The Phase 2 implementation plan for the New Domain Program, which was given to the ICANN Board earlier this week, is still being closely examined by the domain community and discovered all new interesting features in it. The Domain Incite draws attention to another one in its publication. This is a proposal whereby registries of new gTLDs would take on so-called “Registry Voluntary Commitments” (RVCs). And the need to comply with them and liability for violation will be spelled out in the contract of the registries with the ICANN corporation.
RVCs have a lot in common with the Public Interest Commitments (PICs) that were adopted by some registries in the first phase of the New Domain Program. For example, they provide for the refusal to provide domain names in their domain zones for pornographic sites or resources containing malicious content. But the big difference is that the PICs are purely voluntary commitments and ICANN has no way to enforce them. Moreover, the corporation's rules expressly state that it cannot control services that use the Internet's unique identifier system and their content.
If the new proposal is approved and an RVC compliance clause is included in the contract with ICANN, the corporation will have to revise its rules. In this case, it will have the opportunity to directly influence the content of various sites - and will take a step towards becoming the "content police" of the Internet, which many human rights activists are so afraid of.
