Re: [Ianaplan] feedback regarding the combined proposal

[John Curran <[e-mail]>]

On Aug 9, 2015, at 10:11 AM, Bernard Aboba <[e-mail]<mailto:[e-mail]>> wrote:

On Aug 9, 2015, at 5:41 AM, Eliot Lear <[e-mail]<mailto:[e-mail]>> wrote:

If this agreement is in place, great.  That should be stated.  If the
agreement is not yet in place, then that should be stated in the
transition section (Section V) of the ICG summary.

[BA] The ICG proposal includes requirements for agreements. Compared to an actual agreement this is akin to the sound of one hand clapping.

Due to legal concerns relating to current NTIA-ICANN contract limitations, agreements cannot be signed at this time.  We do not even really know when discussions will be able to resume, what additional concerns might arise when they do, or even whether the requirements can be met once all the obstacles to discussion are removed.

I will observe that the numbers community ran into a similar difficulty when we
proposed that a Service Level Agreement for IANA Numbering Services be
entered in advance of the transition of the stewardship of the IANA functions.

As a result of some discussion of the topic with ICANN, we have now made explicit
a "Condition Precedent” in the second draft of the SLA, such that entry into the
agreement would still result in no effect if ICANN has not been released from its
obligations to provide substantially similar services per its NTIA contract by a specific
date (more information, including the second draft of the SLA, can be found here:
https://www.nro.net/news/call-for-comments-for-the-second-draft-sla-for-the-iana-numbering-services)

It is unclear if this approach would work for implementation of the IANAplan
proposal, as: 1) we have not received a formal response back from ICANN on
this approach, 2) the IETF already has an existing relationship and agreement,
and it is unclear whether a similar mechanism could be applied to only to a
specific set of rights/duties rather than the entire agreement.  I mention it solely
because it may provide a potential avenue of exploration which would allow
further progress on establishing necessary foundational pieces for transition.

/John