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ICANN Newsletter | Week ending 17 July 2009

News from the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers

Announcements This Week

Expressions of Interest Sought for Bulk Transfer of Registrations

17 July 2009 | As the result of the recent de-accreditation of registrar Lead Networks Domains Pvt. Ltd. ("Lead Networks"), ICANN is seeking expressions of interest from ICANN-accredited registrars that might wish to assume sponsorship of the gTLD names that were previously managed by Lead Networks.

Lead Networks Loses Accreditation

17 July 2009 | The Registrar Accreditation Agreement between ICANN and registrar Lead Networks Domains Pvt. Ltd. ("Lead Networks") has expired without renewal because Lead Networks failed to comply with the requirements of that RAA http://www.icann.org/correspondence/burnette-to-malik-14jul09-en.pdf [PDF, 74 KB].

Sydney Fellowship Program Reached Successful Conclusion

16 July 2009 | Chosen from a field of 97 applicants, there were 29 Fellows from 21 countries participating in the 35th ICANN International Public Meeting held in Sydney last month.

Bulk Transfer of Maxim Internet Domains to NameScout

15 July 2009 | As a result of the De-Accredited Registrar Transition Procedure, ICANN selected NameScout Corp. to receive the bulk transfer from Maxim Internet.

Public Comment: Proposed ICANN Meeting Dates 2011 - 2013

13 July 2009 | In an effort to secure the dates for ICANN meetings through 2013, Staff recommendations have been developed for Public review and comment.

Public Comment: WIPO Proposal for Modification of UDRP Rules to Allow "Paperless" UDRP Proceedings

13 July 2009 | ICANN has received a proposal from the World Intellectual Property Organization regarding suggested changes to the implementation rules to allow for a paperless UDRP proceeding, or "eUDRP."

Upcoming Events

25 - 30 October 2009: 36th International Public ICANN Meeting - Seoul, South Korea

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Domain Name System
Internationalized Domain Name ,IDN,"IDNs are domain names that include characters used in the local representation of languages that are not written with the twenty-six letters of the basic Latin alphabet ""a-z"". An IDN can contain Latin letters with diacritical marks, as required by many European languages, or may consist of characters from non-Latin scripts such as Arabic or Chinese. Many languages also use other types of digits than the European ""0-9"". The basic Latin alphabet together with the European-Arabic digits are, for the purpose of domain names, termed ""ASCII characters"" (ASCII = American Standard Code for Information Interchange). These are also included in the broader range of ""Unicode characters"" that provides the basis for IDNs. The ""hostname rule"" requires that all domain names of the type under consideration here are stored in the DNS using only the ASCII characters listed above, with the one further addition of the hyphen ""-"". The Unicode form of an IDN therefore requires special encoding before it is entered into the DNS. The following terminology is used when distinguishing between these forms: A domain name consists of a series of ""labels"" (separated by ""dots""). The ASCII form of an IDN label is termed an ""A-label"". All operations defined in the DNS protocol use A-labels exclusively. The Unicode form, which a user expects to be displayed, is termed a ""U-label"". The difference may be illustrated with the Hindi word for ""test"" — परीका — appearing here as a U-label would (in the Devanagari script). A special form of ""ASCII compatible encoding"" (abbreviated ACE) is applied to this to produce the corresponding A-label: xn--11b5bs1di. A domain name that only includes ASCII letters, digits, and hyphens is termed an ""LDH label"". Although the definitions of A-labels and LDH-labels overlap, a name consisting exclusively of LDH labels, such as""icann.org"" is not an IDN."