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Announcements

TLD Application Review Update

On Monday, 2 October 2000 the application period for those seeking to sponsor or operate new TLDs...

TLD Application Review Update

  • On Monday, 2 October 2000 the application period for those seeking to sponsor or operate new TLDs...

TLD Application Review Update

  • On Monday, 2 October 2000 the application period for those seeking to sponsor or operate new TLDs...

ICANN Update - Names Council Warns Pre-Registration of Speculative New Domain Names Is Premature

September 29, 2000 -- Commenting on the process for establishing new top-level domain names...

Recent ICANN Postings: November 2000 Annual Meeting; election.com to Conduct Al-Large Vote; ICANN Seeking Administrative Assistant and Second Registrar Liaison

DETAILS FOR NOVEMBER 2000 ANNUAL MEETING

ICANN has posted details for its second annual meeting,...

Advisory Concerning Register.com v. Verio Litigation

(24 September 2000) On 3 August 2000 Register.com, Inc. (an accredited registrar) filed a lawsuit...

ICANN Selects election.com to Conduct One of World's Largest All-Internet Votes | More Than 76,000 Registered Members from Around the World to Cast Their Votes Online in First ICANN Vote

Marina del Rey, CA and Garden City, NY, September 21, 2000 - The Internet Corporation for...

UPDATE: Nominations Period Ends; Voter Education/Dialogue Begins

The At Large nominations period has concluded, and ICANN's At Large membership process now moves...

UPDATE: ICANN At Large Nominations Period Nears Conclusion

The nominations period of ICANN's At Large membership election process will conclude tomorrow,...

ICANN and U.S. Government Agree to Extend Agreements

(4 September 2000) ICANN announced today that its agreements with the United States Government...

ICANN Comment on NSI Registry Multilingual Domain Name Testbed

(25 August 2000) Yesterday, NSI Registry announced its plans to open a testbed for...

 |  Announcement, IDN

ICANN Posts Application and Assessment Criteria Information for New Top-Level Domain Proposals

August 16, 2000 - Marina del Rey, CA -- Yesterday, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names...

ICANN Issues New TLD Application Process Overview

Following the ICANN meetings in Yokohama in mid-July 2000, ICANN has received a very large number...

ICANN AT-LARGE Membership Registration Exceeds 158,000 Internet Users Worldwide

July 31, 2000 - Marina del Rey, CA -- The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers...

ICANN Concludes Board Meeting in Yokohama | Adopts Policies to Add New Top Level Domains, Elect At Large Members for the Board of Directors and Enhance the Stability and Security of the Root-Server System

Yokohama, Japan (July 16, 2000) - Today, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers...

New Accredited Registrars Announced

(July 10, 2000) The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) announced today...

ICANN Update: Yokohama Meetings and At Large Elections

This update collects a number of new and noteworthy postings on the ICANN website, including info...

Afternic.com Drops Lawsuit, Agrees to ICANN's Terms

(July 7, 2000) The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) announced today...

ICANN Welcomes Positive Report from U.S. General Accounting Office

(July 7, 2000) The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) welcomed today's...

Advisory Concerning Afternic Litigation

Overview

On June 8, 2000, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) was...

ICANN Posts Materials for Yokohama Meeting

ICANN has posted materials for public comment in connection with the July 13-17 meeting in...

Update on ICANN Meetings in Yokohama (13-17 July)

This email is an update on plans for the July ICANN meetings in Yokohama, Japan. For regularly...

Comments due by June 1 on ICANN Budget for FY00-01

(May 24, 2000 - Marina del Rey, California, USA) -- A proposed ICANN budget for FY00-01,...

At Large Election: Update 1.1

Two important documents relating to ICANN's At Large Membership election process have been...

ICANN Announces CPR Institute as New Dispute Resolution Provider

(May 15, 2000 - Marina del Rey, California, USA) -- The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names...

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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."