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ICANN 45

http://icannwiki.com/index.php/ICANN Meetings

ICANN's 45 Public Meeting is happening Oct. 14 - 18 in Toronto, Canada. Background on some of the many topics being discussed at this meeting can be found below:

The Registrar Accreditation Agreement is a continuing to undergo revisions and community input. At ICANN 44 in Prague, the GAC met with law enforcement representatives to create a number of recommendations to bolster the requirements for the Whois database in an attempt to make the information more accurate. Their recommendations include requiring registrars to retain data about their customers for up to two years after registration, and re-verifying contact data every year. The European Commission and other relevant European policy bodies have since come out strongly against these recommendations, noting that they will violate European privacy laws. In response, ICANN CEO, Fadi Chehadé, has alluded to going forward with the recommendations, as they continue to have GAC support, but not require European registrars to follow the sections that would violate their national laws. The possibility of having two distinct RAAs, one for European registrars and one for non-European registrars, will be a hot topic for discussion.

ICANN 45 will be the first meeting for new ICANN CEO, Fadi Chehadé. His remarks at ICANN 44 in Prague were roundly praised by the ICANN community, and he assumed his position ahead of schedule, on September 14th. Since relieving the interim CEO, Akram Atallah, Mr. Chehadé has already made a number of hierarchical changes. These include new executive positions, such as appointing Senior Advisor of Governmental Affairs Tarek Kamel; appointing Maguy Serad as VP of Contractual Compliance, and now having the department report directly to him; and expanding the role of COO Akram Attallah and changing the role of Kurt Prtiz to Chief of Strategy. H

The New TLD Applicant Group will meet for the first time at ICANN 45. This group is now a formal group within ICANN's GNSO, with the goal of representing the interests of entities that applied for a new gTLD(s) in ICANN’s 2012 gTLD round. Officers of the new group include: Jon Nevett (Donuts, Chair); Bill Doshier, (DotStrategy Co., Vice Chair); Tim Switzer, (Dot Green Community, Treasurer); Krista Papac, (Aremi Group, Secretary).

.pw The Professional Web is the re-launched registry for the newly Opened ccTLD for Palau, .pw. The Professional Web is a subsidiary of Directi, which operates prominent registrars, hosting, and development companies, and is also an applicant for 30 new gTLDs. Despite these applications, the launching of the now-open ccTLD represents the Directi group's first active registry operation. The official launch of the TLD is ICANN 45 in Toronto, with a sunrise period beginning in December, 2012.