.quebec Pre-Register Domain - .quebec Domain Information

The .quebec TLD application is submitted by PointQuébec, and is intended to serve the Québec community, composed of individuals and organizations linked to the community on a linguistic, cultural, tourism or business basis. The Québec community will be served by PointQuébec, the not for profit organization created expressly for that purpose.

PointQuébec will keep interested in applying for the .QUÉBEC TLD, as an IDN TLD. Under current circumstances ICANN indicated that both strings would be considered as "confusingly similar" but PointQuébec is confident that ICANN will eventually understand that, while identical, they are not confusing at all: what's confusing for the Québec people is that both linguistic versions of the string are considered different: both french and english have offical status and are widely used in Québec.

The goal of the .quebec TLD is to serve the Québec community, to allow citizens and organizations to be known and recognized on the Internet, to carry on the community's activities in respect of their cultural identity. To that purpose, PointQuébec will:

(i) develop the .quebec name space, open to all citizens, public and private organisms, and to any group or entity linked to Québec on a cultural, tourism or business basis;
(ii) operate the .quebec TLD with a platform that rigourously meets the highest standards of the industry, and manage it accordingly;
(iii) develop the technology for an IDN twin Registry (when allowed by ICANN)
(iv) provide IDN, hosting and management expertise for new extensions or new arising registrars (ex.: city TLD, legal entities applying for an IDN registry).

This is to be achieved by:

(i) actively designing and developing the .quebec TLD name space with a focus on the needs of the Québec community, involving cultural, welfare, business and public stakeholders;

(ii) allowing registrations of second-level domain names in the .quebec TLD by individuals and organizations with a bona fide nexus to the Québec community; the basic criterion to establish this bona fide nexus will be set by the requirement to use the domain names registered for the purpose of online communications related to the Québec community.

(iii) operating the .quebec TLD under the stewardship of the Québec community: as will be elaborated and detailed under 20 b), PointQuébec has the explicit support of the Québec community public authorities, its most relevant cultural and professional institutions, and private sector stakeholders.

The .quebec TLD will contribute to increase the linguistic and cultural diversity of the DNS, which is one of the main objectives of the gTLD process.

The key benefits to all stakeholders of the .quebec TLD are derived from the intrinsic link of the TLD string to the Québec community, from the specifically dedicated policy to ensure full respect to the linguistic and cultural objectives of the TLD; from the ability to design and develop the name space from its inception; and from the clear accountability to the Québec community.

The specificity to the Québec community of the .quebec string and the .quebec TLD policies will enable registrants to communicate in a way that demonstrates their commitment to the Québec community. A potential registrant interested in a given domain under .quebec is more likely to be able to register it because the potential of contention from other parts of the world is reduced.

The ability to design and develop a planned portion of the name space creates a web of predictable and memorable names that will facilitate access to key resources for users. Predictability relates both the choice of the name and the content the user may expect from a name corresponding to a certain pattern.

The launch process and the community nexus compliance program are designed to achieve a high degree of relevance of .quebec domain names for the Québec community. Along with a policy providing strong intellectual property support, the benefits for both local and international trademark holders as well as local and international Internet users will be triggered immediately.

Registrants as well as Internet users, individuals or professionals, want to be part of the large Internet community. This global need has been underlined and deeply discussed since 2008 by IT market analysts, journalists, Internet users, ISPs, registrars, registrants, focus groups, bloggers and many others who welcome ICANNʹs initiative.

Registrants will be offered a new naming opportunity to answer cultural, tourism and business needs. They will take advantage of the .quebec TLD to reach the following goals:

◦ the ability to develop the name space with a personalized domain naming derived from the .quebec TLD;

◦ the simplification, the relevance and the scope of the proposed domain names to meet the objectives of domain name applicants searching for clear and easy communications from, to and within the community;

◦ a new and reliable platform to successfully register memorable new names, since the potential of contention from other parts of the world is reduced or non existent;

◦ the specificity of the .quebec TLD, enabling registrants to relate themselves to the Québec community, regardless of their address of residence;

◦ achieve a high degree of relevance with .quebec domain names by providing a compliance program and a strong intellectual property support.

While Internet users want to be part of the goblal Internet, they also want to stick to their origins and heritage. Internauts using .quebec will benefit from:

◦ relevant naming availability for regional, national and international communications;

◦ a clear identity on the Web, for email addresses and Web sites;

◦ new opportunities and an openness that allows everyone to reap many benefits on all fronts: economic, social, cultural and linguistic.

Other parties will benefit from the new gTLD:

◦ CIRA has decided to no longer offer addresses with provincial identification in Canada: : «qc.ca» for Québec or «on.ca» for Ontario, etc. The decision is based on a business analysis and might have been motivated by the relatively modest results. For the users, such addresses were not user friendly. PointQuébec offers an alternative of mutual interest for CIRA and the users.

◦ 30% of SME donʹt use the naming space in Québec for various reasons: the language, the relevance of the naming availability from registries, the specificity of their market limited to a region or a city, a seasonal business, etc. (Source: www.cefrio.qc.ca, the most accurate survey group on the Internet in Québec). PointQuébec will open these new markets to registrars that will be in a position to offer an appropiate naming to the newcomers on the Web.

◦ The international market should also bring grist to the mill. For instance, in domain names registered by some registrars or affiliated resellers outside Québec, more than 44,000 of them include the name Québec.

Answers to enumerated question points:

b) i. What is the goal of your proposed gTLD in terms of areas of specialty, service levels, or reputation?

The goal of .quebec in terms of specialty is the focus on the needs of the Québec community. Service levels will match or exceed the high end of currently existing TLDs. The .quebec Registry will vigorously build and defend the reputation of the .quebec TLD as an orderly. trusted, secure and progressive TLD for the Québec community.

The precedent experience of .cat's reputation as how a success can be measured with criteria based on the highest service levels to its community and an untarnished reputation as a conflicts-free space to the day, helps understand the benefits cultural TLDs can bring to both its own community and the gTLD space as a whole.

◦ The specificity of PointQuébec is to serve the Québec community by handling to the registrants a new first level extension that is and will remain unique. .quebec will testify the presence and vitality of the community on the Internet;

◦ The goal is to enable all citizens and businesses, locally, nationally and internationally, to identify themselves on the Internet with respect for its language, its culture and its social specificity;

◦ The naming space will be developed and expanded to reflect the French culture of the community located mainly in Québec, but also present elsewhere on the globe;

◦ In terms of reputation, PointQuébec will act as the custodian of a name that belongs to a nation. It will have to defend the proposed gTLD designed and created to serve the community and its historic nature, recognized by the Canadian government and by International Organizations like the United Nations Education, Science and Culture Organization (UNESCO) that stated that: "the specificity of Québec leads it to play a special role internationally." This is the level of reputation that the .quebec TLD will have to fulfill.

b) ii. What do you anticipate your proposed gTLD will add to the current space, in terms of competition, differentiation, or innovation?

In terms of competition, PointQuébec will serve a global community with 10 million individuals, living in a dynamic cultural and economic environment, a majority of which obviously live in Québec, but also in Ontario (the province next to Québec) and in other provinces in Canada. Many live in New England, Louisiana, France, England, Florida, the Caribbean, and in many other parts of the world.

According to our market researches, internal analysis and consultations with focus groups, the .quebec TLD represents an appropriate answer to fill a large gap in terms of consumer choice. Furthermore, accented addresses and the scope of such addresses provides a competitive advantage that will seduce customers. Customization of addresses and domain names will shape the naming space, meet the criteria of the language, and will become a natural choice to users for these obvious reasons.

PointQuébec will implement a market driven approach. Accordingly, PointQuébec plans to allocate a significant budget to promote the .quebec TLD during the next coming years. This budget will be well balanced and financial provisions are planned to secure the long term Registry operations. Partners already mentioned in Q11 will support PointQuébec to outreach new markets, in rural areas, namely.

On a differentiation standpoint, the .quebec TLD is seen as a structuring project for the Québec society. This intrinsic meaning of .quebec represents more than an address on the web. It must be regarded as an identification by which people will communicate, an ID that businesses and organizations will advertise, a signature that users will proudly display. Upmost, it will simplify the naming space and impact the market. In site of the actual naming scheme available, .quebec will offer shorter, clearer and more obvious names.

PointQuébec offers an innovative approach with its partnerships inside and outside Québec to acquire and develop the expertise needed both to operate .quebec, and to develop an IDN capable TLD Registry. A responsive approach will consider the specificity of the market and its potential worldwide innovative contribution as well, for the benefit of the community, in a proactive business model.

b) iii. What goals does your proposed gTLD have in terms of user experience?

Compared to most existing TLDs, the .quebec TLD user experience will greatly enhance predictability and memorability of domain names. The community-based focus, the orderly development process and strong intellectual property support ensure that users will generally find the services they are looking for under the names they intuitively tend to use for them.

User experience is improved by the singular specificities of a cultural TLD, that will provide to the Québec community and to those willing to address online communications specifically targeted to this community the means to identify such communications under a TLD explicitly designed to this purpose.

Users will have greater comfort on the context of naming variants: in key portions of the .quebec name space, alternative names and variants (redirected to the canonical forms) will be systematically reserved and available for activation. Please refer to Q44 for and the IDN table attached there for more details Users in the Québec community will get increasingly used to the predictability of .quebec domain names. As a result, they also avoid stumbling upon typo-squatting, robotized pay-per-click traps or domain-for-sale pages.

It will certainly bring some fresh air in providing a new set of Internet addresses that will improve the Internet experience for internauts in Québec who will easily recognize an address .quebec. It will also allow search engines and any device with a specific capability to retrieve an address, a Web site, a geolocalized service (ex.: for tourism purposes), to result in a more understandable and comprehensive surfing experience for all users.

On a more global scope, predictable and memorable domain names will enhance the user experience in a way that no other existing TLD could provide to this community. Users will intuitively find the names they tend to use. They will have greater comfort on the context of naming variants. In the name space, alternative names and variants will systematically be activated or preserved (i.e. accented or not). Please see response to Q44 for more details.

b) iv .Provide a complete description of the applicant's intended registration policies in support of the goals listed above.

The registration policies are differentiated between Pre-launch phase, Launch phase and General Availability. PointQuébec will be offering a creative approach that should be more convenient to facilitate the registration during each phase.
Registrations under the .quebec TLD are restricted to bona-fide members of the Québec community, and subject to the further requirement that the registrant's actions in the .quebec community, as well as the registrant's use of the registered domain name, must be:

(i) generally accepted as legitimate; and

(ii) beneficial to the cause and the values of the Québec community; and

(iii) commensurate with the role and importance of the registered domain name; and

(iv) in good faith at the time of registration and thereafter.

The registration policies are differentiated between Pre-launch phase, Launch phase and General Availability.

1.Pre-launch phase

During Pre-launch, projects and content provision commitments are actively sought and negotiated, especially for key public-interest portions of the name space. All potential registrants and mandate holders are subject to screening and thorough pre-validation. For more details on the pioneer and the name space program, please see response to Q18 c) below

2.Launch phase

During the Launch phase, all registrations are thoroughly pre-validated; Launch phase pre-validation depends on priority status but will always involve community nexus. For further details about the community nexus, please see response to Q20 e) below. The Launch phase includes 3 categories for registrants with prior rights, and a fourth one, which is in fact, a Landrush, running in parallel in time, but being the lowest in priority. The categories are the following according to hierarchy:

- Entities with a specific role in the promotion of Québec's public interest, including Public Authorities
- Trademark and other distinctive signs rights holders.
- Entities with their legal seat in Québec. This category is restricted to legal entities, and does not allow "fantasy names".
- No prior rights. Eligible registrants not able to claim any of the priorities listed above will be able to apply during the whole duration of the Launch phase, as a preparation for an orderly and transparent Landrush.

3. Post-launch: General Availability

At General Availability, community nexus is subject to post-validation by way of an extensive compliance program based on the same criteria that form the basis of the TLD: language, cultural, tourism and business. The ongoing compliance program will regularly be adapted to current needs based on experience and audit findings. Community nexus validation combined with strong protection of trademarks helps stamp out cybersquatting and abusive registrations.

b) v.Will your proposed gTLD impose any measures for protecting the privacy or confidential information of registrants or users? If so, please describe any such measures.

PointQuébec recognizes first-hand that this is a relevant issue and an evolving area of law in which there is no international standard. The protection of privacy and confidential information of registrants and users will comply with applicable Law. Within the bounds of applicable regulations, the Registry will implement anti-data mining measures by way of rate limitation, authenticated access or white-listing/black-listing, as well as tools to prevent unauthorized recourse to repetitive automated access.

PointQuébec also intends to incorporate contractual language in its Registry Registrar Agreement (RRA) modeled after language which has been included in the template Registry Agreement and which has been successfully utilized by existing ICANN gTLD registry operators. Specifically, Registry Operator shall notify Registrar of the purposes for which Personal Data submitted to Registry Operation by Registrar is collected, the intended recipients (or categories of recipients) of such Personal Data, and the mechanism for access to and correction of such Personal Data. Registry Operator shall take reasonable steps to protect Personal Data from loss, misuse, unauthorized disclosure, alteration or destruction. Registry Operator shall not use or authorize the use of Personal Data in a way that is incompatible with the notice provided to registrars. Registry Operator 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.

Finally, PointQuébec will propose to ICANN, through the Registry Agreement negotiations, a Whois service that allows individual registrants to opt-out from publishing their personal contact data, as other existing gTLD Registries have done. If this option is not available during the contractual negotiations, PointQuébec would submit such proposal after delegation, through the New Registry Services procedure. CIRA will be considered as a model in that matter.


b.vi) Describe whether and in what ways outreach and communications will help to achieve your projected benefits.

Like any new product or service, the introductory phase is crucial. Users must realize that this new TLD will maximize their Internet experience as was the case for smartphone or tablet computer that stepped up their communications. These products have successfully been launched and have become indispensable mainly thanks to their marketing. Their first success was the guarantor of their long-term success.

Thus, for Quebecers, businesses and organizations to make it their own, .quebec will be explained and boosted. This need will require a support with some form of education and information. To achieve this, we must create a movement first using social media in order kinetics. This initial deployment will be completed by an aggressive type ʺDrive-to-webʺ to serve as channel for our content and to showcase our endorsers and supporters. The aim is to publicize PointQuébec and to generate the enthusiasm. In the second phase of deployment, to give more strength to the movement, the support, spread it and give it a showcase, we will complete an approach by advertising in the media and the Internet. The aim at this time to quickly reach a critical mass of purchasing names. Promotional material will also be produced to support the dissemination of PointQuébec with target audiences. This equipment will be used in promotion and in public presence at trade shows or fairs, business, conferences and other similar types of activities.

In preparing our budgets so we planned the marketing budget needed to support the marketing of new domain name and ensure its success.

This budget includes multiple components, including among others:

• operations of media relations,
• the preparation of media interviews,
• monitoring and media monitoring,
• the preparation and content of material for talks and lectures,
• teams continued to perform actions on the Internet and social networks,
• a dynamic website and maintenance teams,
• production (graphics, editing, printing) of promotional material,
• the purchase and printing of promotional materials,
• production booth and participation in trade fairs and exhibitions,
• teams of viral marketing and video shoot for Internet,
• teams to implement the event,
• buying space in traditional media, non-traditional media, on Internet sites and search engines (SEO).

The Pre-launch, Launch and General Availability phases of the .quebec TLD are designed to minimize social costs and negative externalities.

The community-based approach of .quebec (please see answers to Q20 below for more details), with its rules for Eligibility, Name Selection, Accepted Use and vigorous Enforcement practices (see answer to Q29 below for additional details) ensure that trademark owners and other right holders will not face the usual costs of monitoring, and defending against abuses. Nor would they feel impelled to defensively register their names, identities, products, services or brands in .quebec to prevent abuses.

The .quebec Registry will furthermore implement vigorous and comprehensive general malicious conduct (see answer to Q28 below for additional details) prevention and mitigation policies to minimize the number, importance and effects of abuses harming the general users.

The different registration phases protect potential registrants and potentially affected parties while maximizing the value of the name space to its registrants and users.

This approach is based on the premise that extensive screening efforts by the Registry in the early stages will create a fair and orderly name space with lower compliance costs in the long term.

In phases and areas where the first-come-first-served principle tends to yield perverse results, alternative modes are used. These include:

1) A pioneer name program and name space mandate program. These programs adjudicate domain names based on an open and transparent project selection process. This process is highly economical in terms of social costs and yields substantial external benefits.

The pioneer name and name space mandate programs are part of the .quebec outreach program. It begins before delegation of the TLD. In terms of workload, it mainly affects proposers who themselves are required to demonstrate support for their projects. Support will be required to come from the segment of the community concerned with the respective portion of the name space. Given the high value of the resulting on-line resources for the community and the public interest, and given the economic benefits that can be derived from their operation, the administrative effort is largely justified. To further protect affected parties, all adjudications in this phase have a safety-valve clause, allowing for later adjustments based on community input. The principle of the safety-valve is that affected parties can obtain adjustments to a component of a mandate if they propose (and commit to) an improved use of the underlying domain names from a public interest perspective.

2) Launch phase: there will be a long, single launch phase (simultaneous sunrise and landrush) based on domain applications. Domain applications are not domain registrations: multiple applications are accepted for any domain name. (By contrast, only a single registration can exist for a given domain.)

All applications are published on the Whois service. Applicants mark their prior rights, if any, in the application. There are four categories: entities
that do have a role in the promotion of Québec's public interest; trademarks; legal with their legal seat in Québec; and no prior rights.

For a given domain, the highest priority applications will be validated with respect to the claimed priority right. If there is more than one application for the
same domain in a given category (or subcategory), a contention resolution process begins. The contention resolution process allows agreement between contenders (withdrawal and refund of application) and auctions as a mechanism of last resort.

The agreement or auction are the most effective solution for the affected parties. These options are designed to promote quiet resolution at minimal effort, the lowest social costs, and the highest public benefits while protecting individual stakeholders from excessive burdens.

Answers to enumerated question points:

c) i. How will multiple applications for a particular domain name be resolved, for example, by auction or on a first-come/first- serve basis?

As described above, during pre-launch and launch phase, the first-come/first-served principle is NOT applied. Auctions are a component of an optimized contention resolution process.

c) ii. Explain any cost benefits for registrants you intend to implement (e.g., advantageous pricing, introductory discounts, bulk registration discounts).

The focus of the .quebec TLD is bottom-line cost to registrants and stakeholders, not the direct per-unit cost. The bottom-line cost is greatly reduced thanks to avoiding contention between legitimate community-based applicants and speculators.

c) iii. Note that the Registry Agreement requires that registrars be offered the option to obtain initial domain name registrations for periods of one to ten years at the discretion of the registrar, but no greater than ten years. Additionally, the Registry Agreement requires advance written notice of price increases. Do you intend to make contractual commitments to registrants regarding the magnitude of price escalation? If so, please describe your plans.

PointQuébec is committed to provide domain name registration services in accordance with the requirements, notices and periods set forth in the Registry Agreement. The .quebec TLD will be based on predictability regarding pricing. The .quebec Registry-Registrar Agreement will not contain specific or non-standard clauses regarding price escalation between the .quebec Registry and its registrars.

The .quebec TLD business plan is designed to avoid any future necessity to increase Registry price in real terms. The fundamental principle is prudence: starting from conservative price levels and gradually lowering them. This method ensures sufficient financial reserves, favors optimal allocation of domain names, helps prevent misuse and supports an orderly registration process.

The .quebec TLD is intended to serve the Québec community and its general welfare. The community is composed of individuals and organizations linked to the community on a linguistic, cultural, tourism, business basis, or any other activity conducive to the welfare of the Québec community. The Québec community will be served by PointQuébec, the organization created expressly for that purpose. Registrations under .quebec are restricted to bona-fide members of the Québec community, and subject to the further requirement that the registrant's actions in the .quebec community, as well as the registrant's use of the registered domain name, must be: (i) generally accepted as legitimate; and (ii) beneficial to the cause and the values of the Québec community; and (iii) commensurate with the role and importance of the registered domain name; and (iv) in good faith at the time of registration and thereafter. PointQuébec has a clear and strong endorsement from the most relevant Institutions related to the Québec community. This includes relevant business and professional associations, representing interests from every sector of the civil society, and all over the economic spectrum. The representativity of these institutions invests PointQuébec with a clear mandate to serve a community of approximately 10 million individuals. Answers to enumerated question points: a) i. How the community is delineated from Internet users generally. Such descriptions may include, but are not limited to, the following: membership, registration, or licensing processes, operation in a particular industry, use of a language. Concentrated in Québec, with a presence in all the other provinces in Canada and in other parts of the world, the 10 million community served by the .quebec TLD is firstly delineated by the language and, accordingly, by the need to gain a personalized address to rise the Internet experience in respect of ethnonyms, individual names or business names in order to address, a market representing around 23% of the population in Canada. .quebec is intended to match the needs of legal entities (NGOs, public or private) in operation in Québec or identified to Québec and to its culture. a) ii. How the community is structured and organized. For a community consisting of an alliance of groups, details about the constituent parts are required. PointQuébec represents a community established centuries ago, with a longstanding existence and consolidated cultural heritage, organized throughout the centuries in many different layers of political, administrative, commercial, cultural and social organizations , that exceed by far the scope of this question. The Québec community is defined by its language inherited from its French roots, its original culture tinged with French influences mainly, but also Irish and British. The community from the grassroots to itʹs actual conception is also defined by its specific political, legal and educational systems, by its attachment to democratic values, through an historic involvement in public life in Québec, in Canada and at international levels, through its leadership in promoting the French language in Québec, in Canada and worldwide, through its close ties with Francophone communities throughout the world. The community served by the TLD is mainly composed of residents and public or private bodies involved in the Québec community. The Québec government is legally and politically responsible for establishing policies regarding education, health, culture and linguistic policies. Accordingly, the Québec government is providing financial support to PointQuébec, following a unanimous vote by the National Assembly. a) iii. When the community was established, including the date(s) of formal organization, if any, as well as a description of community activities to date. The French community in Québec is more than 400 years old. It is strongly organized and supported by public bodies that oversee social, cultural, economic, sustainable development, environmental activities, etc. Thus, the activities undertaken by PointQuébec to serve the community, including the relationship with the community, must respect regulations and policies in force in Québec and in Canada. For instance, the Law on Access to Information and Protection of Personal Information is one of them. a) iv. The current estimated size of the community, both as to membership and geographic extent. The population served with the new gTLD is: - Direct: 8 million individuals, 265.000 enterprises, 50.000 NGOs and Non-Profit entities, and thousands of governmental bodies (federal, provincial, regional and municipal levels). - Indirect : 2 million individuals outside Québec (mainly in Canada but also in US and abroad) ,

b) i. Relations to any community organizations. As a member of the National Assembly of Québec stated in 2008: ʺin its own way, PointQuébec is an ambassador and an example of determination, initiative and leadership ... to improve the visibility of Québec, without using political interestsʺ. PointQuébec has received a substantial financial support from the Québec Government during the next coming years. It is also suported by: - ISOC Québec Chapter (Internet Society); - Connect Québec (Un Québec Branché sur le Monde); - Regroupement des Organismes nationaux de Loisir et de Sport du Québec (400 Corporate members within a 9000 network organizations); - iWeb Internet Provider (15 000 web customers on 35 000 web servers); - Canadian Internet Registry Authority (CIRA/ACEI); - Communautique ; - Fédération des chambres de commerce du Québec (150 Chambers of Commerce in Québec, represents 60 000 companies and 150 000 business people); - still more than 1972 supporters among 5890 unique visitors gave their support by writing positive comments signed by their email address and IP number the .quebec TLD on «PointQuébec.org» website - Québec National Assembly Motion - Minister of Economic development, Innovation, Exportation and Tourism As such, PointQuébec will manage the use of the name .quebec in the interest of all community as a whole, with a proactive and inclusive approach that will serve best the citizens, public and private bodies or any community organization that could benefit from the domain name space opened and fashioned by the TLD. In order to achieve this, PointQuébec will build a management inspired by best pratices established notably by CIRA and other registries, and develop the business rules to manage accordingly the specific needs for the public infrastructure serving the community. b) ii. Relations to the community and its constituent parts/groups. PointQuébec will collaborate with community organizations that specialize in the development of the digital economy, e-government and information society. It will respond to its legal and business duties and will build upon existing relationships to set up an effective and transparent governance process. b) iii. Accountability mechanisms of the applicant to the community. Accountability mechanisms will be put in force as defined by the Civil Code of Québec. In addition, PointQuébec will have specific policy-oversight and consultation mechanisms with the community. A "Code of conduct" intended for directors and managers» will provide a set of Rules of Ethics adopted by the Executive Council Office from the Québec Government. These provisions supplement the rules of ethics and professional conduct already provided for in the Civil Code of Québec. PointQuébec also intends to develop a rich and complete «Registry Governance Model» as part of its relationship with the community. The Governance Plan for the Management of the Registry will reflect the highest standards within the community.

PointQuébec is a not for profit organization created expressly with the purpose of helping Québec to create, develop and operate the first level extension .quebec and, when allowed by ICANN, the IDN gTLD .QUÉBEC. The goal is to serve the Québec community, to allow citizens and organizations to be known and recognized on the Internet, to carry on their activities in respect of their cultural and linguistic identity. c) i. Intended registrants in the TLD. Intended registrants in .quebec TLD will be mainly but not exclusively individual Internet users, corporations, local organizations, the provincial government and the municipalities, regional and local offices, NGOs, artists, professionals, or any group that wants to be known and recognized on the Internet in respect of their cultural and linguistic identity. c) ii. Intended end-users of the TLD. The intended end-users are as varied as the people with a certain interest in the Québec community. But for taxonomy purposes, the following targets can be identified: - the Internet users that belong to the community, individuals or professionals, as part of the general public; - the world-wide public interested in the French presence in Québec; - tourism, cultural or linguistic purposes (ex: education); - business purposes linked to the community; - private and public sector Internet users, who have in commun the use of French; - trademarks owners active in Québec. c) iii. Related activities the applicant has carried out or intends to carry out in service of this purpose. The activities undertaken by PointQuébec so far have all been dedicated to the development of .quebec TLD, its application, its name space, its policies, in order to serve the community-based TLD. These are some of the examples: - The Website of PointQuébec, - its sponsoring of ICANN (ex.: ICANN meeting no 38 Brussels, http://brussels38.icann.org/), - its involvement in the ICANN community, - the vigilance regarding eligibility concerns for TLDs, - to offer a trusted and secure name space aimed at the french speaking community c) iv. Explanation of how the purpose is of a lasting nature. The purpose of the .quebec TLD is indeed of a lasting nature. As mentionned in Question 20 a), the French community in Québec is more than 400 years old. It is strongly organized, and has had a centuries' longstanding existence and continued presence, and a firm and a vibrant cultural, social, and business life. Although 94th in the world in termsof population (direct potential users only), the community served by the TLD occupies the 44th place in terms of the size of its economy. • relationship to the established name, if any, of the community. • relationship to the identification of community members. • any connotations the string may have beyond the community.

d) i. Relationship to the established name, if any, of the community. The TLD string .quebec matches in French, English and all other internationally used languages, the name of the community, which is described above. The string without the accent will be enriched by the IDN TLD, .QUÉBEC, with its full French meaning, when allowed by ICANN. d) ii. Relationship to the identification of community members. "Québec" relates exclusively and uniquely to the community, because it is the name of the whole area of the province of Québec, and to how the people, culture and the local variance of the French language are universally referred. Any reference that can be made to the word "Québec" refers to this community. d) iii. Any connotations the string may have beyond the community. The word "Québec" is used in so many ways in concordance with the vitality characterizing its community. The word ʺQuébecʺ comes from an Algonquian word meaning ʺnarrow passageʺ (or ʺwhere the river narrowsʺ), in front of Québec City. An old legend says that Champlain, who founded Québec, would have exclaimed: ʺQue bec! ʺ(ʺQuel-bec-=What a beak!ʺ). Other than that, it has no other meaning in French or English, nor in any other language known to the applicant. It may have some meaning in languages unknown to the applicant, but completely irrelevant to the community or the purposes of the TLD.

e) i. Eligibility: who is eligible to register a second-level name in the gTLD, and how will eligibility be determined. The .quebec TLD is intended to serve the Québec community and its general welfare. The community is composed of individuals and organizations linked to the community on a linguistic, cultural, tourism, business basis.or any other activity conducive to the welfare of the Québec community, Elegibility requirement policies will be developed according to the definition of the Québec community, and a diversity of proceedings will be implemented to ensure accommodation of all its bona fide members Registrations under .quebec are restricted to bona-fide members of the Québec community, and subject to the further requirement that the registrant's actions in the .quebec community, as well as the registrant's use of the registered domain name, must be: (i) generally accepted as legitimate; and (ii) beneficial to the cause and the welfare of the Québec community; and (iii) commensurate with the role and importance of the registered domain name; and (iv) in good faith at the time of registration and thereafter. These conditions must always be fulfilled. The strength of the validation is kept in line with the importance of the underlying domain name base on the assumption that a typical user would reasonably make. To facilitate validation, registrants are required to state their intended use of the registered domain name. A false statement of intended use is an indication of bad faith and can be the basis for the suspension of the domain name. The validation may be assisted through pre-identification of potential registrants using existing community channels, through membership of qualified Organizations or the distribution of Promotion Codes to members. After the launch phase, the validation mode goes from pre-validation to post-validation with statistically targeted random validation, backed up by a ongoing enforcement program. The validation and enforcement programs are supported by an integrated issue tracking system. This system allows validating agents and personnel to cooperate and interact with the registrant. The system keeps track of decisions made by the agents and stores supplemental documentary evidence that may be supplied by the registrants e) ii. Name selection: what types of second-level names may be registered in the gTLD. The fundamental rule on which name selection is based is part of the policy principles: the domain names may be registered considering the registrant‘s relationship to the Québec community, and the use of the domain name must be commensurate to the role and importance of the domain name. The role and importance of the domain name registrations is based on the meaning an average user would reasonably make of a domain name in the context of the Québec community e) iii. Content/Use: what restrictions, if any, the registry operator will impose on how a registrant may use its registered name. PointQuébec, as the Registry Operator, will adopt policies to ensure that the use of the domain names is: (i) generally accepted as legitimate; and (ii) conducive to the welfare of the Québec community; and (iii) in good faith at the time of registration and thereafter. This will be verified according to: 1) the intended use statement supplied by the domain registrant at the time of registration and/or the explicit agreement to the terms and conditions including the .quebec TLD use policies. 2) an ongoing enforcement program. e) iv. Enforcement: what investigation practices and mechanisms exist to enforce the policies above, what resources are allocated for enforcement, and what appeal mechanisms are available to registrants. The purpose of the enforcement program is to protect the credibility of the .quebec TLD for its local in international public. In particular, upholds the community-based purpose of the .quebec TLD and helps prevent misuse or malicious behaviour. The enforcement program is based on statistically targeted random investigations and on a complaint follow-up process. The statistical targeting is strongly automated and involves the use of search engines and the analysis of registry data related to behaviour of registrants. Depending on the type of misuse to be investigated, web site content or content sent to victims of abuse will reviewed and analyzed by investigators. Enhanced investigation takes place if the registrant has a bad track record in terms of compliance with the rules of the .quebec TLD. Other violations of public record (such as UDRP or URS cases) will also be taken into account. If content or use of an existing .quebec domain demonstrate that the registrant has shown bad faith by stating a false intended use, the domain name is suspended. If a registrar is complicit with systematic violations of the .quebec policies or causes an unacceptable burden for the validation and enforcement program by negligence, the registry can restrict that registrar's access to the new registrations, subject its inventory of .quebec domains to enhanced investigation and require it conduct its own post-validation program. An appeals process is available for all administrative measures taken in the framework of the enforcement program. The first instance of the appeals process is managed by the registry service provider. PointQuébec will engage the relevant ADR providers of its area to establish a second instance appeal process.

Q22 - Protection of Geographic Names

1. Reserved List of Geographic Names
In accordance with Specification 5 of the proposed TLD Registry Agreement published as Attachment to Module 5 of the Applicant Guidebook by ICANN, and with Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC) advice on geographic names at the second level, the .quebec Registry will put the following names on the reserved list, therefore making them unavailable for registration or any other use:

* 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, which is exceptionally reserved on the ISO 3166-1 list, and its scope extended in August 1999 to any application needing to represent the name European Union;
* 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
* the list of United Nations member states in 6 official United Nations languages prepared by the Working Group on Country Names of the United Nations Conference on the Standardization of Geographical Names.


Technically, this is achieved by utilising the advanced domain name rule engine that is part of the CORE Registration System and described in detail in the answer to Question 28. As laid out there, the underlying set of checks can be tuned to block registrations of .quebec names based on various syntactic rules, multiple reserved names lists, and patterns. Prior to the launch of the .quebec TLD, the rule engine will be configured in accordance with the reserved list mandated by Specification 5, which means that the listed names are not available for registration by registrars.


2. Exceptions
However, the .quebec Registry recognizes that there may be cases where a request to register and use a geographic name at the second level should be considered legitimate, valid and useful.


Examples of such cases are:
* the local consulate wishing to use that name for itself, with the agreement of its Government;
* the countryʹs or territoryʹs relevant authorities wishing to use it, e.g. for touristic or cultural promotion purposes;
* other legitimate purposes.

For registration requests from the relevant public authority, the.quebec Registry will put in place the procedure agreed between the GAC and Afilias for the .info gTLD, as referenced in the letter written by Mohamed Sharil Tarmizi, GAC Chair, on Sept 9, 2003; see
https://gacweb.icann.org/download/attachments/1540128/dotinfocircular1.pdf.

The current procedure is:
Technically, the registrar needs to use the authorisation code supplied by the registrant as the domain authinfo in the EPP <domain:create> request, which will let the request bypass the rule engineʹs blocking mechanism and permit the registration.


4. Additional monitoring
The .quebec Registry does not plan to monitor use of geographic names below the second level (i.e. subdomains used by a .quebec TLD domain name registrant), as those procedures are both difficult and ineffective. Available dispute resolution mechanisms are a more adequate resolution procedure in cases where third or higher level domains unduly use country or territory names.