[cabfpub] Restarting Ballot 190 v6

[Kirk Hall]

I think the time has come to restart Ballot 190 v6 (as it was ready to go on July 6 - see attached).  Here is my reasoning.

Background

As a reminder, the Forum approved ten updated domain validation methods (and elimination of old Method 7 - "any other method") in Ballot 169, back in August 2016.  We then realized we had not followed the exact review procedures of our IPR Agreement (which was intended to create royalty free licenses for all procedures in the Baseline Requirements), so we set out to fix that in Ballots 180-182 in January 2017.

It worked!  However, at that point only Methods 5, 6, and 10 had been added to the BRs; we needed to add back Method 1-4 and 7-9 to the BRs from prior Ballot 169 in a new ballot.  We also needed to remove the temporary Method 11 - "any other method."  That's what Ballot 190 was intended to do.

Ballot 190 circulated starting in April, but a problem arose with conflicting opinions as to transition rules for the new authentication methods - for example, if a validation method changed, were CAs and website owners require to go through a new validation of all domains validated under the previous version of the method, or could they rely on prior validations under the old methods for the period allowed by BR 4.2.1, etc.  So we had to add language clarifying those transition rules, which we did.

Version 6 of Ballot 190 was ready to go to a vote in early July, 2017.  However, a few members did not like the use of "Notes" after each validation method, and preferred we instead use our Definitions to accomplish everything that was covered by the Notes.  I was fine with that, and pulled back Ballot 190 v6 so it could be modified to use Definitions instead of Notes.

Unfortunately, our current BR Definitions had problems, and needed to be amended before being added to the validation methods of BR 3.2.2.4 in Ballot 190.  We tried to fix the Definitions in Ballot 202, but it failed on July 26 for technical reasons that can be fixed.  However, some members are getting impatient now to get the ten new vetting methods completed in the BRs, and to remove Method 11 "any other method" as soon as possible.  I agree.  A new Definitions ballot is still being drafted, and I don't think we should wait for that - it could take two or three months to finish Ballot 190 if we first vote on a new Definitions ballot.

New Issues

Over the past few weeks, new questions have arisen about the BR 3.2.2.4 validation methods, including when it's proper to re-use Random Values, when it's acceptable to follow redirects when using Method 6, and a few other issues.  These are not quick fixes, and in my opinion it would be a mistake to try to include any of these changes in Ballot 190.

Proposal

In order for us to complete the basic step of re-inserting all the Ballot 169 methods with the related clarifications re transition rules, I would propose we go ahead and vote on Ballot 190 v6 (attached), then immediately work on the new Definitions, removing the Notes, dealing with reuse of Random Values and with redirects, etc.  Let's not make the "perfect" ballot the enemy of the very, very good ballot - we can get to perfection in stages.
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