Go Daddy 2015 Annual Report Download - page 45

Table of Contents
Risks Related to Our Industry
Governmental and regulatory policies or claims concerning the domain name registration system and the Internet in general, and industry reactions to those
policies or claims, may cause instability in the industry and disrupt our business.
ICANN is a multi-stakeholder, private sector, not-for-profit corporation formed in 1998 operating pursuant to a memorandum of understanding with the U.S.
Department of Commerce for the express purposes of overseeing a number of Internet related tasks, including managing the DNS allocation of IP addresses,
accreditation of domain name registrars and registries and the definition and coordination of policy development for all of these functions. We are accredited by
ICANN as a domain name registrar and thus our ability to offer domain name registration products is subject to our ongoing relationship with, and accreditation
by, ICANN.
ICANN has been subject to strict scrutiny by the public, the U.S. government and other governments around the world, as well as multi-governmental
organizations such as the United Nations, with many of those bodies becoming increasingly interested in Internet governance. On March 14, 2014, the National
Telecommunications and Information Administration (the NTIA), the U.S. Department of Commerce agency with oversight over ICANN, announced its intention
to transition key Internet domain name functions to the global multi-stakeholder community. This transition could take place as early as the expiration of the
current contract between NTIA and ICANN on September 30, 2016. At this time there is uncertainty concerning the timing, nature and significance of any
transition from U.S. oversight of ICANN to oversight of ICANN by another body or bodies.
Additionally, we continue to face the possibility that:
• efforts to reform ICANN's bylaws to improve accountability could fail, which may result in ICANN not being accountable to its stakeholders and
unable to make, implement or enforce its policies;
• the U.S. or any other government may reassess ICANN’s role in overseeing the domain name registration market;
• the Internet community, the U.S. government or other governments may (i) refuse to recognize ICANN’s authority or support its policies, (ii) attempt
to exert pressure on ICANN, or (iii) enact laws in conflict with ICANN’s policies, each of which could create instability in the domain name
registration system;
• some of ICANN’s policies and practices, such as ICANN’s position on privacy and proxy domain name registrations, and the policies and practices
adopted by registries and registrars, could be found to conflict with the laws of one or more jurisdictions, or could be materially changed in a way
that negatively impacts the sale of our products;
• the terms of the Registrar Accreditation Agreement (the RAA) under which we are accredited as a registrar, could change in ways that are
disadvantageous to us or under certain circumstances could be terminated by ICANN, thereby preventing us from operating our registrar service, or
ICANN could adopt unilateral changes to the RAA that are unfavorable to us, that are inconsistent with our current or future plans, or that affect our
competitive position;
• International regulatory or governing bodies, such as the International Telecommunications Union, a specialized agency of the United Nations, or the
European Union, may gain increased influence over the management and regulation of the domain name registration system, leading to increased
regulation in areas such as taxation, privacy and the monitoring of our customers’ hosted content;
• ICANN or any third-party registries may implement policy changes impacting our ability to run our current business practices throughout the various
stages of the lifecycle of a domain name;
• the U.S. Congress or other legislative bodies in the United States could take action unfavorable to us or influencing customers to move their business
from our products to those located outside the United States;
• ICANN could fail to maintain its role, potentially resulting in instability in DNS services administration;
• some governments and governmental authorities outside the United States have in the past disagreed, and may in the future disagree, with the actions,
policies or programs of ICANN, the U.S. government and registries relating to the DNS, which could fragment the single, unitary Internet into a
loosely-connected group of one or more networks, each with different rules, policies and operating protocols; and
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