[governance] NCSG stuff, was PIR and ETHOS Convene Community Webinar on 12/19

[John Levine]

In article <SN6PR07MB457562743EF2C80F0657C42FA1500 at SN6PR07MB4575.namprd07.prod.outlook.com> you write:
>In this letter to the ICANN board, https://docs.google.com/document/d/1zfaTlkIUZEsNMOQljy43SQSXZUQBmgFSJYVnjGgpYp8/edit
>the ICANN’s Noncommercial Stakeholder Group (NCSG) set out a specific set of demands grounded in ICANN process and ORG’s original
>RFP. If those demands are met, via amendments to the Registry Agreement, it doesn’t matter whether Ethos Capital or anyone else owns
>ORG. We will be protected. Let’s not foster outrage for its own sake, let’s get something done!

Speaking only for myself, I don't find any of the NCSG's requests
particularly out of line, although there are two places where you
shoot yourself in the foot.

While everything else is a non-technical policy change, increasing the
registration window from 10 to 20 years would require changes to the
EPP spec, changes to the EPP implementation at the registry, changes
to the EPP implementation at every registrar, and changes to the
everyone's accounting and billing systems.  If you've ever dealt with
EPP, this is not cheap or fast, and I expect most registrars would not
bother for the trickle of revenue it might bring in.  Even if you
believe that some future registry owner would increase prices above
competitive levels, the extra benefit of 20 years vs 10 is pretty
speculative.  We have no idea what the domain world will look like in
20 years.  Who in 1999 would have predicted the current situation with
a thousand failing novelty domains and Verisign still bigger than
everyone else combined?  I'd drop that, since it'll be contentious and
has minimal benefit.

The content neutrality item is reasonable, but you should make it
clear that it's not in opposition to Healthy Domains which is
addressing stuff that (I assume) we all agree is broadly illegal, such
as malware distribution, phishing web sites, and distribution of child
abuse material,

Finally for the part about .NGO/.ONG, if the registrants say they
don't like the new owner, then what?  There's only 3000 of them.
Either they stay with PIR or they're not viable.

R's,
John