.gop Pre-Register Domain - .gop Domain Information

OVERVIEW
The overall goal and purpose of the .GOP top-level domain is to have an interactive, identifiable, and easily accessible outlet for people in the "Grand Old Party", organizations and businesses that associate or identify with GOP and others interested or involved with the political party, whether on a federal, state or local-office level, to communicate by sharing ideas, ideology and policies in ways they deem appropriate and beneficial to the party as well as the public at large.

GOP: Information and Statistics

"GOP" is an acronym that stands for "Grand Old Party." Both terms are popular alternative names for the 148 year-old Republican Party in the United States of America. The Republican Party is one of the two major political parties in the United States, and entities and individuals who identify with the GOP for business, political or personal reasons can be found world-wide.

Each of the 50 states and five territories has a Republican party entity, constituting 55 Republican Party establishments. (Source: http://www.gop.com/index.php, accessed 4-4-12).

Commonly found at the county level is also a Republican party; there are 3,141 counties across the United States. (Source: http://www.census.gov/geo/www/GARM/Ch4GARM.pdf, accessed 4-4-12).

There are an estimated 84 million self-identified Republicans in the United States. (Source: Almanac of American Politics 2012, National Journal Group, the University of Chicago Press 2011. By Michael Barone and Chuck McCutcheon.)

As of April 2012, there are 47 Republican United States Senators, 242 Republican members of the United States House of Representatives, 29 Republican Governors, 29 Republican Lieutenant Governors, 24 Republican Attorneys General, and 27 Republican Secretaries of State. (Sources: http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm?OrderBy=party&Sort=ASC; http://house.gov/representatives/; http://www.rga.org/homepage/governors/; accessed 4-4-2012).

As of 2010, Republicans held about 3,890, or 53 percent, of the total state legislative seats in America, the most seats in the GOP column since 1928. At that time, the GOP controlled at least 54 of the 99 state legislative chambers, its highest number since 1952. (Source: http://www.ncsl.org/press-room/republicans-exceed-expectations-in-2010.aspx, accessed 4-2-2012).

As of 2010, Gallup polling found that 31% of Americans identified as Democrats, 29% as Republicans, and 38% as independents. (Source: http://www.gallup.com/poll/145463/Democratic-Party-Drops-2010-Tying-Year-Low.aspx, accessed 4-2-2012).

In 2012, 28 state legislatures were controlled outright by the Republican Party compared to only 12 controlled by the Democratic Party.
http://www.census.gov/compendia/statab/cats/elections/gubernatorial_and_state_legislatures.html, acceded 4-2-2012).

In the November 2008 presidential election there were 169 million voters registered: 55 million republicans, 86 million democrats, and 28 million others registered as independent. (Source: http://www.neagle.com/news/x353812267/Patriot-Connectors-launches-voter-registration-drive, accessed 4-2-2012).

MISSION AND PURPOSE

We wish to provide a top-level domain that provides an identifiable means of communicating with people, organizations and businesses that associate or identify with GOP. In addition, we would simply like to provide the worldwide Internet-using public with more choice in the domain name marketplace at competitive prices.

The ultimate goal of the .GOP top-level domain is to establish itself as the recognized choice for registrants who want to market and promote themselves and their websites to, and reach, the Internet-using public, for business, political, personal, legal or any other purpose, through an association with GOP; and, as the recognized top-level domain name for Internet consumers to look for to know which people, businesses, information sources or other online resource associate themselves with GOP or are trying to communicate with people who do.

PUBLIC BENEFIT

The .GOP top-level domain will allow the Grand Old Party a better, more identifiable platform to connect with constituents and the American public in terms of the parties' message, policy, ideology and political discourse. We strongly believe that a free flow of ideas coupled with the right to association demands a more centralized location for both prospective .GOP registrants and others involved with or interested in the GOP. For the foregoing reasons outlined therein, therefore, we are confident that this demand can be met with the .GOP domain.

We believe that the Internet-using world will benefit from the existence of a .GOP gTLD by:

- making domain names ending in .GOP available to all those who may want to use such .GOP domain names for their own business, personal, political or other legal purposes in the United States and world-wide.

- the promotion of GOP by having information of any and all types and for any and all legal purposes available and disseminated from websites and email addresses ending in .GOP for the registrants' and users' own purposes world-wide.

- the promotion of GOP by allowing businesses, not-for-profits and individuals to associate their products, services, information and selves with GOP for their own purposes.

- allowing people and organizations to promote their association with the GOP on the Internet.

- providing an identifiable means for people, organizations and businesses to communicate with those who associate with the GOP.

EXPANDING THE TLD NAMESPACE

Over the past decade, the market for domain name registrations has grown at a tremendous pace. From 2000 to 2010 domain name registrations increased from 40 million to 200 million domain names registered globally. 2011 experienced a growth of approximately 9%, which was significantly higher than the previous year's 6% growth, ending third quarter 2011 with approximately 220 million domain names registered globally. Approximately 60% of these are gTLDs, while the remaining 40% are comprised of ccTLDs. More specifically, gTLD growth was approximately 8% in 2011, while ccTLD growth exceeded 11%.

Existing TLDs, such as .COM and .NET, do not provide adequate solutions for many registrants. Domain names that relate to the registrants' business, interests, or associations are often already registered, priced exorbitantly high, or available options are unsuitable. Additionally, other options, such as ccTLDs, do not provide adequate alternatives as a registrant may not have any geographic relation or meet the criteria associated with other gTLDs such as .MUSEUM or .AERO. Therefore, the only available opportunity to pursue a relevant and useful domain name registration may be through a brand new registration of a gTLD.

Taking into account the new opportunities available with new gTLDs, growth is expected to continue in all sections of the domain name industry. It will benefit registrants and users by allowing registrants to reach more targeted audiences and increase their web presence. Additionally, it will allow registrants to more closely identify with a particular market segment.

At present, there is no specific .GOP domain name or useful top-level alternative domain name that exists for the people, organizations, or businesses that associate themselves with GOP or people, organizations or businesses that want to communicate with them. Those desirous of a domain name that indicates some level of association with GOP could seek a second level domain name such as "GOP.COM," "GOP.US" or "GOP.NET," but such domains (or similar names) are not readily available under the limited number of existing gTLDs, and--more importantly--only provide a secondary (at best) or weak (at worst) relationship between the domain name and GOP, which we believe is the primary goal of the registrant of such names.

From a competitive perspective, registrants that want a domain name that effectively and efficiently shows an association with GOP or registrants that want a domain name that allows them to identifiably communicate with people who associate or identify with it face a domain name marketplace that provides them with few, if any, options for their purposes. The .GOP top-level domain will resolve this problem by providing registrants with an efficient, effective, prominent, and instantly understood way of showing their association with GOP, and provide those registrants who desire it a domain that that can effectively communicate information to such Internet users in an identifiable way. At the same time, .GOP provides competition with the existing TLDs and new gTLDs that will be approved by ICANN, benefiting the Internet community at large by increasing consumer choice.

We believe that the .GOP top-level domain will add significantly to competition and differentiation in the top-level domain space, both for registrants and Internet consumers. With respect to competition, registrants are presently extremely limited in their choice of domain names that allow them to efficiently and effectively associate themselves with GOP. The availability of useful, effective, straight-forward domain names on existing top-level domains, such as .COM, .NET and .ORG, are few and far between, or may be for sale at prices that are out of reach for most. .GOP will allow registrants to obtain useful, effective, straight-forward domain names rather than be forced to purchase, for example, their fifth, sixth or even later choice .COM or .NET name--which may well barely relate to the registrant's purpose--or use of a domain name that may be confusingly similar with numerous other .COM or .NET domain names. In addition, some existing generic top-level domain names, though newer, such as .XXX, may be inappropriate for most registrants for content associational reasons, while country-code top-level domains, though numerous, are not useful or appropriate for many registrants for geographical associational reasons. Thus, .GOP will increase competition for registrants who want a domain name that clearly, effectively and efficiently associates them with GOP for their domain name purposes as well as for those registrants who want to reach Internet users who identify with it.

.GOP will also increase pricing competition in the top-level domain name space by assuring that .GOP domain names are priced at levels that are appropriate to the vast majority of potential registrants to whom .GOP is targeted.

Internet consumers benefit from this increase in competition, as less confusing and clearly associated .GOP domain names will make it easier for them to know that the owner of the second-level domain name is a member of or seeks to associate with GOP.

Likewise, .GOP will help significantly increase differentiation in the top-level domain space. Existing leading generic top-level domain names, such as .COM, .NET and .ORG no longer require and no longer represent any real differentiation in association, purpose or content. Newer top-level domains, such as .XXX, .AERO and .MUSEUM, do represent differentiation, but are either inappropriate or unavailable to most prospective registrants at whom .GOP is targeted. .GOP will further increase differentiation by allowing registrants to be associated, and consumers to know that the registrant seeks to associate with GOP.

In terms of user experience, .GOP will provide users with a top-level domain name that allows them to easily recognize that the registrant seeks to have its second-level domain name and content associated with GOP. We believe this will be of substantial benefit to the Internet user community in general--and conservative voters and Party operatives specifically--as it will allow them to more easily and more readily understand the purpose or motives of the registrant's website or email, allowing for better, more efficient and more effective use of their time online.

On balance, and for the reasons set forth above, a .GOP domain will be in the public's interest; it will serve as a catalyst to promoting the GOP; and it will benefit the GOP.

This applicant, like most organizations, takes its good reputation seriously. We are fully cognizant, for example, that artistic, political, economic and social issues, all of which can be associated with GOP, often provoke heated debate and are at times controversial. However, we recognize and support the free speech rights of both registrants and Internet users as fundamental rights and believe that such free speech rights are important to the success of the .GOP business plan. We believe that any plan to stifle free speech would be more harmful to .GOP's reputation and business success than any attempt by us to govern speech. That being said, to protect .GOP's reputation and the associational benefits it offers registrants and Internet consumers, we will actively promote and enforce our Acceptable Use and Abuse Prevention policies and procedures, which we believe will effectively combat improper or unlawful unprotected speech and online conduct. We believe that these mechanisms will be effective in assuring the reputation of the .GOP top-level domain, its registrants, Internet Users, as well as the public.

The .GOP top-level domain will be marketed to registrants who want to associate themselves, their products, services, thoughts, ideas or anything else in a positive way with GOP, as well as to those who want to communicate with them in an easily identifiable way. Therefore we believe that the great majority of registrants who apply for a .GOP domain name will do so because of its association with or because they want to reach those who do, and not for other reasons. In these ways, the .GOP top-level domain will bring a special association with GOP to the top-level domain name space.

We are dedicated to protection of third-party rights and prevention of abusive uses of the .GOP domain name. We intend to achieve this goal by crafting our Naming Policy, Acceptable Use Policy, and other policies to be readily understandable and easily accessible, and by making sure that our mechanisms for enforcing rights and preventing abuse (such as our Complaint Resolution Service) operate effectively, efficiently, and fairly. In addition, we will ensure that they work symbiotically with other ICANN-mandated rights protection mechanisms such as the UDRP.

We have crafted a draft framework for registration of .GOP domains that fully supports the goals and benefits set forth above. Our draft registration framework is based on advice from ICANN, WIPO, applicable laws, and a variety of other expert sources. Specifically, the .GOP draft framework includes these interrelated sets of agreements setting forth our policies and regulations, all of which registrants must agree to be bound by:

- The Registrant Agreement, which registrars contracted with .GOP must present to registrants. This is a collateral agreement to the Registrar Registry Agreement (detailed below), and will bind registrants to .GOP's Acceptable Use Policy (as detailed below), .GOP's Privacy & Whois Policy (detailed below), ICANN-mandated rights protection mechanisms (including the Universal Dispute Resolution Policy ("UDRP"), and the Complaint Resolution Service;

- The Acceptable Use Policy ("AUP"), which details the proper use of domain names that end in .GOP, which is incorporated by reference in the Registrant Agreement that registrants must agree to;

- The Privacy and Whois Policy, which describes how a registrant's personal data is to be used, which is also incorporated by reference in the Registrant Agreement;

- The Registrar-Registry Agreement, which is the contract between .GOP and its ICANN-accredited registrars, which sets forth, inter alia, the duties and obligations of the registrar with respect to .GOP registrants and the .GOP registry; and

- The Naming Policy, which sets out .GOP's policies governing prohibited, blocked or reserved domain names.

These agreements and policies are designed to ensure transparent and non-discriminatory policies for the registration of .GOP names; fair and competitive pricing; protection of personal data and privacy; adherence by registrars and registrants to the AUP; protection of trademarks, the names of natural and legal persons and other property rights; prevention of the registration of illegal terms; and the prevention violations of the law. Moreover, our policies promote competition among registrars, combat abuse of the DNS, address cybercrime, protect intellectual property rights, and align the .GOP top-level domain with applicable regulatory and legislative environments and Internet registry best practices.

These policies will effectively support the key mission, purposes and goals of the .GOP top-level domain, which is to allow registrants who want to associate themselves with, while at the same time protecting third-party rights and preventing abuse.

We specifically examined more restrictive registration policies, such as limiting registration to members of organizations with a specific tie to GOP. We rejected such limitations because they would interfere with .GOP's primary mission, purpose and goal--which is to encourage as many registrants as possible to associate themselves with GOP for any legal purpose. Factors that we took into account when considering a more restrictive registration policy included:

- Our recognition that registrants of a .GOP domain name will self-select because they have an interest in GOP, naturally reducing the number of potential registrants; and, because restrictive policies such as, for example, requiring membership in a specific organization or organizations, would exclude many legitimate registrants from obtaining a .GOP domain name. For example, and by way of illustration, if membership in an organization were required for registration, businesses and charitable organizations that would find a .GOP top-level domain name an effective marketing tool would be excluded from registering a .GOP domain name as they might not be eligible to be members in an organization that accepted only natural persons for membership.

With respect to protecting registrant privacy and confidential information, we will comply with all applicable ICANN rules, including Whois policies, and all applicable laws, rules and regulations of appropriate jurisdictions. Registrant privacy and use of confidential information are set forth in our Privacy & Whois Policy. Information concerning updates and changes to the Privacy & Whois Policy will be promptly and prominently displayed on the .GOP web site.

.GOP's back-end registry services provider will also be required to employ industry-standard procedures to prevent the unauthorized or illegal access of registrant privacy or confidential information.

With respect to users, .GOP's Registration Agreement will require that all registrants comply with any and all applicable laws, rules or regulations concerning user privacy and confidential information for applicable jurisdictions; failure to do so may result in suspension or loss of their .GOP name and may, in addition, result in legal actions by appropriate authorities.

We plan to minimize social costs primarily through clearly written, widely disseminated, and easy-to-understand policies. Our Acceptable Use Policy clearly delineates unacceptable behavior and prohibited content by registrants using domain names in the .GOP zone.

Our rules concerning applications for the same domain name establish clearly delineated rules, and will be published well in advance. They provide adequate safeguards for the rights of all participants as well as expeditious and cost-effective challenge procedures in the event of disputes.

During the Sunrise period and Landrush periods, multiple applications for the same name will be resolved by auction. UDRP or URS will be used if there are disputes as to rights to a name.

After Sunrise and Landrush, domain names will be allotted on a first-come, first-serve basis. All domains are subject to UDRP and URS challenges.

At all times, .GOP's Complaint Resolution Service will be available to registrants and the public in the case of alleged prohibited use or content.

.GOP does not envision special discounts for different classes of registrants, but may consider such offers in the future. We may offer introductory discounts for first-time registrants in .GOP. Bulk registration discounts are not being considered at this time.

.GOP plans to make contractual commitments to registrants regarding the magnitude of price increases. .GOP will contract with its registrars that any percentage increase in renewal and first registration fees will be applied uniformly across all registrations, and that notice of any price increases will be provided on the registrar's website and by the registrar to registrants via email six months or more in advance.

--PROPOSED MEASURES FOR PROTECTION OF GEOGRAPHIC NAMES AT THE SECOND AND OTHER LEVELS IN THE APPLIED-FOR GTLD--

We have accepted the advice of the Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC) that we should adopt appropriate procedures to block names with national or geographic significance at the second and other levels, and will do so in the manner described below:

The country and territory names contained in the following internationally recognized lists will be initially reserved at the second level, as follows:

The short form (in English) of all country and territory names contained on the ISO 3166-1 list, as updated from time to time, including the European Union; on the United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names, Technical Reference Manual for the Standardization of Geographical Names, Part III Names of Countries of the World; and on the list of United Nations member states in the six official United Nations languages prepared by the Working Group on Country Names of the United Nations Conference on the Standardization of Geographical Names.

Procedurally, the geographical names contained in these lists, as described in Specification 5 of the New gTLD Agreement, will be added to the registry software system "prohibited word" function. This function, part of Espresso, our registry platform, allows strings to be blocked from registration. Upon an attempt via the EPP or web interface, the registration will not be allowed. Any attempt to register a domain containing those geographical names will be automatically denied, as they were similarly blocked in the .INFO TLD. If a Government or public authority decides to register a geographic name which has been blocked by the process describe above, the .INFO procedure for notice, authentication, and registration will be substantially adhered to, as follows:

1. The Government or public authority concerned informs the GAC Secretariat of their request to register the name, and the designated beneficiary.
2. The GAC Secretariat authenticates the request and transfers it to the ICANN staff and to the registry operator.
3. The registry operator verifies the availability of the name and issues an authorization number that is transmitted directly to the designated beneficiary in the country concerned.
4. The designated beneficiary (the Registrant) registers the name, paying the normal fee, with an ICANN-accredited registrar contracted with the registry operator using the authorization number as their authority.

The registry operator may at some point seek agreement with the applicable governments to release these reservations, subject to review by ICANN's Governmental Advisory Committee and approval by ICANN.

For protection of geographic names at other levels, we have a complaint mechanism in place and any geographic entity may register a complaint if they feel their national rights have been violated.

We believe that the measures outlined above incorporate GAC's advice and serve as a pledge to block, at no cost to governments, geographically significant names and allow a means of challenging any abuse of the use of a geographically significant name.