New Registrar Agreement + good practice terms

[Whois-Search]

Nominet have now published on their website details of the New Registrar Agreement and Good Practice Terms: Latest News

So from the 1 March 2007 we are no longer "TAG holders" but "registrars" ?

Can anyone else spot the main differences between the exisiting:

Tag Holder agreement:

http://www.nic.uk/digitalAssets/10341_TagAgreement.pdf

and the Registrar agreement:

http://www.nic.uk/digitalAssets/10514_Registrar_Agreement.pdf

+ Good practice terms:

http://www.nic.uk/digitalAssets/10513_Good_Practice_Terms.pdf

Also isn't "Registrar" more of a ICANN term?

ICANN | Accreditation Overview

When the use of "TAG holder" is removed in March and since a TAG can only be used for .uk domain names........

Will this mean Nominet will start to allow it's "registrars" to sell other domains like .eu ? or even .cym ?

Also in the Good Practice terms it says:

http://www.nic.uk/digitalAssets/10513_Good_Practice_Terms.pdf

A new Registrar will be asked to complete a series of courses to demonstrate
a basic understanding of the .uk registration and maintenance process.
Existing Registrars may also be asked or wish to complete these courses.

Are we not now getting into the realms of the ICANN process?
ICANN | Registrar Accreditation: Process

However so long as Nominet doesn't increase membership fees to pay for all this training and it doesn't go into competition with its members then I'm all for the above changes.

 

[weycresto]

However so long as Nominet doesn't increase membership fees to pay for all this training and it doesn't go into competition with its members then I'm all for the above changes.

I think this would be politically difficult given they are discussing ways to redistribute the surplus. By attempting to improve registrar standards is one way to go. They have been organising TAG holder days where they go through the basics for some time. I went to one in London last year and got a Nominet bag and USB zip drive! These events must have been preparation for beefing up the "registrar" agreement.

 

[Whois-Search]

I agree with improving registrar standards. However there is a fine line.

Acceptable and members would stay the same:

Voluntary online courses "after" you become a TAG holder or member. (Not sure how secure this is i.e. you could take mine online. Also are they doing this to prove who you are? i.e. phantom "miss" tags).

Not acceptable and would reduce members:

Voluntray courses turn in to compulsory courses paid for by the member/tag holder (application fee?) as apart of the "accreditation" process for new "registrars".

i.e. a few days at the new Nominet Towers doing online tests produced by a third party company (costing 250k) and afterwards you get a nice little certificate signed by Lesley.