Question 1:
Do you intend to protect existing registrants from revocation
of their domain names based solely upon the premise that the registrant is not registered
as a 501(c)(3) organization or is without some other not-for-profit organization
designation? Answer:
Among the policy objectives of RegisterOrg is to maintain
a flexible registration policy that is neither overly prescriptive nor exclusive
of existing registrants, but leaves the decision as to whether to register for a
.org domain name to the individual user. RegisterOrg also intends to maintain
current registry policy, including those relating to transfers and grace periods,
and does not intend to limit registration to 501(c)(3) organizations or other not-for-profits.
.Org is currently home to a broad range of registrants, including activists, health
care providers, schools, charities, news providers, individual site owners, artists,
political speakers, as well as commercial registrants. Hence, we believe that
a disruption in policy could detrimentally impact those that have had long-standing
registrations and have built their online identities in the .org domain. Moreover,
we believe that RegisterOrg’s targeted marketing efforts, its .org Community Portal
and the $2.5 million seed fund (which is being established to assist the noncommercial
community in building awareness, developing technology and disseminating resources)
will create a .org “brand” that will drive registration demand by the noncommercial
sector and encourage others to register elsewhere.
Question 2:
Do you intend
to amend or add to the UDRP to reflect a new policy that a name can be transferred
to another registrant based solely upon the fact that the existing registrant cannot
prove to the arbitration panel that the domain name in question is being used for
Non-commercial activities by a not-for-profit organization?
Answer:
No. RegisterOrg
will apply the current UDRP, and will only apply changes as they are adopted by the
ICANN consensus process.
Question 3:
Will you continue to support a .ORG registry
that is open for registration by the general public, as recommended in item 2b of
the Final Report (version 5.4) on .ORG divestiture (1), drafted by the DNSO Dot Org
Names Council Task Force?
Answer:
Yes. As stated in our response to Question
1, RegisterOrg intends to abide by the current, open registration process.
Question 4:
Even though all of the proposals indicate each applicant's determination
to differentiate the marketing techniques for the .ORG gTLD, if selected, would you
(as the new registry operator) continue to embrace the openness of .ORG as a "generic"
gTLD (without registrant restrictions) as originally reflected in RFC 1591(2)?
Answer:
As
stated above, RegisterOrg appreciates that the registrant base of .org is extremely
diverse, including individual registrants, corporations, non-profits and activists.
We do not intend to disrupt the provision of service to any members of the Internet
community or modify existing registration policy. We do intend, however, to
target our marketing to the noncommercial sector and build a .org “brand” that will
attract noncommercial registrants.
Jonathan Wales
President
Register
Organization Inc.
575 Eighth Avenue
15th Floor
New York, NY 10018
+44
207 460 4060
jwales@register.com