GOpenCDR governance charter

Purpose and principles

GOpenCDR is a namespace that coexists with the IANA namespace and never competes with it. This charter fixes who decides what, so that decisions are made under rules set before anybody votes and can be checked by anybody afterwards. Five principles bind every body it creates:

1. IANA always wins. No decision may make a GOpenCDR name answer in place of a name in the IANA root.
2. Security first. No decision may weaken the controls around keys, zones and the root.
3. Neutrality. The DNS layer does not judge content or speech.
4. Privacy by default. A registrant gives an account and a verified email address, and more only where a TLD's own policy asks.
5. Everything on the record. Root changes, key events, policy changes, vetoes and votes are published.

The tiers

• Tier 0 is the root registry, operated by Gelhaus Solutions. It runs the root and the key ceremonies, the hosted registry platform and the abuse desk, and it carries out the councils' decisions.
• Tier 1 is the TLD registries. Each runs its TLD under its TLD operator agreement, hosted on the platform by default or self-hosted after technical checks.
• Tier 2 is the mirrors: public and private resolvers, authoritative secondaries and full zone mirrors, which serve the namespace under the mirror operator terms.

The councils

Tier 0 may set up further councils. These three exist:

• The Registry Council has 7 seats elected by the TLD operators. It passes policies and directives.
• The Community Council has 7 seats elected by the community. It decides on new TLDs.
• The Operators Council has one seat per TLD operator, exercised by the operator's appointed representative. It manages existing TLDs, and it may amend a TLD's policy by two thirds on the topics the fence below allows, with the affected operator recused.

A council may set up committees and delegate to them, and remains answerable for what they decide. Tier 0 chairs each council unless the council elects its own chair.

Seats

• Every seat is numbered and has a class: reserved, Tier 0 block, appointed by Tier 0, elected or ex officio. It has a holder and a term. A seat is never transferred, and a released seat returns to where it came from.
• Tier 0 holds the seats of the Registry Council and the Community Council as a block until people are elected to them. Each person elected takes one seat from that block.
• Tier 0 keeps one reserved seat on every council, which the council cannot change. Further reserved seats can be created only by the council with Tier 0's votes excluded, and never as a majority.
• Holders are people or verified organisations: companies, associations, public bodies and registered groups. An organisation's representatives belong to it, accept the role and pass the checks. One governance administrator appoints them, the organisation's other contacts are told and have 72 hours to object, and the council may reject an appointee within 7 days by two thirds of its other seats. A seat may have up to two alternates, and one person may vote several seats of the same holder.
• Tier 0 may appoint block seats away for fixed terms, two years unless stated otherwise, and may renew or recall such an appointment at will with a published reason; votes already cast stand. Appointments and reservations are announced 14 days in advance. Tier 0 block seats are open to candidates every year.
• How many seats one affiliated group may hold is a Registry Council policy, which the council may change at any time. Affiliation covers control, employment, contracts and sources of income.

Voting

• A council decides by recorded vote, seat by seat. The roll is fixed when voting opens, and each ballot records the seat, the person and the capacity in which they vote.
• A holder decides for each motion whether its seats vote as one or freely. A representative may mark a ballot as cast on the holder's instruction rather than on their own judgement, and the marker is published with the vote.
• A seat may give its proxy to any member of the council, one proxy per member per motion.
• Ballots are sealed until the vote closes, and the hash of each ballot is written to the transparency log. A ballot may be changed until the close.
• The quorum is half of the seats able to vote. A motion passes with a majority of the votes cast, and a tie fails. A charter change and the removal of a TLD need two thirds.
• A decision carried by Tier 0's block seats is flagged as such. The block votes as one and does not recuse. A veto is never a vote.
• Agendas, minutes and every vote by seat are published, except on matters of security or a person's private life.

Elections

• Elections are held by secret ballot inside GOpenCDR.
• In the Registry Council, each TLD operator has one vote, cast by its designated voter.
• In the Community Council, everybody may vote who has held a live domain, a mirror or a TLD role for 90 days.
• Organisations may stand, naming their first representative.
• Terms are two years and staggered, and a person may hold a seat for at most three consecutive terms.
• A vacant elected seat goes to the runner-up where the election was less than six months ago. Otherwise it returns to Tier 0's block, and the council may appoint an interim member by a majority of all its seats.

Attendance

After three consecutive missed votes a seat no longer counts towards the quorum; after six, the council votes on vacating it; after nine, it is vacated. A declared absence is excused. A seat left without a voter gives its holder 30 days to name one, during which the previous voter keeps it, or Tier 0 where the previous voter was removed. After that the seat returns to Tier 0 or goes to election.

Conflicts of interest

Council members and Tier 0 staff declare their interests every year and whenever they change, and recuse themselves from votes on their own TLDs, their competitors and their clients. Every recusal is recorded.

Public comment

A policy change is open for public comment for at least 30 days, and a TLD delegation for 14 days. Every substantive comment is answered in a published report. An emergency change goes through public comment within 30 days of taking effect.

Policies

• A policy is a document of numbered clauses, each binding or guidance, some of them enforced by the software.
• Policies exist at five scopes: global, set by the councils; Tier 0 operations; each TLD; each mirror operator; and each organisation.
• Floors only. A lower scope may be stricter than a higher one, never looser.
• The fence. Global policy may never impose prices, removal terms or content rules on operators. A TLD may opt into more.
• Policies change through these instruments: a Tier 0 operational change, announced 14 days ahead; a TLD change, announced 30 days ahead where it restricts registrants and effective at once where it loosens; an emergency measure; a clerical correction, open to challenge for 14 days; and a council motion.
• An exception to a policy is granted by motion of the council that owns it, is published, and lasts at most two years, renewably.

What Tier 0 may and may not do

• Tier 0 carries out the councils' decisions and runs the root.
• It holds a veto on grounds of security or law. Every veto is published with its reasons within 7 days, redacted only as law or security requires, and a joint session of the councils may review it.
• In an emergency, Tier 0 may suspend or tighten, never loosen, for reasons of security, stability or a collision with the IANA namespace. An emergency measure lapses after 90 days unless it is reaffirmed, and after one year at the latest.
• Should Tier 0 no longer be able to operate the root, handing it to a successor needs two thirds of the seats not held by Tier 0.

Changing this charter

This charter changes by charter-change motion, after public comment of at least 30 days, passed by two thirds of the Registry Council and two thirds of the Community Council. Seat plans change the same way. The one reserved Tier 0 seat on each council cannot be removed.

Nothing in this charter overrides the law, a court order, or the rights registrants have under their own terms. Every version is kept in the document archive.