Registrar Accreditation Agreement
RAA is the abbreviation for Registrar Accreditation Agreement. It was announced by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) tentatively with the United States Department of Commerce (DOC) and Network Solutions Inc. (NSI) on a series of agreements to enhance the competition among the registrars in the arena of .com, .net, and .org Top Level Domains (TLDs) on September 28, 1999. After oral and written public comments, the RAA was revised on several grounds and were then considered by ICANN on November 14, 1999. Out of these several agreements, RAA was one of those, which was signed between the ICANN and the registrars.
The various registrars in order to register names with the .com, .org, .net registries which are operated by the NSI after November 30, 1999 need to sign a new Registrar License and Agreement with the NSI as well as need to sign the revised version of ICANN accreditation agreement.[1]
The RAA had gone through several revisions and on 21 May 2009, the ICANN Board of Directors approved the revisions to the RAA. This new RAA applies to all the new registrars, registrars that voluntarily adopt the contract prior the renewal date and to registrars that renew after the approval date. [2]
Background
The RAA is nothing but basically a contract which looks after the relationship between the accredited registrars and ICANN. Considering a substantial growth in the number of domain name registrations as well as the increase in the number of ICANN accredited registrars there were suggestions that this agreement should be amended. The amendments were intended to provide a large amount of certainty and clarity with respect to rights of the registrants and duties of the registrars.[2]
Contents of RAA
The contents of RAA include some general obligations to be followed by ICANN as well as the registrars. These general obligations are mentioned below.
General Obligations of ICANN:
The ICANN, under the RAA is obliged to carry out its functions in an open manner and will not work towards restraining competition and will have to promote intensive competition. It should also not apply standards, procedures, policies to single out Registrars for the disparate treatment unless it has a reasonable cause.
General Obligations of the Registrars:
As far as the Registrars are concerned they will have to operate as a registrar for the Top Level Domains (TLDs) for which it is accredited by the ICANN within the range of this agreement. The Registrars are also obliged to comply in operations in accordance with all the ICANN-adopted Policies as far as they relate to issues in which coordinated or uniform resolution is necessary for the stable operation of the Internet or the domain-name system. The Registrars are also obliged not to restrain competition. [1]
References