ICANN Stockholm Meeting Topic: Report of the Internationalized Domain Names Working Group—Responses to Survey C Posted: 29 May 2001

1. What IDN services do you currently offer? Please provide materials (such as promotional materials or advertisements) describing these services. How much do you charge for these services, and how do these prices compare with the prices for the non-IDN equivalent?

WALID	WALID is currently offering a number of products and services aimed at the internationalized domain name marketplace: WALID WorldConnect™ -- Resolution client software available for free download. Enables direct, transparent resolution of IDNs on end-user systems using ASCII-Compatible Encoding transformations; WALID WorldDomain™ -- Registration services for fully multilingual domain names (i.e. [IDN].[IDN]) at www.walid.com. Includes WHOIS lookup capabilities; WALID WorldTools™ -- Toolkit to support registrars, registries, and system administrators to enable support of multilingual domain names in their systems; WALID WorldApp™ -- Bundled as part of WorldConnect, WorldApp enables application developers to incorporate IDN transformations directly into their applications; WALID WorldCC - Packaged application to support immediate deployment of IDNs for smaller ccTLDs; WALID WorldRegistrar™ -- Packaged middleware and database components which provides a full suite of services and technology to support a multilingual domain name registrar business; WALID WorldRegistry™ -- Similar to WorldRegistrar, but providing the middleware and database components to support the operation of a multilingual registry. For WALID's [IDN].[IDN] registration services our prices are competitive with the current pricing of these services in the industry as a whole.
Verisign GRS	VeriSign Global Registry Services (VeriSign GRS) opened the Internationalized Domain Name testbed for registrations on November 10, 2000. The IDN testbed is described on the VeriSign Global Registry Services web site .There are no advertisements or promotional materials other than the web site. VeriSign GRS collects $6 per year from registrars for each IDN domain registration, the same as for all other domain name registrations.
NSI Registrar (Verisign)	The Network Solutions Registrar (NSI Registrar), a division of VeriSign, offers IDN domain names via the http://global.networksolutions.com/en_US/purchasing/welcome.jhtml web site, which can be reached via a link from the http://www.networksolutions.com/en_US web site. A full description of the services offered are detailed at the web sites, as well as a listing of the pricing structure.
Neteka	Neteka provides the software for enabling the management, registration and resolution of multilingual domain names. Neteka itself is not a registry or registrar of domain names.
Tonga	The .TO ccTLD does not at present offer IDN services.
JPNIC	We, JPNIC (Japan Information Center) and JPRS (Japan Registry Service Co., Ltd.), jointly provide a Registry service where a Japanese Domain Name can be registered as a second level domain such as "XXXX.JP", where XXXX stands for Japanese character string where ASCII characters are also allowed as a portion. We also provide a Registrar service for "XXXX.JP", which competes with about 450 .JP registrars in Japan. There are no English materials of service description at this point of time. The prices of the registration are the same as the ASCII string domain name registration.
TWNIC	(1) TWNIC offers Chinese characters IDN registration service for [IDN] .tw and IDN dispute resolution service. (2) The related materials describing these services is on TWNIC web site: TWNIC home page: URL: http://www.twnic.net.tw/English/Index.htm IDN registration service: URL: http://www.twnic.net.tw/English/DN_01.htm IDN registration service FAQ: URL: http://www.twnic.net.tw/English/DN_04.htm Dispute resolution service: (3) URL: http://www.twnic.net.tw/English/DN_02.htm (4) TWNIC does not charge for IDN registration service so far.

2. Are you registering [IDN].gTLD, [IDN].ccTLD, or [IDN].[IDN]? Please describe any other domain names you may be registering.

WALID	Currently, WALID provides registrations only for names in the [IDN].[IDN] namespace, and we are working with many ccTLDs to enable IDNs resolution for names in their registries as well. In addition, we have applied to ICANN for SRS Registrar accreditation, and will be registering domain names in the [IDN].{com,net,org} TLDs as part of the VGRS multilingual testbed activities, as well as traditional Latin character domain names.
Verisign GRS	VeriSign GRS is registering an IDN in the com, net and org gTLDs. As of May 7, 2001 an IDN is delegated as a third level domain in the above three gTLDs. VeriSign GRS is not registering [IDN].ccTLD, or [IDN].[IDN].
NSI Registrar (Verisign)	Registrations are in the form IDN.gTLD, with the gTLDs being .com, .net, and org.
Neteka	Neteka clients are registering [IDN].gTLD, [IDN].ccTLD names as well as [IDN].SLD names. All of which fall within the ICANN hierarchy. Neteka believes that maintaining the integrity of the DNS is very important and therefore looks to introduce multilingual names on SLD or 3rdLD levels at this point.
Tonga	None of the above at present. We will be offering [IDN].TO in due course.
JPNIC	We register [IDN].ccTLD.
TWNIC	TWNIC is providing [IDN].tw registration service right now.

3. Do you register domain names in Latin script as well, or only IDN?

WALID	Currently, we only register internationalized domain names
Verisign GRS	Yes, VeriSign GRS registers domains in the Latin script.
NSI Registrar (Verisign)	Registrations of domain names are in both Latin script and IDN.
Neteka	Neteka provides the software to enable the management, registration and resolution of multilingual domain names. All systems offered include the ability to register Latin scripts as well. Depending on the policy of our client, a mixture of any variety of languages is also possible.
JPNIC	We accept Latin (ASCII) scripts as well as Japanese scripts.
TWNIC	Both of them.

4. Are the IDNs you have registered "live"? That is, can they be resolved in an end-user application, or are you just offering pre-registration of IDNs?

WALID	Yes, the domain names in the WALID registry have been usable with the WALID WorldConnect™ client software since we launched the service in May 2000. Currently customers can either use our name servers to resolve their domain names (either directly or through a URL forwarding service), or can answer DNS requests with their own nameservers via standard NS delegations. Our WorldConnect system enabler also provides direct resolution capability for the approximately 920,000 IDNs registered in the VeriSign GRS Multilingual Testbed.
Verisign GRS	The IDN testbed effort is in Phase 3.2, in which the IDN is still delegated as third level domain in the com, net and org gTLDs. The IDN can be resolved in an end user application. To achieve resolution, end users are required to use an internationalized domain name client listed on http://verisign-grs.com/idn/client/ or type <RACE>.mltbd.com/net/org directly into the browser.
NSI Registrar (Verisign)	Clearly stated at the bottom of the http://global.networksolutions.com/en_US/purchasing/welcome.jhtml page, is the statement "Multilingual Domain Names are being offered as part of a trial period or "testbed." Resolution of Multilingual Domain Names has not yet occurred and, although anticipated at a later stage of the testbed, cannot be guaranteed. Future changes in Multilingual Domain Name technology standards may invalidate some of the names registered during the testbed."
Neteka	For multilingual domain names registered under the Neteka registry system, all domain names are live and are resolvable without requiring any client-side reconfiguration. Neteka's involvement with the VeriSign multilingual domain name testbed means that names registered under this system is not usable yet.
JPNIC	Yes, registered domain names can be resolved in end-user applications complying with the specs.
TWNIC	Yes, the IDNs we've registered are "live". End users can resolve IDNs via web application and email application.

5. If you are not yet live, when do you anticipate going live?

WALID	We have been live since May 2000 and are now offering registration services in Arabic, Chinese, and Hindi. Our client technology will resolve names in any script supported by Unicode 3.0, including all of the scripts supported by the VGRS testbed, and is also localized in a handful of languages.
Verisign GRS	The target for IDNs to be "live" or appear in the com, net and org zone files is May-June 2001.
NSI Registrar (Verisign)	The NSI Registrar is currently participating in the IDN Testbed being conducted by VeriSign Global Registry Services (VGRS). It is our intent to offer IDN registrants full functionality as it is made available by VGRS. Resolution of IDN names is currently in phase 3.2 as defined by VGRS documents at http://www.verisign-grs.com/idn/resolution.pdf.
Neteka	Neteka's domain name server and registry management system is fully multilingual capable so any registry may implement it and have multilingual domain names live.
JPNIC	<obsolete question>
TWNIC	It's live now.

6. What technology do you employ, or do you intend to employ, for your IDN system?

WALID	Our core technology is embodied in two complementary products: WALID WorldConnect and WALID WorldTools™. WorldConnect is a client application which resides on the end-users' operating system and transparently handles the normalization and ACE transformation of multilingual domain names for resolution by the system's resolver. WorldConnect is currently being evaluated as a resolution technology as part of the VeriSign Multilingual Testbed. WorldApp enables application developers to easily access and integrate IDN to ACE transformations into their applications. Because WorldApp is distributed as part of WorldConnect, an automatic and secure upgrade mechanism is intrinsic. WorldTools is a toolkit of components for deployment at the registrar and registry's system to perform the same normalization and transformation at the time of registration. This toolkit provides a Java-based multilingual input method editor to support users who may not be able to render or generate particular scripts on their systems, and tools to support administrators of name servers, web servers, and other infrastructure systems. All of these products have at their core an embedded runtime library called libIDN, which performs the actual normalization and transformation.
Verisign GRS	The resolution testbed currently supports Row-based ASCII Compatible Encoding (RACE), and Name Prep, IETF convention for re-processing of an internationalized string as described in IEFT proposal Preparation of Internationalized Host Names.
NSI Registrar (Verisign)	The NSI Registrar has internally developed it's own software to support the registration of IDNs and convert them into the encoded domain-name format currently defined by the IETF's Internet Draft of NamePrep 3.
Neteka	Neteka's own NeDNS system together with the NeR2R (Registry-to-Registrar) system is used to multilingual enable our clients. It is based on a hybrid solution described in Section A:1.
Tonga	We will choose a standard and implement it ourselves when a clear de facto standard becomes available. An implementation before then seems premature, and potentially destabilizing to the Internet.
JPNIC	We employ the technology being introduced by JPNIC in IETF and everywhere.
TWNIC	(1)Interim case: a. Using NAMEPREP to convert IDN into English domain name(ACE encoding) for IDN resolving. b. Setting up DNS(web) proxy to support IDN resolving. The DNS(web) proxy converts IDN into English domain name. c. Supporting various zone file encoding in server side. (2)Testbed case: a. Modifying BIND software to support clean 8 bits (native encoding) and UTF-8 encoding. b. Modifying related software: Apache, Squid, etc., to support clean 8 bits (native encoding) UTF-8 encoding.

7. As you know, IETF has not yet adopted standards relating to IDN. If adopted, do you intend to comply with these standards when they are adopted? Please explain your policy regarding technical standards.

WALID	We recognize the critical importance of the work of the IETF Working Group. As discussed above, WALID has been a participant in the development of technical standards relating to IDNs within the IETF, and the technical direction that the IETF IDN Working Group is currently pursuing is an ACE-based resolution approach in the application layer. We are pleased that the best minds in the IETF agree with WALID's overall approach to this problem, and believe the WALID resolution technology in the form of WALID WorldConnect and WorldApp can provide a robust deployment and transition platform to this new standard, available for use immediately.
Verisign GRS	The VeriSign GRS policy is to ensure compliance with evolving standards under development by the IETF IDN working group.
NSI Registrar (Verisign)	As previously stated in answer # 6, the NSI Registrar supports the current draft standards being proposed by IETF. It is our intention to comply with any final standards (and upgrade our current IDN systems, if necessary) when final standards are adopted.
Neteka	Neteka is committed to a standards based solution and will definitely adopt standards from the IETF. However, Neteka is also sensitive to the user demand for a transparent and usable system without requiring client-side upgrade. Neteka therefore intends to choose the hybrid approach for the interim to make sure that names registered are immediately usable and will continue to be usable as the standard evolves.
Tonga	If a technical standard makes sense to us, and there is no good business or political reason not to adopt it, the .TO ccTLD is likely to use the standard.
JPNIC	We intend to comply with the IETF standards.
TWNIC	Of course we do. Before the standards are adopted, we would like to develop some IDN related local solutions just for local testing.

8. How many registrations have you accepted in each script you register?

9. In what scripts do you accept registrations currently? What other scripts do you anticipate registering in the future?

10. Have you had more complications with certain scripts than with others? What sort of complications?

WALID	No.
Verisign GRS	No.
NSI Registrar (Verisign)	No, we have not experienced complications.
Neteka	Our experience tells us that there complications varies between different scripts, and it is important to involve the local community to establish an acceptable rule set for deploying native language domain names. However, Neteka's position is that some localized issues such as character mapping is best left to the policies of the registry to determine because a generalized technical solution forced into the DNS would mean that the problems arising from the existing "reduction to common factor" (reducing to A-z 0-9) approach of the original DNS will not be solved.
JPNIC	We need to explain when and how Japanese character domain names are expected to be fully used. Such explanation is not necessary for ASCII domain names. In addition, we need to be more serious about the intellectual property rights in Japanese domain names. Also, usable character set should be decided because there are some sets of Japanese characters which are very old or obsolete.
TWNIC	The complications come from the normalization between Traditional Chinese characters (Big5 code) and Simplify Chinese characters(GB code), since they are not perfectly matched in each word by word. There are many "one to many" and "many to one" problems. For ex., some single one Simplify Chinese character can equivalent to many Traditional Chinese characters, vice versa. But Traditional Chinese characters can only fix in the formal appointed meaning.

11. Of the registrants registering IDNs with you, what percentage already have domain names registered in Latin script?

WALID	We estimate that at least 80% of registrants are registering IDN variants or equivalents of existing Latin domain names.
Verisign GRS	VeriSign GRS does not store registrant data.
NSI Registrar (Verisign)	The NSI Registrar does not track this information at the time of registration.
Neteka	Neteka provides the software for enabling the management, registration and resolution of multilingual domain names. Neteka itself is not a registry or registrar of domain names.
JPNIC	We have no such data.

12. Before you began accepting IDN registrations, did you conduct market studies to determine the demand for IDN services? If so, what did the studies reveal?

WALID	WALID's market research and analysis has indicated that the potential market for internationalized domain name services is quite large, and VeriSign's experience with their multilingual testbed has shown that there is real and immediate demand for this technology.
Verisign GRS	There were no independent studies commissioned by VeriSign GRS to assess demand for IDN services. However, Internet use is increasing dramatically throughout the world. Users who speak a language other than English comprise one of the fastest growing groups. Current estimates are that non-English speakers will make up two-thirds of all Internet users by 2003.
NSI Registrar (Verisign)	The NSI Registrar did conduct studies of its customers and partners and found that there was interest in IDN registrations.
Neteka	Yes. Domain registration growth will continue mainly in the ccTLD and new gTLD areas. More importantly, ccTLDs where its particular country uses language other than English as their mother tongue are generally more receptive of the technology. While the user demand is tremendous, administrative personnel at these TLDs are hesitant to adopt non-standardized solutions. Therefore, it gives way to opportunistic alternative namespace operators to penetrate the market and confuse the users by introducing full multilingual names.
JPNIC	We conducted market studies in adhoc manner such as communication with some users and ISPs.
TWNIC	Before providing the IDN registration service, we have already experimented a half year on Chinese domain name's registration. During that time, we gave applicant's confidence to our efforts.In registrars opinions, they take into account the integration of technology service and market demand.

13. To what extent are you offering IDN services as a defensive measure, i.e., because others are offering these services? To what extent are registrants registering IDNs as a defensive measure, i.e., to prevent cybersquatting?

WALID	We founded WALID based on two fundamental beliefs. First, that internationalized domain names are a necessity for the Internet to become a truly universal system that serves a diverse and global audience. Second, that our technical approach towards internationalized domain names, particularly as embodied in WALID WorldConnect, is unique in that it is deployable immediately and will not have a profoundly negative impact on the current operational and functional stability of the Internet. Our experience with our customers has been that, for the most part, they are registering internationalized domain names because they find them interesting and valuable, and less so because they are trying to protect a brand or trademark. Our reach with registration services has been on a much smaller scale than VeriSign's testbed activities, and we would expect that more defensive registrations could occur as our volume increases.
Verisign GRS	The Internationalized Domain Name testbed was conceived and developed by VeriSign GRS not only to meet burgeoning marketing demand, but also as a defensive measure against alternative IDN approaches which might be contrary to the principle of a single DNS root and might not be in compliance with the evolving standards work by the IDN working group of the IEFT.
NSI Registrar (Verisign)	The NSI Registrar offers IDN services to address our customers needs and to provide our customers a full range of services.
Neteka	Neteka is an innovator in the multilingual domain name technologies. Neteka believes that it is more of a branding measure than a defensive measure. It does however appear to be a defensive mechanism if the domain names registered are nonfunctional. However the key to understanding the need is that companies often have their names and/or products as well as their corresponding literature in multiple languages, and that it only makes sense for the domain name that corresponds to these information are in the language of the information.
JPNIC	We are offering IDN services for real use not for defense. As to registrants, we've heard of both situations, i.e., for real use and for defense although we have no idea about the proportion.
TWNIC	We started doing it not just only from a defensive measure point of view. We also need to concern what our Internet community needs. Prevent cybersquatting and requirement of use IDNs both are the registrants consideration.

14. What steps are you taking to prevent cybersquatting? Do you have a "sunrise" mechanism in place? If so, please describe ho it works. Do you subscribe to the ICANN UDRP? If not, are you willing to consider agreeing to it, or some variant thereof?

WALID	WALID requires registrants to agree to terms and conditions in an agreement modelled very closely on the ICANN UDRP, and we are committed to supporting and following ICANN's lead with respect to the establishment of a uniform dispute resolution policy, as it may be amended from time to time. We currently do not have any "sunrise" mechanism in place or a similar policy at this time. We would be interested to participate in any discussions concerning these matters for IDNS.
Verisign GRS	As described in Survey B, measures to minimize cybersquatting include fostering the use of the UDRP and urging registrars during the testbed to consider deleting IDN second level domain name registrations upon receipt of a formal, written objection to the registration by any legitimate authority, including without limitation a trademark owner.
NSI Registrar (Verisign)	Please refer to the section titled "SPECIAL NOTICE AND DISCLAIMER FOR MULTILINGUAL DOMAIN NAME REGISTRATIONS" of the Network Solutions Service Agreement, found at http://global.networksolutions.com/legal/service-agreement.jhtml. The relevant portion follows: "You specifically acknowledge and agree that an MDN shall be considered a domain name for purposes of the Domain Name Dispute Policy and the provisions relating thereto in this Agreement. Notwithstanding anything to the contrary contained in the Domain Name Dispute Policy, you agree that during the Test Bed we may terminate your registration of an MDN in our sole discretion without notice to you if, within 45 days of your registration, we receive a formal, written objection to the registration by any legitimate authority, including without limitation a trademark owner or governmental entity. Our right of termination under this provision shall continue until such time as: (1) Verisign Global Registry Services publicly announces that its Test Bed is complete; and (2) we determine in our sole discretion that all of the encoding schemes, protocols and other MDN-enabling technologies that are used to provide your MDN registration services have been approved by appropriate standard-setting bodies."
Neteka	Neteka provides the software for enabling the management, registration and resolution of multilingual domain names. Neteka itself is not a registry or registrar of domain names. Neteka encourages our clients to adopt the UDRP.
Tonga	No steps are taken, the .TO ccTLD registry operates STRICTLY on a first-come first-served basis. No, we do not subscribe to the ICANN UDRP, and are not likely to do so, as the confidentiality of a domain name registrant is a long standing and important aspect of our policy.
JPNIC	We placed a sunrise period for a month at the beginning of the registration period. It seems to have worked very well to prevent cybersquatting. JP domain registration rule has its DRP, which is a localized version of UDRP.
TWNIC	In "sunrise" period, we have reserved words for preventing someone from abusive registration of domain name. Besides, we follow the ICANN UDRP and take into consideration the judicial system and national conditions of our country.

15. Do you offer a WHOIS database? If so, for what purposes? If not, do you intend to do so in the near future?

WALID	We offer a web-based WHOIS service as part of our current registration system. We will offer a TCP port 43-style service in 3Q2001. We provide this information solely for operational purposes.
Verisign GRS	WHOIS services must be internationalized if the domain names they hold are internationalized. One possibility is internationalizing the WHOIS protocol itself, along with clients and servers. Another is adopting the IDNA approach: IDNs would be stored in an ACE format and WHOIS clients would convert internationalized user input into ACE format before querying a WHOIS server. VeriSign GRS is presently developing an IDN Whois service. In the interim, an IDN conversion tool is provided.
NSI Registrar (Verisign)	The NSI Registrar offers a WHOIS service, and that service can be used with IDN services if the customer utilizes the ACE-encoded name for a look-up.
Neteka	Yes. Neteka has technology for multilingual WHOIS and provides the technology to our clients.
Tonga	Yes. So automated queries can easily determine if a given name is already registered.
JPNIC	We offer WHOIS database for 1) solving technical problems, 2) transparency of the fairness of registration, 3) reference to DRP-related information, and 4) analysis in academic statistics study.
TWNIC	Yes, it's a centralized database system but not a distributed database system. It is not adopt Internet WHOIS standard currently, but we will consider to use the standard in the future.

16. How are you marketing your IDN services? To what extent are customers informed about the tentative nature of current IDN standards and testbeds?

17. Is there anything else we should know?

WALID	WALID is extremely pleased to be able to participate in and contribute to this survey. We fully support ICANN's activities in this area, and are eager to participate in any future discussions regarding technology, policy, or operation of internationalized domain name registration and resolution systems.
Verisign GRS	All relevant information is posted and updated on the IDN central portion of the VeriSign GRS Web site.
NSI Registrar (Verisign)	All relevant information is on our web site, which is updated periodically.
Neteka	There is a strong concern from parts of the technical community for the anxiety that legacy servers would break or choke on multilingual requests being sent over the wire. The different implementations indicate that this concern is highly overrated. The original DNS was designed to be 8-bit tolerable, and therefore should not crash even if multilingual character information is forced through the network. This is an extremely important acknowledgement for the overall deployment and success of multilingual domain names.
TWNIC	(1) To develop IDN must consider about the local user's culture and customs , not just only solve technical problem. Thus, IDN's related management and policy are also very important. (2) Due to the non-English country's users eagerly need of IDN, We suggest IETF IDN WG speeding the step of forming IDN related standards. (3) Chinese as one of the non-English script, has the great majority population used in Mainland, Taiwan, Hong kong, Macao. So we strongly suggest the Chinese domain name (CDN), including [CDN].cctld and [CDN].[CDN], should let CDNC(Chinese Domain Name Consortium) to deal with local testbed. The experience and result of the local testbed could be as a reference to open up another global IDN TLDs