ICANN has made a change to the upcoming new version of Verisign's .net registry agreement in response to public comments, but it's not the change most commenters desired.



In an unusual move acknowledging the significance of public opinion, ICANN and Verisign have agreed to modify two instances of the term "Security and Stability" by changing the upper-case "S" to lower case.

Some commenters expressed concern over the use of upper-case "Security and Stability" as defined terms in the .net contract, as opposed to the lower-case "security and stability" found in other gTLD contracts.

According to certain commenters, including the Business Constituency and Intellectual Property Constituency, this could potentially provide Verisign with an excuse to avoid implementing ICANN Consensus Policies.

ICANN and Verisign have acknowledged that the capitalization of the "s" could lead to different interpretations of the applicability of future Consensus Policies under Section 3.1(b)(iv)(1) for the .NET RA. However, it was not their intention to limit the applicability of Consensus Policy topics necessary for the interoperability, security, and stability of the Internet or DNS.

Therefore, ICANN and Verisign have mutually agreed to update Section 3.1(b)(iv)(1) of the .NET RA to use the lower case "s."

Thus, this incident demonstrates a rare accomplishment of a public comment period and a clear victory for accountability and transparency.

While most comments centered around Verisign's pricing power and concerns about government seizure of domains, ICANN reassured that those issues remain unaffected.