.desi Pre-Register Domain - .desi Domain Information

Afilias Domains No. 4, the Applicant, is a subsidiary of Afilias Limited, and will be referred to throughout this application as Afilias for simplicity of review by ICANN.


Mission and purpose

The mission of .DESI is to provide an Internet homeland for the diverse and dispersed peoples of the Indian subcontinent (India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh). These peoples self-identify as "desi," the Sanskrit word for "one from our country." That the term is broadly recognized is illustrated by MTV's 2005 decision to use "MTV DESI" as the name of the MTV service directed at this large and growing target market.

Just as .CAT today provides a cherished place for the Catalan language community, .DESI's purpose is to establish an easily identifiable place where Desis can congregate on the Internet to celebrate Desi culture, languages, food, socializing, and other interactions that are unavailable today.

.DESI will serve:
• Desi individuals, by providing an Internet space populated by others who share cultural, language, music, entertainment and other characteristics that are apart from the mainstream and tailored to their interests and tastes;
• Desi businesses, who are established to serve this market, and who will be able to reach the market more efficiently and serve it more directly than they can in the general market;
• Desi professionals, who offer tailored services to address the unique needs of this audience, and who will benefit from a space shared by others of similar understanding.
• Desi entertainers, whose unique offerings (for example, Bollywood) enjoy particular appeal among Desis.
• Desi travelers, who wish to find the local Desi hot spots, food places, and other attractions as they roam the globe.
• Many others who share the values and dreams of Desis across the world.

We believe there is a large and readily identifiable pool of businesses and individuals who will quickly realize the intrinsic value of the .DESI TLD and will wish to create their own sites and addresses in the TLD. These Desi-oriented entities will immediately — by actions designed to further their own interests — begin building the .DESI brand on a global basis. While we anticipate that early adopters will be primarily from the diaspora and hence be outside of the Indian sub-continent, eventually use will develop in the homeland itself.

While the potential for the development of this TLD is enormous, we believe it will take some time for the idea to percolate amongst the population of Desis around the globe. Therefore, we forecast having approximately 25,000 Domains Under Management (DUMs) by the third year of operation. Our financial responses in questions 45 though 50 go into detail on our funding, cost and revenue projections.

i. General goals

.DESI will be an open TLD, generally available to self-selected registrants (except in the Sunrise period). The domains can be used for any legitimate purpose, including for business use, for personal use and by organizations. There are no content or use restrictions for this TLD, as long as applicable laws are respected.

Afilias, the .DESI Registry Operator, will position, market and manage the .DESI TLD to become a well-known Internet resource both for entities wishing to serve this market and for consumers and businesses looking to find "Desi" goods and services more efficiently. Marketing will include channel support to registrars as well as targeted messaging activities, sponsorships, and other means of establishing the identity on a global basis.

Registrants will benefit by having an Internet name that instantly conveys membership in and/or affinity to Desi constituencies worldwide. Like .ASIA, .CAT and others, .DESI will connote certain common characteristics and interests enabling interested parties to more readily identify like-minded others on the Internet.

Internet users in general will benefit as well. The first benefit is in expanding the awareness that Desis exist and are such an important group that an entire TLD is dedicated to them. Second, hundreds of millions of Desis worldwide (with many more using the Internet every day) are avid Internet users, and will find specialized content and services more easily than is the case today. And third, accelerating Internet development in the Desi homeland makes it an area primed for closing the digital divide and benefiting hundreds of millions of people now unable to access the Internet.
Businesses serving Desis will benefit by access to a TLD that both attracts and targets this important market. As services are developed, more traffic will accrue to sites in the TLD, creating more opportunity in a virtuous circle of expanding business.

ii. How .DESI adds to the current space

The current TLD space serving Desis is fragmented across many TLDs, including .com, .info, and others — none of which is tailored for the Desi experience. This makes it unnecessarily difficult to find targeted services in an organized, easy to access manner.

.DESI solves this problem with a TLD space dedicated to the needs of this audience. And, just as .ORG has evolved to serve as the home of not for profit entities on the Internet, .DESI will be a haven for both those in the Indian diaspora and those who remain in the homeland.

.DESI will increase a company's or an individual's ability to establish a meaningful and contextually relevant Desi Internet identity. It will allow them an option to create an identity more in line with their existing identities. In short, a .DESI TLD increases consumer options and choices.

iii. User experience goals

One of the primary benefits to registrants of participation in the .DESI TLD is that they can build clear, easily accessible identities that will facilitate seekers of Desi experiences and more easily enable potential clientele to find the information and experiences they are seeking. Desi companies will be able to establish Internet identities which are more closely aligned with their existing identities and branding, rather than modifying their name or brand to adapt to the current choices available, making it easier to be searched for and discovered by customers and Internet users. This will help to build confidence and reduce ambiguity for users, since each company's Internet identity can now more closely match its registered name.

We plan to create an environment which will stimulate innovation and creativity tailored to Desi needs in a way that will expand the diversity and range of options for Internet users.

iv. Registry policies

.DESI will be an open TLD, generally available to all registrants (except in the Sunrise period). Desi registration and use policies will be in line with global standards to avoid confusion and stimulate adoption. In general, domains will be offered for periods of one to ten years, but no greater than ten years. 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.
• 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 .DESI 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.

Afilias 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.


Pricing Policies and Commitments

Pricing for domain names at General Availability will be $12 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.

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.