Comments from JPNIC Domain Name Policy Study

[dom-sec@xxxxxxxxx]

Dear Sirs, Mesdames

Japan Network Information Center, JPNIC, has organized a study 
group called "JPNIC Domain Name Policy Study Group" .

Please find the comments as per listed below for which we have 
gathered and discussed for your reference.

Sincerely,
 
JPNIC Domain Name Policy Study Group

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.mobi
It must be noticed that currently the markup languages for PC-based
Web browser and for mobile terminal-based Web browser are different.
Normally, if one accesses through mobile terminal to a Web site which
is set for the usage through PC access, the screen on mobile will be
showing the information which is not meaningful for users due to the 
limitation of functions.

It would be very convenient for the mobile users to know before they 
are accessing to the wished Web site whether it is created for the 
mobile usage or not.  We think the one of targets of creating .mobi 
is to meet such needs by users.

It should be noticed, on the other hand, that creating a specific
TLD is not necessary for the condition to meet the needs mentioned
above. To give examples, in Japan, a distinction is already made
by URL like "domainname.jp/i" ("i" signifies that the site is for 
NTT Docomo's "i-mode" access), or through the redirect function of 
Web server by which a mobile terminal is distinguished recognizing 
the user-agent header of HTTP and redirected to pages specifically 
made for mobile. Under these environment, setting up TLD like .mobi 
is not a requisite solution.

It should also be considered that the markup language varies by 
mobile phone companies. For example, NTT Docomo is using CompactHTML
whereas XHTML Basic/XHTML MP (WAP 2.0) is used by Vodafone.  Because 
of these differences, we think that there would be a case where 
distinction for mobile phone companies would be required at SLD even 
if .mobi is created.

For improving the benefit of users, we believe that the cases we have 
shown above would be preferable to be solved at the level where users 
can not see through such way as utilizing user-agent header of HTTP, 
and should not be solved at the level where users can see, that is, 
by the identifier "domain name". All in all, with above considerations
in mind, we stand against the creation of this new TLD.

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Members of JPNIC Domain Name Policy Study Group