Supplement to NZOC Report 08/11/02
Confidential to Council
Keith:
This is in addition to my brief NZOC report to Council. There are two matters which I believe should be drawn to the attention of Council at the next meeting. I have attached a copy of the letter sent to me by Debbie for your on-referral to Council.
1. Debbie has responsibility for oversight of the Stabilising Registrar Agreement and has expressed concern over a clear breach of the agreement on the part of Domainz. She has asked for information about aspects of a recently agreed contract between Domainz and Xtra which are non-standard. Note that such non-standard provisions are in contravention of the SRA. Domainz has refused to provide this information on the grounds of commercial confidentiality. The SRA makes no provision for this and Debbie and I are in no doubt that Domainz is in breach. The DNC has no means of forcing Domainz to comply so this is a matter for Council to consider. It may well be that the withheld information is not considered by Council to be a matter of concern; that is not something Debbie is in a position to judge.
2. Debbie has attempted to negotiate an agreement with Domainz over a means of ensuring that the process of billing during the transitioning names between Domainz and the Registry during December would be smoothed. This is required because of a difference in the respective billing periods. As explained in Debbie's letter, a very workable arrangement was arrived at with the CEO of Domainz which was subsequently overturned by the Domainz Board. It is clear that the alternative proposed is not consistent with a good process and would reflect badly on the SRS, quite unnecessarily. Since the only rationale would seem to be a finacial disadvantage for Domainz in terms of cash flow, Debbie has provided a worst case estimate (just over $2,100) and offered to pay this to Domainz from the DNC contingency budget. This is a case where Council could, with minimal risk of fiscal exposure, require the Board of Domainz to comply with the request of the DNC.
I therefore recommend to Council as follows:
1. "Note" that Domainz is in breach of the SRA due to signing off a non-standard contract with Xtra. It is left to Council to decide how it wishes to respond to this information.
2. "Agree to require" Domainz to follow the recommended procedure from the DNC for transitioning billing for domain names in December, including providing an invoice to the DNC for services to meet any provable cost to Domainz arising from disrupted cash-flow as a result of the changes.
