-
Topics
More
-
Activities
More
-
GAC Working Groups
More
Two Letter Country Codes at the Second Level
This Activity page contains historic GAC content migrated from the original GAC wiki resource. The content of the page is being added to and updated to reflect recent activity and developments related to the delegation of two character country codes at the second level.
The most recent background and briefing documents pertaining to this activity include:
ICANN63 GAC Briefing - Agenda Item 6: Concerns regarding the release of 2-Character Country Codes at the Second Level under gTLDs - https://gac.icann.org/briefing-materials/icann63-2-characters-briefing-v2-20oct18.pdf
What is it About?
This is about implementation by ICANN of a process to enable the release of two-character labels — including labels corresponding to country codes (“CC”) — at the second-level for new gTLDs in the current round, e.g. CC.newgTLD.There have been a series of exchanges about this since mid 2014 between the GAC and ICANN.
Registries can propose release of country codes at the second-level directly to the related government and ccTLD manager. However, many registries are using the Registry Agreement provision/text (Specification 5, section 2) that plans they "may also propose release based on implementation of measures to avoid confusion with the corresponding country-code, subject to approval by ICANN".
What do GAC Members need to know?
ICANN’s Global Domains Division (GDD) has set-up a process to address release requests by registries as follows https://www.icann.org/resources/two-character-labels.
Step 1. Governments are notified via email of registry request(s).
See TLD requests that are in open comment period — https://www.icann.org/resources/two-character-labels#request_status.
Not receiving the notifications yet?
Sign-up at www.icann.org: GAC member representatives receive direct email notification of new requests posted for comment weekly or daily. See ‘How-To-Subscribe-Guide’ at: https://www.icann.org/en/system/files/files/two-character-labels-subscribe-20feb15-en.pdf.
Many ccTLD administrative contacts also chose to receive direct email notifications of new requests posted for comment so that they can contact relevant governments about them.
Step 2.Governments and others have 60 days to comment on the request(s).
Comments need to be submitted using the form provided at https://www.icann.org/forms/two-character-comments.
Comments submitted need to be associated with the risk of confusion with the corresponding country code, rather than with other related risks — see ICANN’s Global Domains Division webpage https://www.icann.org/resources/two-character-labels/.
Comments need to be submitted in the timeframe of 60 days — this corresponds to the period requested by the GAC in previous advice.
Following the 60-day comment period, non-objected letter/Letter two-character ASCII labels are released via an Authorization provided by ICANN to the Registry Operator. Many TLD requests have already been authorized (over 900 out of the 1300+ first round TLDs) — see https://www.icann.org/resources/two-character-labels/archived-requests.
Step 3. Registries have 60 days to propose "mitigation measures" to address concerns raised about confusion with the corresponding country code.
A number of registries have submitted proposed mitigation plans. These can be sorted by TLD and by country code — see https://www.icann.org/resources/two-character-comments.
Step 4. Then ICANN's GDD will propose draft criteria to evaluate the proposed mitigation measures.
ICANN will invite comments on the draft criteria before finalizing them.
GAC advice to the ICANN Board
|
|
|
|---|---|
|
21 October 2015 |
5. Use of 2-letter Country Codes and Country Names at the Second Level The GAC notes that the process for considering comments for two-character letter/letter labels launched on the 6thOctober 2015 is not consistent with GAC advice which recommended that governments´ comments be fully considered. That advice was accepted by Board resolution 2015.02.12.16. GAC Members have now been asked to clarify which specific TLDs their comments pertain to, and to explain how the release of the two-letter label will cause confusion with their corresponding country code. The GAC reiterates its advice on this issue and a. advises the Board that: i. comments submitted by the relevant Governments be fully considered regardless of the grounds for objection. b. The GAC further advises the Board to: i. be mindful of governments´ capacity limitations and asks the Board to facilitate simplification of the process for providing comments to address their concerns. c. With respect to new requests for release, the GAC advises the Board to: i. task ICANN to work with the GAC Secretariat to address the technical issues with comment forms and in the interim ii. offer alternative means for comments. |
|
11 February 2015 |
7. Release of Two-Letter Codes and Country Names at the Second Level a. The GAC advices the Board to:
b. The GAC further advises the Board to:
|
|
16 October 2014 |
8. Release of 2-Character Names at the Second Level The GAC notes that new gTLD registry operators have submitted RSEP (Registry Service Evaluation Process) requests to ICANN in order to use two-character labels at the second level of their TLD. The GAC recognized that two-character second level domain names are in wide use across existing TLDs, and have not been the cause of any security, stability, technical or competition concerns. The GAC is not in a position to offer consensus advice on the use of two-character second level domains names in new gTLD registry operations, including those combinations of letters that are also on the ISO 3166-1 alpha 2 list. In considering these RSEP requests, and consistent with the Applicant Guidebook, the GAC considers that the public comment period is an important transparency mechanism, and in addition asks that relevant governments be alerted by ICANN about these requests as they arise. The GAC will review the use of country and territory names at the second level and advise the ICANN Board in due course. |
GAC-ICANN correspondence
6 August 2015 – Letter from Akram Atallah, President of the Global Domains Division to Thomas Schneider https://www.icann.org/en/system/files/correspondence/atallah-to-schneider-1-06aug15-en.pdf
22 July 2015 – Letter from Akram Atallah, President of the Global Domains Division to Thomas Schneider https://www.icann.org/en/system/files/correspondence/atallah-to-schneider-22jul15-en.pdf
16 July 2015 – Letter from Thomas Schneider to Akram Atallah (regarding the two-character codes as Second Level Domains) https://www.icann.org/en/system/files/correspondence/schneider-to-atallah-16jul15-en.pdf. Related links: Approved Board Resolutions | Regular Meeting of the ICANNBoard, 12 February 2015. Board briefing material - Two character Domain Names (from 12 February 2015 Board meeting)
26 January 2015 – Letter from Thomas Schneider to ICANN Board (GAC member concerns on new process to release 2 character labels at the second level) https://www.icann.org/en/system/files/correspondence/schneider-to-crocker-26jan15-en.pdf
10 September 2014 – Letter from Heather Dryden to ICANN Board Chairman Steve Crocker (Requests for release of two‐character labels as second-level domains in New gTLDs) https://www.icann.org/en/system/files/correspondence/dryden-to-crocker-10sep14-en.pdf
2 September 2014 – Letter from Steve Crocker to GAC Chair Heather Dryden (Requests for release of two‐character labels as second-level domains in New gTLDs) https://www.icann.org/en/system/files/correspondence/crocker-to-dryden-2-02sep14-en.pdf
8 August 2014 – Letter from Heather Dryden to ICANN Board Chairman Steve Crocker (Requests for release of two‐character labels as second-level domains in New gTLDs) https://www.icann.org/en/system/files/correspondence/dryden-to-crocker-08aug14-en.pdf
| Title | Date | Type | |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Date:
04 Feb 2015
Type:
Report
|
04 Feb 2015 | Report | 1423075140000 |