[gnso-rn-wg] reserved names -rationales available
I received the attached from Kim Davies. It should be made available to the Working Group. --Dear Tim, As per our discussion on the phone today, here is what I've dug up. If you have any further questions let me know. One notable standards reference: http://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc2606.txt Stock answer for single-letter domain registration applications: Thank you for your inquiry regarding single-letter/number domain registrations. The single-letter/number domains in .com, .net, .org, .edu, .biz, .info, .name, .pro, .aero, .coop, and .museum are reserved by the IANA. Accordingly, these names are not for "sale" or subject to transfer under established policy. A few of the single-letter names were registered before this reservation was made. The IANA obtained the registration for most single-character names under .com in 1993 to implement a policy designed to enhance the extensibility of the domain-name space. Since then, these names have been continuously under registration by the IANA. The IANA has received many inquiries from people seeking to register these names. As required by the existing policy, the IANA advises those inquiring that these names are already registered to the IANA and reserved for infrastructure purposes to help ensure stable operation of the Internet. The IANA has uniformly turned down all offers by third parties to purchase the right to register these names. Four of the single-character names under .com were registered by other parties before the IANA entered its registration of these names. The registrations of these names have been (and are) grandfathered for the time being. Recently some of these registrations have been transferred from one third party to another. Those transfers are consistent with the grandfathering policy. Having assumed the responsibility for operating the IANA, and for overall technical management of the Internet, ICANN is following the same policies for the operation of the IANA as were followed by Dr. Postel and his colleagues at the Information Sciences Institute. ICANN's charter and bylaws, together with its obligations under its various agreements with the United States Government, establish consensus-based procedures for modification of existing policies, fostering participation by affected parties. Until the policy is changed by the established procedures, ICANN is required to continue its registration of the single-letter .com domain names for the benefit of the Internet community. General responses to other reserved domains: Thank you for your enquiry. Domain names reserved by the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority are not available for sale, registration or transfer. These have been reserved on policy grounds, and include single letter domains, domains with hyphens in the third and fourth positions, and other reserved words. Should the policies regarding these rules change, they will be released from IANA's registration according to revised policy. There is also an information page at http://res-dom.iana.org/ kim Timothy Denton, BA, BCL 37 Heney Street Ottawa, Ontario Canada K1N 5V6 www.tmdenton.com 1 613 789 5397 Eastern time zone -- Timothy Denton, BA, BCL 37 Heney Street Ottawa, Ontario Canada K1N 5V6 www.tmdenton.com 1 613 789 5397 Eastern time zone |