.biz .info? What's the deal?

[Jonathan Chance]

So I'm totally confused about the new Top Level Domains.

Some places will take your registration now and alert you if you're lucky enough to get it. Some won't.

Does anyone know when the new TLDs will actually be available and where they can be safely registered?

[Cap'n Crude]

No. No. NO!

Be very careful here, dude. One of the most popular scams going around to day is pre-registration of new top-level domains. the magazine I worked for (before it folded) did a news story on this subject. If you receive email on this subject, forward it to the sender's ISP as a complaint. It's fraud.

[Crusoe]

ICANN, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, approved .biz solely for business use and .info for unrestricted use on 11 May 2001. Accreditation agreements with top-level registries NeuLevel (for .biz names) and Afilias (for .info names) were signed and the news released in a press statement on 15 May 2001.

The launch of the new names will proceed as follows:

.biz

1. Intellectual Property Claim Service. Beginning in late May through the beginning of July, .biz will offer a fee-based service for businesses to submit trademark claims before the application process is opened. Under this service, domain-name applicants will be notified of a trademark owner's claim when they submit an application for a claimed name and, if they decide to go ahead with the registration, the business submitting the claim will be notified of the registration and will be given a window of opportunity to challenge the registration using an administrative dispute resolution procedure.

2. Domain Name Application and Selection. Beginning in July through late September, .biz will open the application process for businesses. Businesses will submit their applications through registrars; these applications will be randomly selected in batches and awarded. Businesses can submit an unlimited number of applications but there will be a $2.00 fee for each application for a .biz name.

3. .biz Begins Operations. In October, .biz names that have been awarded will become operational. .biz will use a Restriction Dispute Resolution Process (RDRP) similar to the ICANN UDRP process to resolve challenges related to the business-only restricted nature of the registry.

.info

1. Sunrise Period. Beginning in late June and ending in late July, Afilias will offer a 30 day "sunrise" period during which anyone with a registered national trademark can apply through a registrar for a .info domain name corresponding to the trademark. Trademark data will be provided at the time of application and the term of the domain name registration will be for at least 5 years. To assure fair and equal access during the sunrise period, registrars will first collect applications and deliver them to Afilias. Afilias will then implement a multi-round batch processing system in which it will randomly select applications from each registrar's batch. The World Intellectual Property Association (WIPO) will administer a challenge procedure through which any third party may challenge these sunrise period registrations to ensure that they comply with the applicable requirements. This challenge process will be available for approximately 120 days after Afilias begins accepting applications for .info domain names from the general public, ending in November.

2. Domain Name Application and Registration. Within 15 days after the conclusion of the sunrise period, Afilias will begin accepting applications for .info domain names from the general public. To ensure that ordinary Internet users have an equal chance to register names during the initial launch phase, .info names will be registered using a multi-round batch process similar to the one used for sunrise period applications. Using this process, Afilias will randomly select applications from batches submitted by each registrar. This process is an alternative to a pure first-come-first-served system which could operate to the unfair advantage of those with mechanized registration scripts. This batch process will last approximately three weeks, after which Afilias will process applications on a real-time basis.

3. .info Begins Operations. Names awarded during the sunrise period will become operational one week after the beginning of the general application and registration process. The remainder of the awarded .info names will become operational promptly after Afilias processes them.

You cannot pre-register, according to ICANN, and the pricing and availability structure will reflect the current domain name registration process.

[dantheman]

According to a CNet news article dated March 13, 2001, ICANN adopted the new domain names in November 2000 and that the consortium that will be in charge of .info, Afilias, "It will begin a registration period to trademark holders as early as the second quarter of 2001; open registration for the public is expected to commence approximately 45 days later."

CNet could be wrong, of course. Anyone else have info? Or did I misread the article...