3 November 2002

Philip L. Sbarbaro
Deputy General Counsel
VeriSign, Inc.

Re: Your 16 October 2002 Letter to Joe Sims

Dear Phil,

On 16 October 2002, you sent a letter to Joe Sims, ICANN's outside counsel, asking for reconsideration of three conditions contained in ICANN Board resolution 02.100. That resolution authorized negotiations to revise the .com and .net agreements VeriSign made with ICANN in 2001, so as to permit VeriSign to conduct a proposed one-year trial, which VeriSign dubbed the "Wait-Listing Service" or "WLS", which involves various revisions of the agreed deleted-name-allocation procedures and the implementation of a new, fee-bearing reservation scheme.

By subsequent communications, you requested that the matter be addressed at the ICANN Board's 31 October 2002 meeting.

As requested, the ICANN Board considered your 16 October letter at its 31 October meeting. Noting that the letter explicitly requests that "that the Board reconsider" aspects of its resolution 02.100, the Board concluded that ICANN's reconsideration policy applies. That policy, which was adopted in March 1999 and has been publicly available on the Internet ever since, is posted at <http://www.icann.org/committees/reconsideration/recon-policy-04mar99.htm>.

Your letter was not submitted, as required by the reconsideration policy, by e-mail to <reconsider@icann.org>. Nonetheless, the Board concluded that this formal error by VeriSign should be excused, and therefore adopted resolution 02.124 at its 31 October 2002 meeting:

Whereas, in resolution 02.100 the Board authorized the President and General Counsel to conduct negotiations with VeriSign toward appropriate revisions of the .com and .net registry agreements to permit the offering of a Wait-Listing Service under stated conditions;

Whereas, on 16 October 2002 VeriSign's Deputy General Counsel sent ICANN's outside counsel a letter "formally request[ing] that the Board reconsider three of [the conditions] at the Shanghai meeting";

Whereas, the Board's reconsideration policy states that "[r]equests for review or reconsideration must be submitted by email to reconsider@icann.org";

Whereas, the Board is of the view that, despite VeriSign's failure to comply with the published procedures for seeking reconsideration, the letter should be treated as if it were submitted to the e-mail address;

Whereas, the Reconsideration Committee currently has pending a request (No. 02-5) also seeking review of the Board's action in resolution 02.100;

Resolved [02.124] that VeriSign's 16 October 2002 letter is hereby referred to the Reconsideration Committee, with instructions to treat it as if it had been submitted on that date to the e-mail address as required by the Reconsideration Policy.

VeriSign may find it useful to carefully review the reconsideration policy, available as always at the URL above, so as to avoid further violations of the policy that could result in additional delays in the handling of this matter. In particular, VeriSign may wish to promptly provide any information it believes appropriate under the policy that is missing from the 16 October 2002 letter. All communications concerning reconsideration matters should be submitted by e-mail to <reconsider@icann.org>.

Please also note, as is stated in the Board's resolution, that the Reconsideration Committee currently has pending another reconsideration request concerning resolution 02.100. That request was submitted by Dotster, Inc., and is posted at <http://www.icann.org/committees/reconsideration/dotster-request-12sep02.htm>. It "requests that ICANN reconsider and reverse its decision to allow the WLS proposal due to the negative impacts it will have to consumers, Dotster, and the Internet community." If VeriSign has any comments on Dotster's request, it should submit them in writing to <reconsider@icann.org>, with a copy to Dotster's counsel:

Kevin E. Brannon
Preston, Gates & Ellis LLP
<kbrannon@prestongates.com>

On 30 October 2002, Mr. Brannon submitted a comment on VeriSign's 16 October 2002 letter, which arrived by e-mail after the start of the Board's 31 October 2002 meeting and was not read by me until after the meeting concluded, and therefore was not considered by the Board. It has, however, been posted at <http://www.icann.org/correspondence/brannon-letter-to-lynn-touton-30oct02.htm>. By a separate message, I will advise Mr. Brannon that in the future correspondence concerning VeriSign's reconsideration request should be copied to you.

If you have any questions regarding the above, please direct them to <reconsider@icann.org>.

Best regards,

Louis Touton
ICANN General Counsel

cc: Joe Sims, Esq.
Kevin E. Brannon, Esq.

Page Updated 03-Nov-2002
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