.art Pre-Register Domain - .art Domain Information

A New Period in Art

Addressing the Challenges of Artists and Audiences in the 21st Century:

The mission of .ART is to give artists the freedom and confidence to collaborate in an art-specific top-level domain (TLD). Artists, craftspeople, innovators, and creative thinkers currently compete with countless corporations and individuals for attention on the Internet. In the US alone, 222,000 people were employed as artists or in art and design-related fields in 2008. According to the US Bureau of Labor statistics, this figure is projected to rise to nearly 250,000 by 2018. However, over two million Americans see themselves as artists according to Americans for the Arts, indicating great numbers of individuals invested in their personal artistic identity.

The Economic Impact of Art and Culture:

Much has been written about the economic impact of the arts, which creates complex economies that rely on a mix of public, private and consumer capital. Art not only has the power to transform lives, but will be a vital component of growth and employment over the next decade. The .ART Registry promises to introduce a vibrant and diverse global workshop for encouraging a sense of place and identity for .ART registrants and their audiences.

.ART sees artists as creative engines for new ideas that fuel intellectual, social, and economic growth on local and global levels. Artists play a foundational role in the global art market, which the International Art Market Report (TEFAF Maastricht 2007-2009) estimated as being worth approximately $61 billion for fine and decorative art in 2008. Additionally, the report shows that China has overtaken the US as the worldʹs biggest market for art and antiques. Chinaʹs share of the global art market rose from 23% to 30% in 2011, pushing the US, with 29%, into second place. The United Kingdom, overtaken by China in 2011, remained third with a 22% market share, while France came in fourth with 6% per the report.

As mentioned above, over two million Americans see themselves as artists, reflecting the large portion of society that is comprised of creative individuals, and this trend is replicated in other countries. The UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), which compiles trade statistics, puts culture at the core of its description of the worldwide creative economy. The nonprofit arts and culture industry is an especially important economic driver in local communities—a growth industry that supports jobs, generates government revenue, and is the cornerstone of tourism.

All countries face challenges from the impact of the Internet on their culture and communications. It is important that steps be taken to explore ways to be responsive to these concerns. Part of the .ART Registry operational surplus would be used for funding programs and grants supporting talented artists from around the globe. .ART believes that balanced cultural development happens over time at the neighborhood level and that a healthy communication of ideas promotes social awareness.

Networking Opportunities on .ART:

As in many fields, networking has become crucial to the arts. Connections through.ART could yield tangible economic benefits to registrants. Although the upper echelons of the art world in each country are highly networked and professional, many artists are individualistic and lack mentorship, technology or the skills to solicit equity in their ideas. .ART is designed to provide registrants with their own safe and robust domain space to socialize relevant contemporary and historical art.

The .ART TLD will allow artistic voices to be simultaneously amplified and protected so that the world can discover new and profound creative insights. Artists and arts organizations are currently competing on the web, not only with one another, but also with a nearly infinite array of websites, technologies and competing projects. Creating the .ART TLD will ensure an internationally significant and categorized arena of relevant and high-quality websites from all art-related fields.

Principles of the .ART Registry:

.ART is dedicated to fostering an inclusive and diverse forum for artistic and innovative expression online. The term ʺartʺ is intended broadly and is not a legal or regulatory category or community

.ART strives to provide vigilant protection for artistic rights, and a resolute commitment to the principles of equal opportunity, creativity, equity, privacy and security.

.ART prioritizes respect for intellectual integrity, freedom of inquiry and rational discussion.

.ART registrants will be encouraged to support practices that protect freedom of speech, academic independence and autonomous research.

.ART will explore policy development and guidelines to prevent provenance incidents (disputes involving the creation or chronology of ownership of a work of art), copyright infringement, potential crowd-sourcing legislation, rights concerns and piracy issues.

.ART will explore aggressive strategies to reserve all local, historical, religious, educational, cultural and multilingual .ART-relevant brands online.

.ART will explore efficient strategies to archive important digital art and cultural products and the documentation of physical art from private collections, art-related businesses, and public organizations. This may include ephemeral material from performances, videos, images, photographs, blogs and online "net art" projects.

New Opportunities for Art and Culture:

The first priority of the .ART TLD is to reach out to members of the art field around the world and encourage them to organize, optimize, curate, bookmark and protect all relevant keywords and brands via .ART domains. International co-branding opportunities include workshops for leaders from across the art and design world. We expect artists of all backgrounds and disciplines to use .ART domains to support a better mastery of their skills and to further both their creativity and their careers.

The domain will explore innovative methods to promote and support the launch of local artists and promote their work worldwide. Artists will be offered domains, tools and websites through which to feature ideas and raise questions within the global online community.

.ART will be an open TLD, generally available to all registrants, except in the Sunrise period. The domains could be used for any purpose, including for-profit, non-profit and personal use.

The .ART registry commits to making continuous contributions to support artists and registrants of .ART domain names through various grants that would be made available twice a year, starting from the registry's second year of operations.

The .ART registry will commit more than ten percent (10%) of net proceeds towards young artists and art projects worldwide, thereby returning a significant portion of domain name fees back to arts organizations that would be further distributed to artists locally. .ART will encourage patrons and benefactors to match or recommend funding strategies that support art.

.ART wholly supports any constructive recommendations and efforts to engage mentors and art leaders. Any and all individuals, patrons, curators and organizations are encouraged to participate in the .ART discussion and help explore strategies to support the broad spectrum of artists and interests that we are currently engaged in fostering.

Your support will help us to design a new platform that will create a safer, and healthier environment for art commerce.

Our vision includes encouraging outreach, participation, collaboration, and promoting artistic expression on a global scale through the fostering of an open and inclusive community of peers. The .ART TLD will provide registrants with a cost-efficient way to present their interests and ideas online within an art context. International co-branding opportunities include inspirational leaders from across the art and design world.


The domain will explore outreach and innovative new ways to promote the careers of a diverse range of artists as well as their innovative ideas and output worldwide. Artists will be offered domains and websites through which to feature ideas and raise questions that may challenge the beliefs of impacted stakeholders from the broader Internet community


.ART will be an open TLD, generally available to all registrants. We forecast approximately 17500 Domains Under Management (DUMs) by the third year of operation.


i. General goals

The current TLD space is becoming saturated with general and art-related names. At the end of 2011, there were 95.5 million registered .com domain names and 220 million total registered domain names (Source: http://royal.pingdom.com/2012/01/17/internet-2011-in-numbers/). This saturation decreases the ability of companies and arts-focused individuals to establish a meaningful and contextually relevant Internet identity. The .ART TLD opens up more options for companies, artists and patrons seeking to establish a clear art-branded Internet identity.

ii. How .ART adds to the current space

The art world tends to encompass two vying approaches: universal access to cultural products versus the protection of intellectual property. In a field where individual authorship is as highly valued as the dissemination of ideas, the Internet functions as a complex arena open to both approaches. While copyright supporters work hard to ensure that intellectual property is safeguarded against theft, many artists and other cultural producers support new and emerging methods of sharing intellectual property in an effort to create universal access to cultural products and developments. The .ART TLD would function as a trusted and easily identifiable arena for artists and others to showcase their work. Being a creative hub, it will also generate dialogue and exchange both within the art world and liaise artistic production with other fields and audiences.

In addition, archiving digital and ephemeral material is a growing concern in the field of contemporary art, as unprecedented amounts of data and material are lost on a continual basis due to lack of resources and infrastructure. .ART will make archiving a realistic possibility for individuals and organizations concerned with the potential loss of ideas.

.ART envisions itself as both a supportive platform and a catalyst for creativity. Not only will .ART be a digital venue for creative artists, but a percentage of our revenue will be used to commission .ART registrants to create new work and award grants to promising artists, organizations, or patrons. Supporting artists is an important part of the .ART mandate, and will be safeguarded at all costs. .ART promotes artistic risk-taking by providing a time and space for the reflection of ideas without political, search engine, social network or other market pressures. We encourage patrons of the art world to participate and offer creative input towards developing successful strategies to fund and promote local art projects.

iii. User experience goals

Our goal is for the .ART TLD to become a platform for various endeavors including the furthering of online research and the development of new, dialogue-generation tools meant to facilitate feedback, organize user-generated content and interests and enable collaboration and relevant traffic. This platform will allow artists to better promote their art and locate local educators, artists, collectors and, historians.

Registrants will be able to establish an Internet presence that is directly related to and descriptive of their art-specific interests. One of the primary benefits to registrants of .ART TLD will be the ability to create clear, accessible online identities. This will allow artists to better promote themselves and enable potential clientele to more easily locate information and services. An increase in the diversity of user choices will foster healthy competition and innovation, both artistically and commercially.

.ART will become an important facilitator between technology creators and registrants who would use internet for promotion of their own work including art-related institutions who would use the technology to increase art sales and art market turnover.

iv. Registry policies

.ART will be an open TLD, generally available to all registrants (except in the Sunrise period).
In general, domains will be offered for periods of one to ten years, but no greater than ten years. Initial registrations made in the Sunrise period may have a minimum number of years required. For example, there may be a policy that all Sunrise names must be registered for an initial term of at least one year.

The roll-out of our TLD is anticipated to feature the following phases:
• Reservation of reserved names and premium names, which will be distributed through special mechanisms (detailed below).
• Sunrise — the required period for trademark owners to secure their domains before availability to the general public. This phase will feature applications for domain strings, verification of trademarks via Trademark Clearinghouse and a trademark verification agent, auctions between qualified parties who wish to secure the same string, and a Trademark Claims Service.
• Land rush — this period provides an opportunity for potential registrations to apply for names prior to the General availability period.
• General Availability period — real-time registrations, made on a first-come first-served basis. Trademark Claims Service will be in use at least for the first 60 days after General Availability applications open.

The registration of domain names in the .ART TLD will follow the standard practices, procedures and policies Afilias, the back-end provider of registry services, currently has in place. This includes the following:

• Domain registration policies (for example, grace periods, transfer policies, etc.) are defined in response #27.
• Abuse prevention tools and policies, for example, measures to promote WHOIS accuracy and efforts to reduce phishing and pharming, are discussed in detail in our response #28.
• Rights protection mechanisms and dispute resolution mechanism policies (for example, UDRP, URS) are detailed in #29.

Other detailed policies for this domain include policies for reserved names.


Reserved names

Registry reserved names

We will reserve the following classes of domain names, which will not be made generally available to registrants via the Sunrise or subsequent periods:
• All of the reserved names required in Specification 5 of the new gTLD Registry Agreement;
• The geographic names required in Specification 5 of the new gTLD Registry Agreement, and may be released to the extent that Registry Operator reaches agreement with the government and country-code manager;
• The registry operator's own name and variations thereof, and registry operations names (such as registry.tld, and www.tld), for internal use;
• Names related to ICANN and Internet standards bodies (iana.tld, ietf.tld, w3c.tld, etc.), and may be released to the extent that Registry Operator reaches agreement with ICANN.

The list of reserved names will be published publicly before the Sunrise period begins, so that registrars and potential registrants will know which names have been set aside.


Premium names

The registry will also designate a set of premium domain names, set aside for distribution via special mechanisms. The list of premium names will be published publicly before the Sunrise period begins, so that registrars and potential registrants will know that these names are not available. Premium names may be distributed via mechanisms such as requests for proposals, contests, direct sales, and auctions.

For the auctioning of premium names, we intend to contract with an established auction provider that has successfully conducted domain auctions. This will ensure that there is a tested, trustworthy technical platform for the auctions, auditable records, and reliable collection mechanisms. With our chosen auction provider, we will create and post policies and procedures that ensure clear, fair, and ethical auctions. As an example of such a policy, all employees of the registry operator and its contractors will be strictly prohibited from bidding in auctions for domains in the TLD. We expect a comprehensive and robust set of auction rules to cover possible scenarios, such as how domains will be awarded if the winning bidder does not make payment.

v. Privacy and confidential information protection

As per the New gTLD Registry Agreement, we will make domain contact data (and other fields) freely and publicly available via a Web-based WHOIS server. This default set of fields includes the mandatory publication of registrant data. Our Registry-Registrar Agreement will require that registrants consent to this publication.

We shall notify each of our registrars regarding the purposes for which data about any identified or identifiable natural person ("Personal Data") submitted to the Registry Operator by such registrar is collected and used, and the intended recipients (or categories of recipients) of such Personal Data (the data in question is essentially the registrant and contact data required to be published in the WHOIS). We will require each registrar to obtain the consent of each registrant in the TLD for the collection and use of such Personal Data. The policies will be posted publicly on our TLD web site. As the registry operator, we shall not use or authorize the use of Personal Data in any way that is incompatible with the notice provided to registrars.

Our privacy and data use policies are as follows:
• As registry operator, we do not plan on selling bulk WHOIS data. We will not sell contact data in any way. We will not allow, enable, or otherwise support the transmission by e-mail, telephone, or facsimile of mass unsolicited, commercial advertising or solicitations.
• We may use registration data in the aggregate for marketing purposes.
• DNS query data will never be sold in a way that is personally identifiable.
• We may from time to time use the demographic data collected for statistical analysis, provided that this analysis will not disclose individual Personal Data and provided that such use is compatible with the notice provided to registrars regarding the purpose and procedures for such use.

As the registry operator we shall take significant steps to protect Personal Data collected from registrars from loss, misuse, unauthorized disclosure, alteration, or destruction. In our responses to Question 30 ("Security Policy") and Question 38 ("Escrow") we detail the security policies and procedures we will use to protect the registry system and the data contained therein from unauthorized access and loss.

Please see our response to Question 26 ("WHOIS") regarding "searchable WHOIS" and rate-limiting. That section contains details about how we will limit the mining of WHOIS data by spammers and other parties who abuse access to the WHOIS.

In order to acquire and maintain accreditation for our TLD, we will require registrars to adhere to certain information technology policies designed to help protect registrant data. These will include standards for access to the registry system and password management protocols. Our response to Question 30, "Security Policy" provides details of implementation.

We will allow the use of proxy and privacy services, which can protect the personal data of registrants from spammers and other parties that mine zone files and WHOIS data. We are aware that there are parties who may use privacy services to protect their free speech rights, or to avoid religious or political persecution.

ART Registry Inc., supported by Afilias, the back-end provider of registry services, has adopted the above-mentioned and other policies to ensure fair and equitable access and cost structures to the Internet community, including:
• no new burdens placed on the Internet community to resolve name disputes
• utilization of standard registration practices and policies (as detailed in responses to questions 27, 28, 29)
• protection of trademarks at launch and on-going operations (as detailed in the response to question 29)
• fair and reasonable wholesale prices
• fair and equitable treatment of registrars

As per the ICANN Registry Agreement, we will use only ICANN-accredited registrars, and will provide non-discriminatory access to registry services to those registrars.

This follows our founding principle that .ART should be made easily accessible to as wide a community as possible, including people in developing countries who may not be experienced in registering domain names.


Pricing Policies and Commitments

Pricing for domain names at General Availability will be $50 per domain year for the first year. Applicant reserves the right to reduce this pricing for promotional purposes in a manner available to all accredited registrars. Registry Operator reserves the right to work with ICANN to initiate an increase in the wholesale price of domains if required. Registry Operator will provide reasonable notice to the registrars of any approved price increase.

The domain name pricing is determined with an idea to boot strap operations in the first years.

Part of operational surplus would be used for funding of artists and art projects through grants that would be made available to international network of art institution where .ART registrants can apply.

Describe proposed measures for protection of geographic names at the second and other levels in the applied-for gTLD. This should include any applicable rules and procedures for reservation and/or release of such names.

We will protect names with national or geographic significance by reserving the country and territory names at the second level and at all other levels within the TLD, as per the requirements in the New TLD Registry Agreement (Specification 5, paragraph 5).

We will employ a series of rules to translate the geographical names required to be reserved by Specification 5, paragraph 5 to a form consistent with the ʺhost namesʺ format used in domain names.

Considering the Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC) advice "Principles regarding new gTLDs", these domains will be blocked, at no cost to governments, public authorities, or IGOs, before the TLD is introduced (Sunrise), so that no parties may apply for them. We will publish a list of these names before Sunrise, so our registrars and their prospective applicants can be aware that these names are reserved.
We will define a procedure so that governments can request the above reserved domain(s) if they would like to take possession of them. This procedure will be based on existing methodology developed for the release of country names in the .INFO TLD. For example, we will require a written request from the country's GAC representative, or a written request from the country's relevant Ministry or Department. We will allow the designated beneficiary (the Registrant) to register the name, with an accredited Afilias Registrar, possibly using an authorization number transmitted directly to the designated beneficiary in the country concerned.

As defined by Specification 5, paragraph 5, such geographic domains may be released to the extent that Registry Operator reaches agreement with the applicable government(s). Registry operator will work with respective GAC representatives of the country's relevant Ministry of Department to obtain their release of the names to the Registry Operator.

If internationalized domains names (IDNs) are introduced in the TLD in the future, we will also reserve the IDN versions of the country names in the relevant script(s) before IDNs become available to the public. If we find it advisable and practical, we will confer with relevant language authorities so that we can reserve the IDN domains properly along with their variants.

Regarding GAC advice regarding second-level domains not specified via Specification 5, paragraph 5: All domains awarded to registrants are subject to the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP), and to any properly-situated court proceeding. We will ensure appropriate procedures to allow governments, public authorities or IGO's to challenge abuses of names with national or geographic significance at the second level. In its registry-registrar agreement, and flowing down to registrar-registrant agreements, the registry operator will institute a provision to suspend domains names in the event of a dispute. We may exercise that right in the case of a dispute over a geographic name.