.

JOBS CHARTER COMPLIANCE COALITION

c/o Boxwood Technology, Inc.
Executive Plaza III
11350 McCormick Road, Suite 101
Hunt Valley, MD 21031

March 3, 2011

Mr. Gary Rubin

Chief Publishing, E-Media, and Business Development Officer
The Society for Human Resource Management
1800 Duke Street
Alexandria, VA 22314

Re: Notice of Breach Issued by ICANN to Employ Media

Dear Mr. Rubin:

I write this open letter to you on behalf of the .JOBS Charter Compliance Coalition (the “Coalition”),
which was formed to address the serious concern that Employ Media LLC’s implementation of its
Phased Allocation Program would violate the terms of the .JOBS Charter. The members of the
Coalition include: 1) AHA Solutions (American Hospital Association); 2) the American Society of
Association Executives; 3) the American Society of Civil Engineers; 4) the American Staffing
Association; 5) Boxwood Technology, Inc.; 6) CareerBuilder, LLC; 7) the International Association of
Employment Web Sites; 8) twenty-three individual members of the International Association of
Employment Web Sites, including CollegeRecruiter.com, Dice, HigherEdJobs, Indeed, JobG8, Jobing,
VetJobs, and WorkinSports.com; 9) Monster Worldwide, Inc.; 10) the Newspaper Association of
America; and 11) Shaker Recruitment Advertising & Communications.

As I am sure you are aware, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (“ICANN”)
addressed these concerns in a breach notice to Employ Media dated February 27, 2011 regarding the
improper expansion of the .JOBS Top-Level Domain (“TLD”). The breach notice charges both
Employ Media and the Society for Human Resource Management (“SHRM”) with operating and
managing the .JOBS TLD in a manner that was inconsistent with the .JOBS Charter.

Pursuant to the breach notice, Employ Media has thirty calendar days to cease its non-compliant
operation of the .JOBS TLD. ICANN’s breach notice also states that the operation of the Dot Jobs
Universe is inconsistent with the purpose stated in the .JOBS Charter and represented to the ICANN
community. If Employ Media fails to cure its breach within this time period, ICANN may terminate its
.JOBS Registry Agreement with Employ Media.

Despite the substantial evidence presented in the breach notice demonstrating Employ Media’s non-
compliance with the Charter, its initial public response was to accuse ICANN of duplicity. Employ
Media claims that ICANN’s breach notice is a “reversal” of prior positions taken by ICANN,
presumably a reference to the position taken by the ICANN Board Governance Committee (“BGC”) in
its December 9, 2010 recommendation (the “Recommendation”) in response to the Coalition’s August
2010 reconsideration request. The BGC’s conclusion in the Recommendation that the Coalition’s
allegations were “unsupported” – which conclusion has frequently been mischaracterized by Employ
Media and DirectEmployers as approval of the Dot Jobs Universe – was based on the assumption
that Employ Media would operate the .JOBS sTLD in a manner that was consistent with the Charter.
This assumption proved to be misguided when Employ Media and DirectEmployers promptly
launched the non-compliant Dot Jobs Universe. Moreover, the BGC promised in the
Recommendation that “[i]f implementation of the Amendment causes Employ Media to violate its
contractual requirements set out in the .JOBS Charter, that is something that ICANN’s Contractual
Compliance Department must address.” That is precisely what occurred here: ICANN’s breach
notice is the product of an extensive review process by ICANN’s Contractual Compliance Department
after it became aware of the non-compliant actions of Employ Media. In addition, the BGC directed
the ICANN staff to “closely monitor” Employ Media’s compliance with the .JOBS Charter due to the
BGC’s acknowledgement that it was “not at all clear that it [had] a full picture of how Employ
Media intends to implement the Phased Allocation Process.” The picture has now become
perfectly clear. ICANN’s breach notice simply reflects the fact that, in light of Employ Media’s recent
implementation of the Phased Allocation Program (i.e., the official launch of the Dot Jobs Universe),
ICANN now has incontrovertible public evidence of material violations of the .JOBS Charter by
Employ Media and its alliance partner, DirectEmployers.

SHRM is the sponsoring organization of the registry operator Employ Media under the .JOBS Registry
Agreement and Charter. This oversight role requires SHRM to maintain its independence from
Employ Media so that the .JOBS TLD is operated in the best interests of the human resource
management community, and not for the purpose of furthering the financial gain of Employ Media.
SHRM’s commitment to the human resource profession is exemplified by its stated vision to become a
globally recognized authority on today’s significant human resource management issues.

In accordance with your .JOBS TLD oversight responsibilities and mission, the Coalition strongly
urges SHRM to use the opportunity created by ICANN’s breach notice to re-evaluate its previous
position with regard to this matter and fulfill its role as sponsor to Employ Media. The breach notice
makes it clear that Employ Media’s operation of the Dot Jobs Universe – as well as the deficient
registration procedures of the .JOBS TLD – serves its and DirectEmployers’ financial interests, and
not the interests of the human resource management professionals that SHRM has served for over
sixty years. This issue presents SHRM with an excellent opportunity to demonstrate its independence
as sponsor, and to compel Employ Media to comply with the spirit and intent of the Charter.

The Coalition believes you would agree that Employ Media and its alliance partner DirectEmployers
cannot be permitted to exercise unquestioned control of the .JOBS TLD, including the ability to
register, sell or otherwise exploit millions of .JOBS domain names. The .JOBS Charter directs SHRM
to “act as the policy delegate responsible for establishing registration requirements for second-level
domains in the .JOBS TLD, consistent with this Charter and in the interests of the Community.”
Accordingly, the Coalition calls on SHRM to exercise its oversight and enforcement duties and end
Employ Media’s non-compliant operation of the .JOBS TLD, which is not serving the human resource
management community and which is affirmatively harming human resource management service
providers. In the event Employ Media elects to follow through on its promise to “invok[e] with ICANN
all necessary means at [Employ Media’s] disposal,” the Coalition urges SHRM to reject Employ
Media’s non-compliant position and to make clear that Employ Media does not have your support for
any such resistance to ICANN’s clear and definitive findings.

I thank you for your time and attention to this serious matter.

Sincerely,

John Bell
Chairman, .JOBS Charter Compliance Coalition

cc: Mr. Henry G. Jackson

Henry Hart, Esq.