ICANN today posted a revised set of proposed amendments to the Registrar Accreditation Agreement. The amendments are intended to provide additional protections for registrants and improved enforcement tools. These most recent changes include two additional amendments and are a result of public comments received and subsequent community dialogue.
In accordance with RAA defined process for amending the agreement, ICANN has provided a written report describing the broad-based process undertaken to arrive at this set of amendments. This report is designed to inform the GNSO and community discussion of the amendments. There will be another public comment period before the ICANN Board would consider this set of proposed contract changes.The two new proposed amendments are intended to enhance public availability of Whois data and registrar contact information:
* Licensee Contact Information Disclosure – Requires a Registered Name Holder that licenses use of a domain name to disclose the contact information provided by the licensee under certain circumstances. (Presently, only the identity of the licensee need be disclosed.)
* Registrar Contact Information – Requires registrars to provide their accurate contact details on their websites including valid email and mailing addresses.
An updated redline of the current RAA showing all of the proposed changes is posted at: Updated Redline 2001 RAA [PDF, 116K]
An updated comparison chart showing both Current RAA Language and Proposed Language is posted at: Updated RAA Provisions Comparison [PDF, 40K]
The GNSO is planning to discuss and provide advice regarding the proposed set of changes to the ICANN Board of Directors as requested by the Board in a resolution.
Source: ICANN Announcement -- December 17, 2008