<html><head><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body dir="auto"><div>Dear BC members,</div><div><br></div><div>Please find below an ICANN announcement regarding the prohibition of new gTLD Dotless Domains.</div><div><br></div><div>Kind regards,</div><div><br></div><div>Benedetta Rossi</div><div>BC Secretariat<br></div><blockquote type="cite"><div class="WordSection1"><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif""><a href="http://www.icann.org/en/news/announcements/announcement-30aug13-en.htm">http://www.icann.org/en/news/announcements/announcement-30aug13-en.htm</a><o:p></o:p></span></p><h1><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">New gTLD Dotless Domain Names Prohibited<o:p></o:p></span></h1><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="date-display-single"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">30 August 2013</span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif""><o:p></o:p></span></p><p><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">At its meeting on 13 August 2013, the ICANN Board New gTLD Program Committee (NGPC) adopted a </span><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif""><a href="http://www.icann.org/en/groups/board/documents/resolutions-new-gtld-13aug13-en.htm#1"><span lang="EN-US">resolution</span></a></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif""> affirming that "dotless domain names" are prohibited. Dotless domain names are those that consist of a single label (e.g., <a href="http://example">http://<b>example</b></a>, or mail@<em><b><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">example)</span></b></em>. Dotless names would require the inclusion of, for example, an A, AAAA, or MX, record in the apex of a TLD zone in the DNS (i.e., the record relates to the TLD-string itself).<o:p></o:p></span></p><p><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">In addition to public comments on dotless domain names, the NGPC considered the security and stability risks associated with dotless domain names highlighted in the following papers:<o:p></o:p></span></p><ul type="disc"><li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo3"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">On 23 February 2012, the ICANN Security and Stability Advisory Committee (SSAC) published </span><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif""><a href="http://www.icann.org/en/groups/ssac/documents/sac-053-en.pdf"><span lang="EN-US">SAC 053: SSAC Report on Dotless Domains</span></a></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif""> [PDF, 183 KB]. In this report, the SSAC stated that dotless domains would not be universally reachable and recommended strongly against their use. As a result, the SSAC recommended that the use of DNS resource records such as A, AAAA, and MX in the apex of a Top-Level Domain (TLD) should be contractually prohibited where appropriate, and strongly discouraged in all cases.<o:p></o:p></span></li><li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo3"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">On 10 July 2013 the Internet Architecture Board (IAB) released a </span><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif""><a href="http://www.iab.org/documents/correspondence-reports-documents/2013-2/iab-statement-dotless-domains-considered-harmful/"><span lang="EN-US">statement on dotless domain names</span></a></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">, recommending against the use of dotless domain names for TLDs.<o:p></o:p></span></li><li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo3"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">On 29 July 2013 Carve Systems delivered a report on dotless domain names, which was commissioned by ICANN. Consistent with the SSAC report, </span><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif""><a href="http://www.icann.org/en/groups/ssac/documents/dotless-domain-study-29jul13-en.pdf"><span lang="EN-US">Carve's report on dotless domain names</span></a></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif""> [PDF, 1.02 MB] identifies security and stability issues.<o:p></o:p></span></li></ul><p><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">When adopting its resolution, the NGPC considered the security and stability risks identified in these papers, as well as the impracticality of mitigating these risks. Based on the NGPC resolution, ICANN does not plan to pursue any additional studies on the subject.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif""><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";mso-fareast-language:FR-BE">Glen de Saint Géry<br>GNSO Secretariat<br><b><a href="mailto:gnso.secretariat@gnso.icann.org">gnso.secretariat@gnso.icann.org</a></b><br><b><a href="http://gnso.icann.org/">http://gnso.icann.org</a></b><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p></div></blockquote></body></html>