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TAF invited to ICANN's Conference in Montevideo   Uruguay Trip 2001

Washington, DC, August 8, 2001. ICANN invited The Americas Foundation (TAF)'s president, Victor Pinzon, to participate in the ICANN Wold's Conference to be held in Montevideo, Uruguay September 5-10, 2001. Pinzon says that he will utilize the opportunity in Montevideo to launch TAF's "Empowerment -Agents of Change" Internship and Leadership Development (AILD) program.  Contact us for details.

Dr. Robert Brezzo, Rector of UDE University, Montevideo, Uruguay and Lic. Antonio Spera

ENCUENTRO MUNDIAL EN SETIEMBRE 2001

Uruguay recibirá a los que dominan Internet

Del 6 al 10 de setiembre, en los salones del Radisson Victoria Plaza Hotel se realizara lo que en opinión de voceros del gobierno uruguayo, es el evento más importante del año, especialmente vinculado con la comunidad de Internet. El evento será la Reunión Mundial del Icann (Internet Corporation for Asing Names and Numbers), del cual participarán entre 300 y 400 representantes de todo el mundo.

Esta reunión no se volverá a hacer en América Latina hasta el 2003 y el coorganizada por la Universidad de la República, la Red Académica Uruguaya, Presidencia de la República, Antel y la Cámara de Comercio.

Tradicionalmente, el Icann concreta tres o cuatro eventos anuales. En la semana anterior concluyó en Melbourne, Australia el primero del 2001, y en junio volverán a reunirse en Estocolmo, Suecia, para luego viajar a Uruguay en setiembre en Montevideo, y como todos los años, cerrar la actividad en Los Angeles, Estados Unidos en noviembre.

Los encuentros se realizan en cada una de las cinco regiones, y la fecha que le corresponde ahora a Uruguay es la de Latinoamérica y el Caribe. La postulación tiene ya algunos cuantos meses, y se fue buscando el consenso con las organizaciones de otros países, y luego la resolución fue tomada en la reunión de Melbourne.

Los temas que estarán en discusión serán la puesta en funcionamiento de los nuevos dominios genéricos, también los acuerdos y la renovación de acuerdos con el gobierno de Estados Unidos y Verisigne que es quien maneja el registro de .com. net .org por ahora en forma monopólica.

Precisamente, esta situación monopólica es la que ahora está siendo revisada y se buscan los acuerdos de cómo abrirlo, pero también habrá capítulos como democracia interna participación y multilingüismo

Para Uruguay es una oportunidad única de reunir a participantes de primer nivel en temas de desarrollo de Internet, los que probablemente luego no vuelvan al Uruguay. Temas como el de la propiedad intelectual y nombres de dominio que están muy en boga serán revisados, por lo cual los abogados uruguayos van a tener la oportunidad de conocer a los que vanguardizan y a los que redactaron los sistemas de regulaciones de conflictos que hoy están vigentes.

Participarán representantes de la industria, importantes ejecutivos de compañías telefónicas, y una de las presencia más destacadas es la del propio chairman, presidente del board, Vinton Cerf, quien es el actual vicepresidente de MCI WorldCom, y es a quien se define como "lo más parecido a lo que es un inventor de Internet", al punto que se "le conoce como el padre de la Internet".

ICANN’s NCDN DNSO accepts TAF as Member
Washington, DC, July 2, 2000. The Americas Foundation was accepted as a member of the Non-Commercial Domain Name Holders Constituency of the Domain Name Supporting Organization of ICANN.

ICANN ANNOUNCES DECISION ON REGISTRY AGREEMENT FOR .COM/.NET/.ORG DOMAINS

April 2, 2001 (Marina del Rey, CA) – The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) today approved proposed revisions to the agreement with VeriSign, Inc pursuant to which VeriSign operates the .com, .net, and .org registries.

The revised agreements, which are subject to ratification by the US Department of Commerce, would significantly restructure the contractual relationship between ICANN and the operator of the world's largest domain name registries. The one existing agreement would be divided into separate registry agreements for each of .com, .net and .org, and each would be subject to an individual term. The .org agreement would expire on December 31, 2002, and VeriSign would not be eligible to seek to renew it. The .org registry would then be turned over to an as yet unspecified not-for-profit organization. The .net agreement would expire on January 1, 2006, and it would then be subject to a competitive renewal process in which VeriSign and all other interested parties could participate. The .com agreement would expire on November 10, 2007, and VeriSign would have a right at that time to renewal for a new four-year term if it satisfies the criteria set forth in the agreement.

In addition, each of the new agreements generally conform to the new template registry agreements negotiated with the operators of the new Top Level Domains recently approved by ICANN. This virtually eliminates the unique treatment of VeriSign that was the product of its pre-ICANN legacy and placing VeriSign on the same contractual footing as all other ICANN registry operators.

The ICANN Board had requested "all members of the Internet community, including the Names Council and any of the constituencies and other participants in the Domain Name Supporting Organization, to provide comments on the substantive merits of the proposal …." There have been extensive discussions throughout the ICANN community regarding the advantages and drawbacks of the proposed revisions to the agreements. The Board carefully evaluated all comments received in reaching its decision, and the final agreements with VeriSign include a number of suggestions contained in community recommendations and comments.ICANN's President and CEO M. Stuart Lynn said: "The new agreements also provide other substantial benefits, several of which are the direct result of recommendations from ICANN's Names Council and its member constituencies."

These benefits include requiring VeriSign:

1. to provide $5 million to the non-profit entity ultimately selected to operate the .org registry beginning January 1, 2003;

2. to commit to the investment of at least $200 million in research & development and infrastructure spending. One of the goals of this investment is to focus on the development of a universal WHOIS capability that would work across all the Top Level Domains in the Domain Name System;

3. to pay its full fair share of ICANN's expenses without any limitations of the kind contained in the original agreement;

4. to agree to charge all ICANN-Accredited Registrars the same fees for registering names in all the registries it operates;

5. to agree to eliminate the $10,000 one-time fee charged to new registrars for initial access to the VeriSign registries;

6. to eliminate or significantly reduce (depending on the number of names involved) the fee resulting from the acquisition by one registrar of a failing registrar, where ICANN certifies that such a transfer would serve the general community interest in stability;

7. to agree to an additional set of monetary sanctions for violations of ICANN rules regarding separate operation and prohibitions on information flows between registries and affiliated registrars (if such rules apply equally to all competitive registries); and

8. to provide 90 days advance notice of new or significantly changed registry services (again, if such rules apply equally to all competitive registries).

VeriSign also agreed to a number of technical and conforming changes in the draft agreements. These agreements had previously been publicly distributed. ICANN Chairman Vint Cerf said, "These new agreements are a significant improvement over the original agreement negotiated in 1999. The DNS world and ICANN have changed enormously since then, and VeriSign's acquisition of Network Solutions in 2000 means that company has undergone significant change as well. These new agreements reflect both the increasing maturity of ICANN and evidence that VeriSign wants to be a cooperative participant in the ICANN process. The normalization of this relationship is an important step toward the Internet community's goal in establishing ICANN -- creating a mechanism to ensure effective private-sector administration of this critical global resource for communication and commerce."

The original agreement had granted VeriSign an automatic right to operate all three registries until 2007, provided VeriSign sold its registrar business by May 10, 2001. The new agreement does not require the sale of the registrar business but continues and strengthens the requirements that VeriSign not favor its affiliated registrar operations in any way over unaffiliated registrars. These include a requirement that the registrar business be operated in a separate subsidiary.

For more information on the ICANN / VeriSign registry agreement see, http://www.icann.org.

ABOUT ICANN

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) is atechnical coordination body for the Internet. ICANN coordinates theassignment of the following identifiers that must be globally unique for the Internet to function:

* Internet domain names

* IP address numbers

* protocol parameter and port numbers

In addition, ICANN coordinates the stable operation of the Internet's root server system.As a non-profit, private-sector corporation, ICANN is dedicated topreserving the operational stability of the Internet; to promotingcompetition; to achieving broad representation of global Internetcommunities; and to developing policy through private-sector, bottom-up,consensus-based means. ICANN welcomes the participation of any interested Internet user, business, or organization.

U.S. COMMERCE DEPARTMENT, NSI, ICANN, CLOSING IN ON DOMAIN NAME AGREEMENTS: TESTBED EXTENSION GRANTED

Washington, D.C., Sept 10, 1999 - The Department of Commerce and Network Solutions agreed today to a further extension of the testbed period of the development of the Shared Registration System until September 30. The Department also announced that discussions between the Department of Commerce, Network Solutions <http://www.networksolutions.com> and the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) <http://www.icann.org> regarding management of the domain name system are nearing completion.
NSI, ICANN, and the Department of Commerce have made great progress in resolving their differences, and the end of those discussions is in sight," Pincus said. "This additional extension should allow us to bring them to conclusion."

"The decisions by 19 additional registrars to participate in the test bed phase since August 6, 1999, has brought us closer to our goal of introducing competition in domain name registration services," said Commerce General Counsel Andrew J. Pincus. "With access to the software and the Shared Registration System, these additional registrars are able to develop domain name registration services and enter the market," Pincus said. A total of 10 registrars are now competing to provide registration services in the .com, .net, and .org domains. "We understand that the Shared Registration System has continued to perform well in this expanded testbed environment and are pleased with that result," Pincus added. All ICANN accredited registrars <http://www.icann.org/registrars/accreditation.htm> are eligible toparticipate in the test bed phase.

The Shared Registration System, which allows multiple licensed accredited registrars to provide domain name registration services in the .com, .net, and .org domains, was developed by Network Solutions pursuant to a Cooperative Agreement with the United States Government. Amendment 11 of the Cooperative Agreement http://www.ntia.doc.gov/ntiahome/domainname/proposals/docnsi100698.htm established a test bed phase for the development of the System. On August 6, the Department of Commerce and Network Solutions agreed to open the test bed phase <http://www.ntia.doc.gov/ntiahome/press/dns08061999.htm> to all registrars accredited by ICANN.

ICANN is the California-based, not-for-profit corporation with a Board of Directors from around the world, developed by the Internet community to undertake management of the Internet domain name system functions now performed by, or under agreement with, the United States Government. Under a Memorandum of Understanding with the Department of Commerce, ICANN is responsible for the accreditation of registrars in the .com, .net, and .org domains.

The National Telecommunications and Information Administration serves as the principal adviser to the President, Vice President, and Secretary of Commerce on domestic and international communications and information issues and represents the Executive Branch before Congress, other Federal agencies, foreign governments and international organizations. Information regarding NTIA and NTIA activities can be found at www.ntia.doc.gov <http://www.ntia.doc.gov>.

ICANN Board meets in Santiago

- Recognition of the Non-Commercial Domain Name Holders Constituency of the Domain Name                Supporting Organization

The Board's meeting was open to public observation, and was multicast over the Internet, including RealVideo, RealAudio, and scribe's notes. The multimedia archive of the week's ICANN meetings -- including the ICANN Public Meeting, the ICANN Board meeting, the DNSO General Assemby and Names Council meetings, and the Governmental Advisory Committee's public forum has been posted at http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/icann/santiago/archive.