The Canadian Internet Registration Authority (CIRA) today announced revised policies and procedures for the fourth quarter 2008, intending to clarify, amend and simplify our current business processes. These policies will come into effect on December 9, 2008.
The topics addressed are:
1. CIRA Revised Registrant Agreement
The agreement was shortened considerably from 27 to 14 pages for simplification, clarification and easier comprehension. The amended Registrant Agreement document can be found here.
2. Registrant Confirmation Process
The new Registrant Confirmation Process is greatly simplified and has been reduced from 17 website screens to 3 website screens consisting of a login page, the Registrant Agreement page, and a completion page.
The Registrant Agreement incorporates by reference each of CIRA’s Policies, Rules and Procedures (as opposed to listing them individually) creating a more user-friendly confirmation process.
Registrants will be able to complete the confirmation process directly on participating Registrars’ websites.
Once Registrants have completed the Registrant Confirmation Process, CIRA will send emails informing them of CIRA Membership and “Change Without Approval (CWA)” processes.
3. Manual Change of Administrative Contact Email Rules and Procedures (MCACE)
The previous MCAC has been modified to the MCACE, which is greatly simplified and shortened for easier understanding and faster service. The new MCACE forms are much clearer and shorter, with separate forms for Individual and Non-Individual Registrants. This is now an electronic process, not a paper-based one as in the past. The forms are in electronic .pdf format which will allow Registrants to type data into the form fields.
The MCACE will only be used to update the Administrative Contact’s email address, in cases, where the Registrant does not have their user name and password and their e-mail address no longer functions. If a Registrant wishes to update other Administrative Contact information or make any other changes, they can do so after their user name and password is sent to their new email address.
A major change that benefits dot-ca Registrants is that the witness no longer needs to be a professional or a member of a designated group (e.g. lawyer, professional engineer or doctor).
The witness declaration will only need to be signed by someone who knows the Registrant well enough to verify that the statements made by the Registrant on the form are true, such as a family member or friend.
The rules and procedures document has been reduced to less than 3 pages (from the current 9) for a much clearer and easier to comprehend document.
Registrants are no longer required to list all their domain names on the MCACE form. If they want the email address change to apply to all their domain names with that particular Registrar, they can simply specify ALL on the form. If they want the email address change to apply to specific Registrant profiles, they only need to list at least one domain name associated with that specific Registrant profile.
4. Special Change of Administrative Contact Policy Rules and Procedures (SCAC)
The Special Change of Administrative Contact Policy Rules and Procedures (SCAC) & the Permit Application Procedure are removed, as the expedited process it provided will no longer be required in light of the new, simplified and faster MCACE process.
“We have continued to improve and revise our operational and legal procedures in this quarter in order to better serve our Registrars and Registrants” said Michael Stewart, General Counsel and Director of Policy Development, CIRA.
About CIRA
The Canadian Internet Registration Authority (CIRA) is the not-for-profit, member-driven organization that manages Canada’s dot-ca (.ca) domain name registry, develops and implements policies that support Canada’s Internet community, and represents the dot-ca registry internationally. CIRA processes over 300 million requests per day to connect Internet users with over one million dot-ca Internet addresses.
