An important policy issue that is bitterly dividing the industry along somewhat difficult to predict lines is whether registrars and registries should become more integrated. ICANN has sponsored two economic studies. One, by Charles Rivers Associates International (CRAI) proposes a very moderate relaxation of this requirement. Another, by an economist named Carleton, proposes getting rid of it altogether, and this is the position than seems to be favored by ICANN staff. 

Afilias and PIR have come out strongly opposed to the proposed policy. You can bone up on some of the issues by looking at the web site they prepared: http://www.registryregistrarseparation.org/blog 

Ideally we should develop a position statement on this

Milton Mueller
Professor, Syracuse University School of Information Studies
XS4All Professor, Delft University of Technology
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Internet Governance Project:
http://internetgovernance.org