[kictanet] New Registrar Agreement Covers Most Registrations...over 88% of domain names covvered by new protections

[alice]

News Alert

http://www.icann.org/en/announcements/announcement-24nov09-en.htm

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    New Registrar Agreement Covers Most Registrations

Over 88 percent of domain names covered by new protections

24 November 2009

Less than six months after new registrant protections were approved by 
the ICANN Board, over 88 percent of all generic domain names are now 
covered.

The protections include improved ways of storing data that require 
registration companies to submit to more stringent rules. These are 
included in a revised contract between ICANN and registrars, called the 
Registrar Accreditation Agreement (RAA).

Since the revised RAA was approved on 21 May 2009, 650 registrars have 
voluntarily agreed to be bound by the new agreement; collectively they 
represent 88 percent of all generic top-level domains registered. In 
return, those that have signed the new agreement are recognized by ICANN 
on its listing of accredited companies.

Under their existing contract, registrars are not required to sign up to 
the new RAA until their existing agreement ends, but they can 
voluntarily sign up early. The high level of coverage achieved to date 
is due primarily to these voluntary early adopters.

ICANN CEO and President Rod Beckstrom said of the high sign-up rate: 
“The fact that the vast majority of generic domain names are now covered 
by these protections is a clear sign of the industry’s goodwill and its 
commitment to effective self-regulation - especially since some of these 
protections come at a cost to the companies themselves. It is an 
extraordinary achievement in a very short time.”

Some of the additional protections afforded registrants under the new 
contract include:

    * Enhanced enforcement tools to assure registrar compliance with
      ICANN policies
    * Enhanced data escrow requirements to protect registrants that use
      privacy or proxy services
    * A Registrant Rights & Responsibilities document
    * New requirements placed on resellers
    * Improved contact information requirements
    * Registrar required training program

“Registrars and the ICANN community successfully collaborated to make 
sure consumers are well protected while respecting the competitive 
marketplace ICANN has made part of its mandate,” said Mason Cole, Vice 
President of Oversee.net and chair of the Registrar Stakeholder Group. 
“It’s encouraging to see how quickly and assertively registrars have 
adopted the terms of the new agreement.”

As an aid to potential registrants, ICANN has added an indicator on each 
of our public lists of registrars to show which registrars have adopted 
the 2009 RAA. See:

    * http://www.internic.net/regist.html
    * http://www.icann.org/en/registrars/accreditation-qualified-list.html
    * http://www.icann.org/en/registrars/accredited-list.html

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