IAB comments on ICANN IDN Guidelines

[Leslie Daigle <leslie@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

The IAB has reviewed the IDN Guidelines that ICANN has prepared for open
input, published Sept 20, 2005 that can be found on the following URI:

http://icann.org/announcements/announcement-20sep05.htm

We have the following comments:

In the proposed guidelines, we see the following text:

> 3. (a) In implementing the IDN standards, top-level domain registries
> will associate each label in a registered internationalized domain name,
> as it appears in their registry, with a single language or a single
> script using accepted designators for both. The restriction, in either
> case, is intended to limit the set of permitted characters within a
> label. If greater specificity is desired, the association may be made by
> combining both a language designator and a script designator.
> Alternatively, a label may be associated with a set of languages, or
> with more than one designator under the conditions described below.
> Language designators are illustrated in RFC 3066
> (http://www.rfc-editor.org/ rfc/rfc3066.txt).


RFC 3066 is currently under review by the IETF, and the registry it
defines will always be updated. Because of this, the IAB believes it is
problematic to explicitly refer to RFC 3066, but would instead be
appropriate say the following:

   Language designators or "language tags" are associated with an IANA
   registry, currently maintained at http://www.iana.org/assignments/
   language-tags and registered according to rules set out in BCP 47.
   Registries should consult the registry and BCP 47.




Best regards,


Leslie Daigle,
Chair, Internet Architecture Board.