Additional thoughts on TRANSITIONAL

[Cary Karp]

> We encourage ICANN to redelegate TLDs the registries of which flout our rules.

How is that supposed to happen?

The redelegation of a ccTLD can only be initiated at the request of the 
corresponding national government, and in any situation where that 
assertion might prove incorrect, the redelegation would require that 
government's approval. This is a matter of national sovereignty and it 
is nonsensical to expect ICANN even to contemplate overriding it at the 
urging of the IETF. And, again, if that is an incorrect statement, 
governments will have no difficulty in ensuring that their sovereignty 
prevails.

The delegation of gTLDs is regulated by contract to ICANN and adherence 
to relevant RFCs is already boilerplate. I can't imagine how 
noncompliance in that regard could lead to redelegation without massive 
litigation, but as long as the IETF is prepared to indemnify ICANN I 
suppose we could put the idea forward. This assumes that the rules are 
all clearly articulated in protocol. If you are envisioning some other 
IETF instrument that might be invoked with binding effect in a contract, 
I'd be interested to hear the details. (Rules articulated externally to 
the contract wouldn't be worth anything.)

/Cary