ICANN proposes updates on .COM registry agreement renewal, opens comments - ITREALMS

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The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) has opened a public comment on the proposed renewal of the .COM Registry Agreement (RA), reports ITREALMS.

Disclosing this, the Senior Vice President, Global Domains & Strategy at ICANN, Theresa Swinehart said there are some updates on the process.

According to her, the Public Comment took effect last weekend Friday, September 26, 2024, pointing out that the proposed .COM RA includes provisions from both recent amendments to the Base Generic Top-Level domain Registry Agreement (Base gTLD RA).

Collectively, among other updates, she said, the proposed amendments incorporate important obligations related to mitigating Domain Name System (DNS) abuse and providing domain name registration data over the Registration Data Access Protocol (RDAP). The proposed .COM RA also adds a provision to report security incidents to ICANN and further aligns the .COM agreement with provisions in the Base gTLD RA.

She recalled that ICANN and Verisign also agreed to amend the Letter of Intent (LOI). Updates to the LOI include changes to reflect Verisign's support for a more accessible multilingual Internet. This aligns with ICANN's strategic plan, and the commitment for ICANN and Verisign to work together to determine a process for ICANN to publish information following a disclosed security incident.

Verisign's operation of the .COM TLD is governed by two separate agreements: the .COM RA between Verisign and ICANN, and the Cooperative Agreement between Verisign and the U.S. Department of Commerce (DoC) of which ICANN is not a party to.

She further noted that ICANN is not a price regulator and defers to the relevant authority to provide guidance on restrictions related to wholesale pricing. Further information related to the operation of .COM can be found in Verisign's recent blog.

Emphasising that ICANN's Public Comment process is part of its multistakeholder model. 

"It provides a mechanism for stakeholders to have their opinions and recommendations formally and publicly documented. I encourage you to take the time to review the proposed changes in detail and provide your feedback," Swinehart urged.