Giovanni Seppia

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The registry-registrar-registrantrelationships
in the ccTLDs

• Giovanni Seppia
• CENTR General Manager
• giovanni_at_centr.org
• ccTLD workshop
• Nairobi, 14 September 2005

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Introducing CENTR
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What is CENTR?

• Council of European National Top Level Domain
  Registries
• Forum for TLD managers
• Primarily ccTLDs
• Also includes gTLDs
• Mainly European
• Membership from 5 continents
• Developed and emerging TLD markets, like .AF, .IR
• Open to all Top Level Domain Registries in the
  world

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CENTRs Membership

• 3 Members categories
• Full Members
• Associate Members
• Observers
• Members vote on admission of new members

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CENTRs Membership

• AFGNIC Afghanistan (.af)
• STA Andorra (.ad)
• ISOC.AM Armenia (.am)
• NIC.AC Ascension Is. (.ac), Diego Garcia (.io),
  St Helena (.sh)
• NIC.AT Austria (.at)
• DNS Belgium Belgium (.be)
• Digital Systems Bulgaria (.bg)
• CIRA Canada (.ca)
• CARNet Croatia (.hr)
• UCY-DNS Cyprus (.cy)
• CZ.NIC Czech Republic (.cz)
• DENIC Germany (.de)
• Dansk Internet Forum (.dk)
• FICORA Finland (.?)
• AFNIC France (.fr), Mayotte (.yt), Reunion (.re),
  St. Pierre Miquelon (.pm), Wallis Futuna Is.
  (.wf )
• GibNet Gibraltar (.gi)
• GR-Hostmaster Greece (.gr)
• Island Networks Guernsey (.gg), Jersey (.je)
• CHIP Hungary (.hu)

• LITNET NOC Lithuania (.lt)
• RESTENA DNS-LU Luxembourg (.lu)
• NIC Malta Malta (.mt)
• NIC-Mexico Mexico (.mx)
• MoldData Moldova (.md)
• SIDN Netherlands (.nl)
• ISOCNZ New Zealand (.nz)
• NORID Norway (.no), Bouvet Is. (.bv), Svalbard
  Jan Mayen Is. (.sj)
• Palestinian Registry Palestine (.ps)
• NASK Poland (.pl)
• FCCN Portugal (.pt)
• RNC Romania (.ro)
• Ros-NIIROS Russia (.ru)
• RED.ES Spain (.es)
• ARNES Slovenia (.si)
• IIS Sweden (.se)
• SWITCH Switzerland (.ch), Lichtenstein (.li)
• SITA (.aero)
• Vatican Holy See (.va)

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CENTRs structure

• Executive Committee
• 5 members, inclusive of Chairman and Treasurer
• 2 year appointments
• It steers the organisation in accordance with
  CENTR members wishes
• Secretariat
• General Manager
• Communication Officer
• Technical Officer
• Administrative Officer

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CENTRs output

• Newsletter, Domain Wire, 2 issues a year
• Surveys
• A-level survey, covering the registries
  management main aspects
• B-survey, covering legal issues related to
  registries
• Other surveys upon request of our members
• Comments and positions on several topics that may
  have an impact on our members
• Outreach programme, providing registries of
  developing countries with financial and technical
  support

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CENTRs in the international arena

• The European Commission participates in CENTR as
  an observer
• Regular contacts with ICANN-IANA staff
• Associate member of the European Internet
  Foundation
• Participation within the WGIG-WSIS process
• Regular attendance of all the international
  Internet fora and meetings

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Benefits of diverse participation

• CENTR values participation from many different
  registries
• Western and Eastern Europe, Americas, Asia,
  Oceania
• Different regulatory regimes, Internet community
  expectations, use of domain names etc.
• Different challenges in ensuring stable
  DNS/Internet
• Provides added value
• Brings different perspectives to discussion
• Helps to define guidelines and best practices
  that benefit everyone
• Comes to agreed opinions on certain aspects of
  the international arena

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CENTRs long term vision

• Expanding the dialogue among registries,
  governments and international bodies
• Developing best practice by encouraging exchange
  amongst registries
• Improving the reliability and stability of
  Internet through improved DNS practices
• Working closely with other Internet organisations

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Some basic concepts
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RegistryThe wholesaler

• Database of
• who owns what name
• pointing names to the servers responsible for
  them
• Responsible for policy and procedures
• who is entitled to names, etc.
• A registry is like the bank vault of the domain
  names registered under that top level domain

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Registrar and registrant

• Registrar (the retailer)
• Agent of customers in dealing with registry
• Like a retailer which then contacts a wholesale
  supplier
• Usually an ISP that is providing others services
  to customer
• Registrant (the customer)
• The entity, organisation or individual that uses
  the domain name

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Registries policies and figures
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Registry status

• Registry set up depends on various reasons, even
  though almost every registry was historically
  part of an academic network today TLDs are
  highly competitive and there is a very dynamic
  market.
• The legal status can be classified as
• Private company
• Part of academic network
• Foundation
• Association
• Government agency
• Telecom operator
• Miscellaneous

CENTR surveys data
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Categorising the policies of the ccTLDs

• Two central aspects shapes the domain name
  policy
• Requirements for the applicant
• Provide documentation that he has a right to the
  name
• Have a local presence in the area of the ccTLD
• Be an organization
• Number of domain names allowed per applicant
• Limited/Unlimited

courtesy of UNINETT Norid
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A mapping of the policies of some ccTLDs
courtesy of UNINETT Norid
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A summary of the mapping

• Few of the respondents are currently in the
  strictly regulated category. This reflects the
  general move towards more liberalized domain name
  policies that has taken place
• Most respondents prefer a domain name policy with
  no limits on the number of names an applicant may
  hold
• While the majority of the respondents allows an
  unlimited number of domains per applicant, the
  degree of requirements for the applicant varies.
• Some requires the applicant to document rights to
  the domain name (bureaucracy category)
• Majority in the unregulated category does not
  require any documentation of rights. Some require
  either a local presence, or that the applicant is
  an organization (or both), hence the spreading
  within the category.

courtesy of UNINETT Norid
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Number of employees within the registries
Most Registries have just technical staff as a
Registry is a technical function/service.
Essential to adjust to a dynamic market quickly
and to satisfy customer needs efficiently.
CENTR surveys data
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Registry-registrar relationship
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Registry-registrar relationship the
accreditation

• Usually, the relationship between a registry and
  a registrar is based on a contract.
• Some registries require those company that like
  to become a registrar to follow an accreditation
  procedure.
• Criteria to be accredited
• Technical stability
• Corporate status
• Financial stability
• Organisational stability
• Other
• Less than 25 of registries reviews these
  criteria regularly

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Number of registrars
CENTR surveys data
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Registry-registrar relationship some
contractual aspects

• When the relationship between the registry and
  the registrars is based on a contract, the
  registry should take into account some aspects
• Contract transfer and related domain names
  transfer
• Rescue procedures for those registrants (and
  domain names) whose registrars disappeared or
  went bankrupted
• Penalties in case the registrar is not up-to-date
  with the payments to the registry

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Registry-registrar relationshipthe code of
conduct

• Code of conduct
• In order to ensure that the domain name holder
  can count on reliable information and a quality
  service, some registries have proposed a code of
  conduct to registrars
• Eg. DNS.BE
• Most code of conducts are based on voluntary
  principles, but help the users to trust the all
  process

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Registry-registrar relationshipthe code of
conduct

• The new eu domain registrar are invited to
  participate in building a code of practice.
• Those registrars who sign up to the code will be
  able to display the code of conduct logo and the
  list of accredited registrars published on
  EURid's web site will indicate which registrars
  have the code of conduct label.
• EURid will facilitate elections from amongst the
  participating registrars to select a panel to
  assess complaints against participating
  registrars for alleged breaches in the code of
  conduct.
• The panel will be empowered to remove the code of
  conduct label from a registrar for a fixed period
  or a permanent basis if they are found to be
  operating in contradiction with the code.

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Registry-registrar relationshiptraining
activities

• Training activities
• Most of the registries offer their registrars
  training activities on
• Technical aspects
• Administrative issues
• Legal matters
• Usually these activities are free of charges
• Moreover, certain regional organisations, like
  CENTR, provide training activities and workshops
  for registries on many topics such as IDNs,
  registry-registrars relationship,

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Registry-registrar relationshipcommunication
methods

• Communication tools
• E-mail lists
• Regular meetings
• Help-desks
• Newsletter
• Dedicated web interfaces

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Registry-registrar relationshipthe help-desk

• Help-desk significant aspects
• Working hours
• Languages
• Time for processing requests
• Appropriate archiving procedures
• Customer satisfaction follow-up
• Different expertise of the operators

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Registry-registrar relationshipthe web
interfaces

• Web interfaces
• Wide accessibility highly desirable
• EU communication on web accessibility standards
• Usually, divided in two sections
• Public information
• Restricted information for registrars or ISP

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Registry-registrar relationshipshared secondary
servers

• Most large registries informally offer free
  secondarying services for smaller registries
• Similar, some "well known hosts", RIPE etc, offer
  free secondaries also
• Some - usually equally sized registries - do
  secondary swapping arrangements, where each will
  host each others servers. This principle relies
  on registries having similar requirements and
  having similar facilities to share
• CENTR examines opportunities to locate
  secondaries via different agreements (at IXs, via
  Anycast networks) and presents these
  opportunities to its members

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Registry-registrar relationshipinformation
sharing

• Taking advantage of other registries experiences
  (the grass is greener) via
• Discussion lists
• Regional organisations
• International meetings
• Best practices doc

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Registry-registrar relationshipkey complaints

• Price
• Would like to have more influence on
  policy/contractual terms
• Bureaucracy (in case of paper based models)
• Liberalisation of policies

CENTR surveys data
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Registry-registrar-registrant relationship
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Registry-registrar-registrant relationship some
aspects

• Some issues in this relationship should be
  considered from the beginning and carefully
  planned
• Privacy aspects (WHOIS)
• Services among parties
• Interaction with the Local Internet Community
• Prices of domain names and of the operations on
  them
• Level of bureaucracy

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Registry-registrar-registrant relationship the
main problems in dealing directly with customers

• Lack of knowledge (more support needed)
• Make mistakes, then blame the registry
• Inaccurate information in the application forms
• Delayed payments
• Web browsers not compatible with registry system

CENTR surveys data
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Questions?Thanks for your attention
Giovanni Seppia giovanni_at_centr.org www.centr.org