you may wish to look further at the process by which the ICANN-VeriSign agreement was reached. Based on staff research and the enclosed e-mail, it does not appear to have been an arm's-length negotiation, but one in which ICANN's outside counsel agreed to become an "advocate" for VeriSign before the ICANN board if certain conditions were met.Now someone has kindly faxed us the text of that "enclosed e-mail," and of what seems to be a covering note. Once again, we see that critical policy decisions originate in the ICANN staff or its outside lawyer, Joe Sims; key ideas only get communicated to the Board, and to the rest of us, late in the day, when there's only time for a rushed discussion. (Remember, and repeat after me, "ICANN is a consensus based, bottom-up, organization.")
Re-typed text inside. [Corrected to include
dates]
[Full text of covering e-mail as faxed to us.
Redactions were in fax.]
From: Joe Sims [mail to] Sims@JonesDay.com
Sent: Tuesday, April
24, 2001 4:06 pm
To: [Blanked out on fax copy]
Subject: per our
conversation
At your request, I am forwarding you a copy of an email I
sent to VeriSign which set forth my personal--and I emphasize personal--ideas
about what a possible new agreement might deal with. At this point, I was
operating on my own, without seeking specific guidance from my client, since at
this point there was as yet no indication that there was any willingness to do
anything that might pass muster. Once VeriSign indicated an interest in at least
talking about these points, I immediately began to coordinate very closely with
staff, and Vint was brought up to speed (and from that point included in the
coordination) soon thereafter.
As you can see, this was in essence my "wish list" - - a list of things that I believed could possibly have value, and which I thought there was at least some possibility that VeriSign might be willing to discuss. I did not include things that I believed were a waste of time, like reductions in the registry price, since it was obvious that we had very little time to come to some resolution if it was to be at all possible to get anything done. In essence, we were able to accomplish most of what is set forth in the first 4 items, and not the last three (although all of these latter points were, admittedly, relatively low value points that I included mostly to fill out my list). The first 4 points were the important one to us, and the final agreements track these points very closely.
You can find the new TLD agreements on the ICANN home page, under Status Report on New TLD Agreements. There is a chart in that link that lists the currently available pieces of each agreement. The italicized links indicate that these are revised versions to those originally posted. I am told there will be significant updates in the next day or so, so please check back regularly. Please let me know if I can provide any further information.
Joe Sims
Jones Day Reavis & Pogue
51 Louisiana Avenue NW
Washington, D.C. 20001
---------------------
[Full text of original email, as faxed
to us.]
Roger, unless I misunderstand the points you raised, I do not see anything there that would have any potential at all for generating the political support necessary to change the status quo, and I would not be interested in investing any of my political capital in even raising the possibility. Thus, it may be that this particular approach is not worth pursuing. Still, since I have dismissed these ideas, I thought it incumbent to indicate the kind of ideas that could have potential, assuming that VRSN had any interest in pursuing them. In my judgement, to have any chance of success, Plan B would have to include some combination of the following ideas:
I am not certain that agreements on some combination of these points would do the job, but in my mind there would at least be a possibility, and with the right collection of agreements I would be willing to advocate them. We can discuss tomorrow whether VRSN has any interest in continuing discussions along these lines. If not, we should concentrate on Plan A.
Joe Sims
Jones Day Reavis & Pogue
51 Louisiana Avenue NW
Washington, D.C. 20001
----Forwarded by Joe Sims/JonesDay on 04/24/01 03:21 PM -------
Joe Sims
To: "Cochetti, Roger"
cc:
"Korzeniewski, Bob"
Subject: Re: CONFIDENTIAL PLAN
B
01/22/01 11:07 PM