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Subject: Establishment of
the .name Top-Level Domain
The Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (the IANA) is responsible for various administrative functions associated with management of the Internet's domain-name system root zone, including reviewing the appropriateness of various contemplated changes to the content of the root zone and preparing reports on those changes. This report gives the findings and conclusions of the IANA on the establishment of the .name top-level domain (TLD). Factual and Procedural Background The Internet domain-name system (DNS) was deployed under the guidance of Jon Postel in 1984 and 1985 (see RFC 921) as a distributed database for information about resources on the Internet, replacing the prior "hosts.txt" system. The DNS contains resource records that map easy-to-remember domain names to the unique numeric addresses assigned to every computer on the Internet. The DNS is organized hierarchically with several top-level domains (TLDs) containing second-level domains (SLDs), which in turn contain third-level domains (3LDs), etc. A domain name consists of a series of labels, separated by dots, tracing the hierarchy from the top-level domain down to the specific computer being identified: <3LD>.<SLD>.<TLD>. Thus, the domain name "www.icann.org" is within the "www" third-level domain of the "icann" second-level domain of the "org" top-level domain. To take advantage of the DNS's hierarchical nature, it was initially contemplated that there would be a limited number of top-level domains. In RFC 920, entitled "Domain Requirements" (Oct. 1984), Dr. Postel and Joyce Reynolds proposed top-level domains with the names "arpa" (intended to be transitional for the "ARPA-Internet"), "com" (commercial), "edu" (education), "gov" (government), "mil" (military), and "org" (organization) as well as two-letter (alpha-2) names identifying countries according to the ISO 3166-1 list."1 By the time of actual implementation of the top-level domains in January 1985, an additional top-level domain named "net" was included. In November 1988, an additional top-level domain named "int" was added for international organizations established by intergovernmental agreements. In March 1994, Dr. Postel published RFC 1591, entitled "Domain Name System Structure and Delegation" (J. Postel March 1994), which described the overall structure of the DNS at the time. He described the top-level domains as follows:
Beginning in 1995-1996, some members of the Internet community expressed concern over lack of choice concerning registration services in the generic top-level domains (gTLDs). By January 1998, the U.S. Department of Commerce, in issuing its Green Paper3 as a discussion draft concerning possible improvements in the technical management of the DNS, listed "widespread dissatisfaction about the absence of competition in domain name registration" as a principal motivation for its conclusion that improvements in the Internet's technical management were necessary. The Green Paper discussed the introduction of additional TLDs in this context. In June 1998, the U.S. Department of Commerce issued its White Paper,4 calling on the Internet community to form a new, not-for-profit organization to assume responsibility for the necessarily centralized technical coordination functions then performed by the IANA. In response, the Internet community formed the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) in late 1998.5 The White Paper specified that one of ICANN's principal responsibilities would be to "oversee policy for determining the circumstances under which new TLDs are added to the root system," including "development of policies for the addition, allocation, and management of gTLDs and the establishment of domain name registries and domain name registrars to host gTLDs . . . ." As the White Paper recognized, "The challenge of deciding policy for the addition of new domains will be formidable." To address this challenge, in the White Paper the U.S. Government observed, "At least in the short run, a prudent concern for the stability of the system suggests that expansion of gTLDs proceed at a deliberate and controlled pace to allow for evaluation of the impact of the new gTLDs and well-reasoned evolution of the domain space." For nearly the entire time since it was formed, ICANN has devoted a significant part of its activities to the consideration of the establishment of new generic TLDs. At the ICANN meeting in Berlin in May 1999, ICANN's Board referred the issue of new TLDs to the (then newly formed) Domain Name Supporting Organization (DNSO).6 In response to this referral, in June 1999 the DNSO Names Council (which manages the process for development of policy recommendations within the DNSO) created a group, known as Working Group C, to study the issues raised by the introduction of new TLDs.7 After nine months of extensive discussions8 and review of several position papers,9 Working Group C submitted its report to the DNSO Names Council on 21 March 2000,10 recommending introduction of a limited number of TLDs, and posted the report for public comment. Public comments were solicited and received through the ICANN's web-based comment forum and via e-mail to the dnso.org site. The Names Council discussed the report and comments at a telephone conference held on 18/19 April 2000. At that meeting, the Names Council adopted the following statement, by a vote of 16-0 (two members were absent):
The DNSO recommendation continued:
On 16 July 2000, after considering well over 1000 public comments, the ICANN Board adopted the DNSO recommendations and authorized the ICANN President to formally call for proposals to operate or sponsor new TLDs. On 15 August 2000, ICANN posted a public call for applications on its web site11 and broadly announced the availability of the application materials. At the same time, ICANN published detailed criteria for the consideration any applications received. In response to the call, forty-four completed applications were received. Once these applications were submitted, they were posted on ICANN's web site for public comment. Over 4000 comments were received; all appeared on ICANN's web site. ICANN also assembled a team of technical, financial, and legal experts12 to review and evaluate the applications, which issued a 326-page evaluation report on the applications. Additional public comments were received on this report, both on a web-based forum established by ICANN for this purpose (over 1000 comments received) and at an all-day public forum held in Marina del Rey, California, USA on 15 November 2000. The introduction of new TLDs was the principal issue addressed at ICANN's annual meeting in November 2000. Leading up to that meeting, the Internet community had spent several weeks reviewing the applications and the detailed evaluation report, engaged in a robust dialogue on ICANN's web-based public forums (with a total of over 5000 postings), and intensely discussed the issues through ICANN's constituency and supporting organization structures. After extensive study of the materials in advance of the meeting and participation in the all-day public forum, the ICANN Board discussed the applications in a several-hour open session on 16 November 2000. As a result of this review, seven proposals to operate or sponsor TLDs were selected for an initial introduction of TLDs, as recommended by the DNSO. In late 2000, ICANN and the proponents of the selected proposals began negotiations for appropriate agreements under which those TLDs could be introduced while preserving the stability of the DNS. In early July 2001, the third agreement, concerning .name top-level domain, was completed. The agreement establishes technical requirements, similar to those covering the .com, .net, and .org TLDs, for the operation of the new TLDs (covering such topics as nameservice, data escrow, use of valid host names, and system security and redundancy) and provides for observance of various policies developed through the ICANN process. The draft agreement for .name was posted on ICANN's web site on 3 July 2001. Following review and comment by both the ICANN Board and the community, the agreement was formally approved by the ICANN Board on 31 July 2001, and signed on 1 August 2001. The full text of the .name Registry Agreement with all its appendices, is posted on the ICANN web site. This report is being provided under the 21 March 2001 contact for performance of the IANA function between the United States Government and the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers. Under that contract, the IANA is responsible for various functions, known as the "IANA functions", associated with the management of the root zone of the Internet domain-name system. As contemplated by the White Paper, the Internet community has pursued an extensive consensus-development process through ICANN and its Domain Name Supporting Organization. This process, which has included extensive participation by hundreds of individuals and organizations in the Internet community, has reached the consensus position, as recommended by the DNSO Names Council without dissent, that "a limited number of new top-level domains [should] be introduced initially and that the future introduction of additional top-level domains [should] be done only after careful evaluation of the initial introduction." Following this policy and through additional community-based processes, ICANN has selected seven proposals for the initial introduction, with the goal of launching these TLDs cautiously, then observing and evaluating the results. If the initial introduction is successful, this experience should lay the groundwork for future introductions as part of what the White Paper termed a "well-reasoned evolution of the domain space." On 13 August 2001, ICANN announced the formation of a "New TLD Evaluation Process Planning Task Force" charged with developing a plan for monitoring the introduction of new TLDs and for evaluating their performance impact on the performance of the DNS. ICANN has now completed contractual arrangements for the introduction of the third13 of the selected TLDs, with Global Name Registry for .name. The first goal of the community-based management of the DNS is to preserve the DNS's stable and reliable operation. Like the previous registry agreements with .biz and .info, the registry agreement that has been completed with the TLD operator has been designed to ensure that this TLD is introduced in a sound manner that will maintain stable and reliable technical operation of the DNS. In particular, the contract recites functional and performance specifications, data escrow requirements, and a detailed start-up plan that is designed to ensure that stable operation of the DNS is maintained, both during the startup phase and in the long term. User awareness is also relevant to smooth operation of the DNS; experience has shown that some level of confusion accompanies almost any change in the DNS. The operator of .name however, has committed to information-dissemination measures that should keep any public confusion to a minimum. Registration activities for
.name will occur beginning in mid-August 2001, with DNS resolution of
the names that are registered to begin in November 2001. To assist in
a stable introduction with the public awareness needed to minimize confusion,
ICANN has agreed with Global Name Registry that the .name TLD should
be established in the DNS at this time for testing and evaluation purposes.
14 Initially, the nameservice for the domains will
be operated by the IANA, which will conduct various testing procedures
and then, according to schedules and procedures developed jointly with
Global Name Registry, transition the nameservice to servers operated
by the company in time for the November 2001 onset of regular resolution
of .name domain names. The IANA concludes that the
.name TLD should be established by adding it to the root zone at this
time for testing and evaluation. To ensure a smooth and stable introduction,
the nameservice should be operated initially by the IANA and then transitioned
to the selected operator, Global Name Registry, after the .name zone
is ready for population with the initial registrations and their nameserver
constellations are demonstrated to be stable and robust. 1. RFC 920 also indicated that top-level domains might be added in the future for "multiorganizations". This was never pursued, except to the extent of the .int top-level domain introduced in 1988. 2. Although the .arpa domain was intended to be used only in the transition to the DNS, it was not discontinued as originally planned because it contained the reverse-lookup domain for IP addresses (in-addr.arpa). See RFC 1101, "DNS Encoding of Network Names and Other Types" (P. Mockapetris Apr. 1989), for background. The continuing importance of the reverse-lookup facility and the practical difficulties in moving it to another domain, made it infeasible to eliminate the .arpa top-level altogether. In May 2000, the Internet Architecture Board published its "Statement on Infrastructure Domain and Subdomains", which recommends permanent retention of the .arpa TLD for Internet-infrastructure purposes. The "arpa" abbreviation was redesignated to "Address and Routing Parameter Area" to reduce confusion with the earlier network name. 3. "A Proposal to Improve Technical Management of Internet Names and Addresses" (30 Jan. 1998). 4. "Management of Internet Names and Addresses," 63 Fed. Reg. 31741 (1998). 5. In response to the White Paper, Internet stakeholders from around the world came together in an extensive process of discussions and negotiations. The process included meetings, conferences, and most appropriately for the purpose, extensive use of the Internet. By the beginning of October 1998, this process had reached a successful conclusion and on behalf of the global Internet community Dr. Postel submitted to the U.S. Commerce Department articles of incorporation and proposed bylaws for ICANN to "reflect the consensus judgment of the global Internet community as to how to form a corporation that will include the IANA function, and in addition take on other coordination and administrative responsibilities necessary for the continued operational stability and growth of the Internet. " See Letter of Dr. Jon Postel to William M. Daley (2 October 1998). 6. ICANN Board Resolution 99.48. 7. At its 25 June 1999 meeting in San Jose, California, USA, the Names Council also created another group, known as Working Group B, to study issues concerning the protection of famous trademarks in the context of any newly introduced generic TLDs. 8. These discussions are archived in two parts: up to 23 November 1999 and after that date. 9. These are linked from the 23 October 1999 Interim Report of Working Group C. 10. Working Group C provided a supplemental report on 17 April 2000. 11. This call was preceded, on 3 August 2000, by the posting of an overview of the upcoming application process, which was also broadly announced. 12. A list of the team members and a description of their qualifications and the measures employed to ensure their independence is posted as part of the report. 13. Contracts with the other four are anticipated in the near future. 14. A similar procedure was followed with .biz and .info. In addition to revealing an issue concerning inappropriate DNS dynamic update attempts due to misconfigured client computers throughout the Internet, this procedure has allowed the Registry Operators for those TLDs to establish their network information center websites at an early stage, before they were ready for full launch of their nameserver constellations. These websites have assisted in efforts to educate the public about the new TLDs and also permit testing of interactive websites to determine whether they properly interact with computers in the domains of the new TLDs.
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