IP: ICANN, U.S. Department of Commerce, and Network Solutions, Inc., Announce Tentative Agreements on Future of Domain Name System

[David Farber <farber () cis upenn edu>]

ICANN, U.S. Department of Commerce, and Network Solutions, Inc., Announce
Tentative Agreements on Future of Domain Name System

(Marina del Rey, CA) -- The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and
Numbers (ICANN) announced today that it had tentatively reached a set of
agreements with the U.S. Department of Commerce and Network Solutions, Inc.
(NSI), to resolve outstanding differences among the three parties.

The agreements have been posted for a thirty-day public comment period on
the ICANN website at <http://www.icann.org <http://www.icann.org> >, and
will come before the Board for final consideration at its November meeting.
"The ICANN Board is pleased that the lengthy negotiations over these issues
have produced a workable structure based on compromises by all sides," said
Esther Dyson, Interim Chairman of the ICANN Initial Board.  "Our next step
is to consider the input of the engineers, businesses, academics, individual
users and other interested parties that make up the worldwide Internet.  We
look forward to welcoming Network Solutions as an ICANN registrar and to
working with it and the community to develop consensus policies regarding
the management of the Domain Name System."

The agreements consist of:  (1) a Registry Agreement between ICANN and NSI;
(2) a revised Registrar Accreditation Agreement between ICANN and all
registrars in .com, .net, and .org;  (3) a revised post-testbed
Registrar-License and Agreement between NSI and all competing registrars;
(4) an amendment to the Cooperative Agreement between the Department of
Commerce and NSI;  and (5) an amendment to the Memorandum of Understanding
between the Department of Commerce and NSI.

Among the key provisions set forth in the agreements:

*       NSI will recognize ICANN and agree to operate the .com, .org and
.net registries in accordance with the Registry Agreement between ICANN and
NSI and future consensus policies adopted by ICANN.

*       NSI agrees to become an ICANN accredited registrar for the .com,
.org, and .net domains.  The ICANN accreditation agreement has been revised
to include improvements suggested by registrars during the testbed phase.

*       NSI has agreed to participate in the funding of ICANN through
registry and registrar fees, provided that they are equitably apportioned.

*       All accredited registrars (including NSI) will be required to
provide continued public access to "WHOIS" data.

*       The InterNIC website will be maintained as a public information site
with a directory of links to accredited registrars.

"Today's agreements signal the end of the months of uncertainty which have
limited ICANN's ability to address its responsibilities," said Mike Roberts,
ICANN's Interim President & CEO. "Subject to the comments of the global
Internet community, the staff and I look forward to working with the Board
and the community to implement these agreements."

About ICANN
The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) is the
non-profit corporation that was formed to assume responsibility for the IP
address space allocation, protocol parameter assignment, domain name system
management, and root server system management functions now performed under
U.S. Government contract by IANA and other entities.


Pamela A. Brewster
Tech Policy Communications
Alexander Ogilvy Public Relations
San Francisco, CA
415-923-1660x119 voice
415-923-9863 fax
415-902-1158 mobile
pbrewster () alexanderogilvy com <mailto:pbrewster () alexanderogilvy com>