL DOMAINS

This declaration represents an agreement among the undersigned on a
broad statement of principles that should govern 1) the administration
of the global domain name system (DNS) of the Internet, and 2) the set
of generic top level domains (gTLDs).

This statement is not intended to and shall not impose legal
obligations on those who sign. 

  I.  The administration of the DNS is now under the control of the
  Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA), a private organization
  that derives its authority from its standing in the Internet
  community, and by charter from the Internet Architecture Board, the
  fundamental standards body of the Internet. 

  II.  IANA currently has control over all TLDs in the global DNS,
  including the ISO 3166 Country Code TLDs (ccTLDs), the specialized
  TLDs (sTLDs), and the generic TLDs (gTLDs).  ccTLD registries are
  delegated by IANA to appropriate political authorities; sTLDs are
  governed by charters approved by IANA, and gTLDs are governed by
  a tradition of fair use codified in RFCs and IANA policies.

  III.  Administration of the DNS should remain under the control of a
  private organization, either IANA or some organization derived from
  IANA, in the legal form of a corporation or otherwise.  This
  organization should operate in the public interest, for the benefit
  of the Internet, not for profit; and must be responsive to public
  policy concerns. 

  IV.  Administration of the DNS should not at any time be under the
  control of any national government. 

  V.  Each gTLD registry shall be subject to the following policies or
  principles, enforced ultimately by IANA, or its successor:

    (a) IANA, or its successor, shall determine when and whether to
    create new gTLDs including specification of the alphanumeric
    strings, the timing of introduction of new gTLDs, and the number of
    gTLDs, through an open, unbiased, public procedure.

    (b) The data in each registry shall be freely available to the
    public, subject only to restrictions relating to privacy.

    (c) gTLD registries shall operate in the public interest on a cost
    recovery basis and not for profit, under the ultimate supervision
    of IANA (or its successor).

    (d) Access for registration of second level domains in all gTLD
    registries shall be equally available to all qualified registrars
    on a non-discriminatory basis.  The qualifications for registrars
    will be under the control of IANA (or its successor).

    (e) IANA (or its successor) will establish a uniform procedure for
    resolving disputes involving trademarks and other intellectual
    property issues concerning domain names.  This procedure will
    offer an efficient and inexpensive means of dispute resolution
    without supplanting or interfering with the jurisdiction of
    national courts or the rights of Internet users to have resort to
    the courts. 

    (f) Registration services for second level domain names in the
    gTLDs should be globally distributed, and, except in exceptional
    circumstances, should be shared among all registrars that meet
    appropriate technical qualifications. 




-- 
Kent Crispin, PAB Chair			"No reason to get excited",
kent@songbird.com			the thief he kindly spoke...
PGP fingerprint:   B1 8B 72 ED 55 21 5E 44  61 F4 58 0F 72 10 65 55
http://songbird.com/kent/pgp_key.html