Following the recent consultation on the release of two letter, one character and other reserved .uk domains which ran 8 March and 8 June 2010, we have collated the responses and are providing a summary and analysis of the responses.

Consultation

We are planning to release two letter, one character and other reserved .uk domains.

If you have an interest in the registration of these domains then we would like to hear your thoughts on how we should release these domains. 

Domains that may be released:

• All currently reserved one character domains in .co.uk, .org.uk, .me.uk and .net.uk¹
  
• All currently reserved two letter domains in .co.uk, .org.uk, .me.uk and .net.uk
• We may also release a series of domain names previously reserved e.g.
  • Domain names that use a gTLD at the third level, e.g. biz.org.uk
  • Domains that use a Second Level Domain at the third level, e.g. sch.org.uk

See Appendix 1(pdf) for a list of domains that could be released.


1. There are a number of exceptions. These domain names were registered before Nominet started operation in 1996 - see Appendix 2 (pdf) for details.

What is it all about?

The current rules for registering .uk domain names do not allow the registration of two letter domain names.

Nominet’s Policy Advisory Body (PAB) has recommended that two letter domain names should be available for registration and a PAB sub-committee agreed on the principles of how two letter domain names should be released.

In addition the PAB also suggested the release of one character domains and some other short names which are identical to existing generic Top Level Domains (gTLDs).

These recommendations and suggestions have been reviewed internally and we consider that in general where there is no longer a technical or policy reason for a restriction in our rules, then those rules should be removed.

This consultation paper explains the background to the decision to release the domains and outlines our proposal for releasing them.

We are running the consultation to seek feedback from any interested stakeholder on the:

• Potential deletion of Rules 5.5, 5.6, 5.8 and 5.9 from the Rules of Registration, and any exceptions that may be made for specific technical or policy reasons
• Potential release mechanism ("sunrise") and the qualifying rights required to participate in the sunrise
  

How to respond to this consultation

This consultation will run for three months, from 8 March 2010 until 8 June 2010.  Please give us your feedback. You can either do this by completing our online survey or by emailing your answers to shortdomains@nominet.org.uk
 
We may publish your response to the consultation on our web site (without your email address) but if you do not wish us to publish your response you can specify this. We reserve the right to remove any materials that in our reasonable opinion are defamatory, offensive or unintelligible.

We will publish the responses on our web site at the end of each month of the consultation period.

We encourage all stakeholders to take part and appreciate your feedback on these proposals.

Background

Internet domain names comprise various different levels:




Our Rules of domain name registration currently prevent registration of the following domain names in .uk:

• One character domains at the third level (e.g. a.co.uk), see Rule 5.5;
• Two letter domains in the third level of co.uk, me.uk, org.uk and net.uk (e.g. aa.co.uk), (but they do allow one letter, one number e.g. a1.co.uk), see Rule 5.6;
• A third level registration in co.uk, me.uk, org.uk and net.uk that is identical to an existing .uk second level domain (e.g. ac.co.uk, co.org.uk, etc), see Rule 5.8; and
• A third level registration in co.uk, me.uk, org.uk and net.uk that is identical to an existing top level domain (e.g. com.co.uk, gov.org.uk, edu.me.uk etc), see Rule 5.9. In practice this is not enforced for new gTLDs, where in general there is already an existing third level registration.

Clearly there are potential domain names that would break one or more of these rules.

For example, co.co.uk would breach Rule 5.6 (the third level being two letters), Rule 5.8 (the third level already being an existing second level) and Rule 5.9 (co being the country code top level for Columbia).

PAB recommendation and our response

The Policy Advisory Body (PAB) recommended to the Nominet Board that two letter domains ought to be made available for registration in the co.uk and org.uk sub-domains via a staged sunrise for rights holders, and on a cost recovery basis.

The PAB sub-committee reviewing the two letter domain question also touched on the application of Rules 5.8 and 5.9, together with the release of one character domains. The PAB concluded that the release of these domains should also be considered, subject to further consultation and debate.

Read the PAB paper on this issue here.

A further PAB sub-committee looked at names which are reserved for other reasons, and their report is here.
 
Our general approach to these restricted domains is that where there is no longer a valid technical or policy reason for a rule, then the rule should be removed.

Given that many of these domains are likely to be highly attractive due to their intrinsic brevity, we agree that is seems appropriate to follow the PAB recommendation for a controlled sunrise release mechanism.

Domain names being released

In terms of policy considerations, the PAB recommended the release of domain names as follows:

• One character domains
• All two letter domains not already registered, including existing country codes under ISO 3166-1, such as fr, es, de, apart from "uk". For reference, a list of the Pre-Nominet two letter registrations is included as Appendix 2 (pdf).
• Existing generic top level domains

The PAB were divided on the issue of whether SLDs should continue to be blocked from registration, and suggested that this be the subject of further consultation.

Domain names not being released – technical exclusions

We are considering excluding the release of "com", "net" and "org" from the release in .co.uk because of a technical issue. This issue is explained in detail in Appendix 3 (pdf), but it concerns DNS servers receiving a substantial number of queries not intended for them due to the way search suffixes work for some resolvers, e.g. the holder of com.co.uk receiving information on searches for non-existent domain names in the .com gTLD.

The release mechanism

The PAB recommended a  two phase sunrise mechanism:

Round 1: Applications accepted from holders of registered trademarks recognised and enforceable in the UK that must be identical to the two letter combination applied for.

Round 2: Domain names not taken up in the first round would then be open to holders of unregistered rights.

We consider that for consistency the same approach should be applied for one character domains and other short domains.

The PAB recommended a cut off date for qualifying rights, with 1996 (the launch of Nominet) and 2002 (the date of a series of initial discussions regarding the release of two letter domains) being suggested as possibilities. We are open to stakeholder suggestions for a suitable qualifying cut off date.

Handling cases where there are two or more qualifying rights holders

The PAB was unable to make a unanimous recommendation for how to allocate domain names where there are two or more qualifying rights holders, although a lottery, landrush and auction were considered.

• We consider that charities and not for profit organisations should have priority for org.uk domains, and that commercial organisations should have priority for co.uk domains.
• me.uk domains may only be registered by individuals.
• On the basis that all of the domain names which form part of this exercise may to a greater or lesser extent be regarded as premium generic domain names, we are inclined towards a sealed bid auction for cases where there are competing rights holders of the same business type, and for any domain names which are not taken up by rights holders.
• For me.uk domains being released, we are considering a Dutch auction similar to the sunrise release of the .me.uk SLD in January 2002, i.e. a decreasing registration price over time.
  

Costs

We intend to run this exercise on a cost recovery basis, with a fee payable by rights holders for validation by an appropriate independent agency. Nominet will cover all operational costs for this process as part of our general operating costs.

If any auctions generate a surplus, we intend to gift that surplus to Nominet Trust, a charitable organisation established by Nominet with the objects including the education, relief of financial hardship and protection of children in the area of the Internet and information technology. For more information see: http://www.nominettrust.org.uk/

Have your say!

Please give us your feedback on our proposals by completing our online form. Alternatively you can download a pdf version of our consultation paper and reply by email to shortdomains@nominet.org.uk before 8 June 2010.

Thank you for taking the time to respond.

Responses

View responses to the consultation here.