[bc-gnso] New gTLD Dotless Domain Names Prohibited

[Benedetta Rossi <bc-secretariat@xxxxxxxxx>]

Dear BC members,

Please find below an ICANN announcement regarding the prohibition of new gTLD 
Dotless Domains.

Kind regards,

Benedetta Rossi
BC Secretariat
> http://www.icann.org/en/news/announcements/announcement-30aug13-en.htm
> 
> New gTLD Dotless Domain Names Prohibited
> 
> 30 August 2013
> 
> At its meeting on 13 August 2013, the ICANN Board New gTLD Program Committee 
> (NGPC) adopted a resolution affirming that "dotless domain names" are 
> prohibited. Dotless domain names are those that consist of a single label 
> (e.g., http://example, or mail@example). Dotless names would require the 
> inclusion of, for example, an A, AAAA, or MX, record in the apex of a TLD 
> zone in the DNS (i.e., the record relates to the TLD-string itself).
> 
> In addition to public comments on dotless domain names, the NGPC considered 
> the security and stability risks associated with dotless domain names 
> highlighted in the following papers:
> 
> On 23 February 2012, the ICANN Security and Stability Advisory Committee 
> (SSAC) published SAC 053: SSAC Report on Dotless Domains [PDF, 183 KB]. In 
> this report, the SSAC stated that dotless domains would not be universally 
> reachable and recommended strongly against their use. As a result, the SSAC 
> recommended that the use of DNS resource records such as A, AAAA, and MX in 
> the apex of a Top-Level Domain (TLD) should be contractually prohibited where 
> appropriate, and strongly discouraged in all cases.
> On 10 July 2013 the Internet Architecture Board (IAB) released a statement on 
> dotless domain names, recommending against the use of dotless domain names 
> for TLDs.
> On 29 July 2013 Carve Systems delivered a report on dotless domain names, 
> which was commissioned by ICANN. Consistent with the SSAC report, Carve's 
> report on dotless domain names [PDF, 1.02 MB] identifies security and 
> stability issues.
> When adopting its resolution, the NGPC considered the security and stability 
> risks identified in these papers, as well as the impracticality of mitigating 
> these risks. Based on the NGPC resolution, ICANN does not plan to pursue any 
> additional studies on the subject.
> 
>  
> 
> Glen de Saint Géry
> GNSO Secretariat
> gnso.secretariat@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> http://gnso.icann.org
> 
>