Tag Archives: Cyrillic

ICANN and Governance

ICANN: Proposal for Cyrillic Script Root Zone‬ Label Generation Rules

Brief Overview

ICANN logoPurpose: The Cyrillic script community has formed the Cyrillic script Generation Panel (GP), which in turn has developed a Proposal for the Cyrillic Script Root Zone Label Generation Rules (Proposal [XML, 19 KB] and Proposal Documentation [PDF, 1.23 MB]).

As per the LGR Procedure [PDF, 772 KB], this proposal is being posted for public comments to allow those who have not participated in the Cyrillic script GP to make their views known to the GP. Based on the feedback, the Cyrillic script GP will finalize the proposal for submission for integration into the Label Generation Rules for the Root Zone (RZ-LGR).

Current Status: Currently there are multiple script communities which have formed generation panels and are actively working towards developing the Label Generation Rules for the Root Zone, including Chinese, Cyrillic, Greek, Japanese, Korean, Latin and Neo-Brahmi (Bengali, Devanagari, Gujarati, Gurmukhi, Kannada, Malayalam, Oriya, Tamil and Telugu). In addition, Arabic, Armenian, Ethiopic, Georgian, Khmer, Lao and Thai script GPs have already completed and submitted their LGR proposals. Except for Armenian, which has been deferred, the remaining six scripts have been integrated into the RZ-LGR. Cyrillic script GP is the eighth to finalize the work.

Next Steps: Following the public comments, and submission of the proposal with any changes to reflect the public comments, the Integration Panel (IP) will evaluate the final proposal by the Cyrillic script GP. If evaluation by the IP is successful, the Proposal for the Cyrillic Script Root Zone Label Generation Rules will be integrated into a subsequent version of the RZ-LGR. Otherwise, the proposal will be sent to the Cyrillic script GP with comments for further consideration and revision

Section I: Description and Explanation

Following the Call for Generation Panels to Develop Root Zone Label Generation Rules, the Cyrillic script community organized to form the Cyrillic script Generation Panel (GP), which was seated by ICANN on 10 December 2015. The Cyrillic script GP has developed the Proposal for the Cyrillic Script Root Zone Label Generation Rules [XML, 19 KB] together with supporting documentation [PDF, 1.23 MB], following the format prescribed in the LGR specification.

According to the LGR Procedure [PDF, 772 KB], the starting point for the work of the Cyrillic script GP is the latest version of the Maximal Starting Repertoire (MSR-2). The work has been carried out following the specification of Generation Panel’s tasks, as described in the LGR Procedure [PDF, 772 KB] in particular, Section B.3 “Variant Rule Generation Procedure”. These tasks are summarized in the guide on Setting up and Running a Generation Panel.

As per the LGR Procedure [PDF, 772 KB], the generation panel’s proposals are posted for public comment using the ICANN public comment procedures. This permits those who have not participated in the generation panel to make their views known to the integration panel. A well-functioning public comment procedure is a critical component of this procedure, because there is no formal appeal mechanism for the LGR being developed.

The LGR Procedure [PDF, 772 KB] consists of two passes. The first pass creates a set of LGRs, each specific for a given script or writing system; this task is carried out by Generation Panels composed of people with deep experience or interest in the script, writing system or language used by some community of Internet users. These panels submit their LGR proposals to ICANN for review by an Integration Panel. The Integration Panel consists of independent experts in DNS, Unicode and scripts, and has responsibility for the second pass. This second pass involves integrating the proposals into a unified set of LGRs for the root zone, taking into account the need for a secure, stable and reliable DNS root zone.

Section II: Background

Label Generation Rules (LGR) for the Root Zone are being developed to define a conservative mechanism to determine valid Internationalized Domain Name (IDN) Top Level Domains (TLDs) and their variants, for stable and secure operation of the Internet’s Root Zone.

Successful development of Label Generation Rules depends on having community based Generation Panels for each script that will be used in the Root Zone. Generation Panel members are representatives of the each of the communities that use a particular script or writing system – their role is to identify the valid characters, variants and Whole Label Evaluation (WLE) rules for the given script or writing system. Each Generation Panel starts by considering the code points for the relevant script that are present in the Maximal Starting Repertoire and, based on them, develop a Label Generation Rule proposal to be used to generate TLDs for that script. In doing so, they may need to coordinate efforts with other GPs, whenever their respective scripts are closely related. These proposals are then reviewed by the community through public comment and by an expert Integration Panel for approval and integration into the LGR for the Root Zone. The details are defined in Procedure to Develop and Maintain the Label Generation Rules for the Root Zone in Respect of IDNA Labels [PDF, 1.39 MB].

Section III: Relevant Resources

This ICANN announcement was sourced from:
https://www.icann.org/public-comments/cyrillic-lgr-2017-10-17-en

Domain Name Registrants, Domain Name Registrars, Domain Name Registry

.RU/.РФ Domains Registry Fee Increasing By 71% In July

RU Coordination Center logoThe registry fee for .RU and .РФ domain names is increasing to 120 rubles from the current 70 rubles, an increase of 71%, the registry, the Coordination Center for TLD RU, announced, the first increase in 10 years.

The increase applies to registration and renewals from 1 July and was approved at a meeting of the Council of the Coordination Center for TLD .ru/.рф on 27 February. This increase, the CCTLDRU says, comes as no surprise to most people who are involved in this market: there has been talk about the need to raise prices since 2012. The cost of domain name registration and renewal in the .RU domain has not changed since 2007. The cost of the domain name registration and renewal in .РФ in 2011 equalled the cost in the .RU.

There are currently 5.523 million .ru domains and 901,000 .рф domains under management.

A survey by the CCTLDRU found that there would not be any serious decrease in the number of registered domain names. The price increase will mostly affect small low-margin registrars that provide services to domain investors.

Council members from the registrar community said that the price increase would improve the working conditions of the registrars and contribute to holding major marketing programs to promote the Russian national domains .RU and .РФ, as well as modernizing the infrastructure and developing the registration system.

Andrei Vorobyov spoke about the control of prices set by registrars: “Together with the Regional Public Center for Internet Technologies, we are launching a public control mechanism to monitor prices for domain names. It is very important to prevent our registrars, who have doubled retail prices in the past few years, from passing this negligible (as compared to the final price) increase to their clients.”

The council also approved the Regulation on the Stabilization Fund of the Coordination Center for TLD .RU/.РФ and decided to allocate part of the undistributed profits of the past years to its creation. The fund will create financial reserves for emergency situations that can affect the stable and safe operation of the Russian domain space. The council also discussed and approved decisions on other issues.

Domain Name Registrants, Domain Name Registrars, Domain Name Registry

EURid Launches .ею Today

EURid logoThe .ею TLD will launch on 1 June at 10:00 CEST! The new TLD will allow internet users whose first language is a Cyrillic language to be better able to read and type internet addresses, and, as EURid note, is a huge milestone for both themselves and multilingualism.

Registrants should note that all terms and conditions that apply to .eu apply to .ею except for all domain names registered under the new TLD must be entirely in a Cyrillic script.

For more information about .ею, please click here.

Domain Name Registrants, Domain Name Registrars, Domain Name Registry

ccTLD Updates: .FI Domains For All and Registry To Stop Selling Domains, .EU in Cyrillic and .ES Requires Updated Data

Dot FI logoThe Finnish ccTLD registry is to stop selling domain names as part of a number of changes being introduced from 5 September. From this date, registrants will be required to register their domains with their own registrar while FICORA, the .fi registry, will act as the registry and policy and regulatory body.

Additionally, the local presence requirement for applicants is abandoned. This means that foreign companies, organisations and private persons become eligible to register .fi domain names regardless of their place of residence. The age limit of 15 for domain name holders is also abandoned. Furthermore, domain names that consist of a combination of a person’s first and last names may be freely registered. .FI domains may also be registered with the purpose of redelivery which is currently still illegal.

EURid, the .eu registry, has announced that preparations for the launch of .eu in Cyrillic are nearing completion. The official launch date for .eu in Cyrillic is 1 June. EURid will fully enforce the basic rule that the second level script must match the top-level script. This means that the current domain names registered in Cyrillic under .eu (Latin string) will undergo a “script adjustment” phase.

All policies, procedures and features currently available for .eu (Latin string) such as transfers, bulk transfers, multiyear, DNSSEC, registry lock, Customised Reduction Schemes, Co-funded Marketing Programme, etc., will also apply to .ею (Cyrillic string).

The current .eu Registration Policy, Terms & Conditions and WHOIS policy will apply to domain names registered under .ею (Cyrillic string).

A complete list of important administrative, legal and technical guidelines regarding the implementation of .eu in Cyrillic is available here.

Red.es is advising that registrants of .es domain names need to update the data associated with their .es domains.

Red.es or the accredited registrar s currently contacting registrants to ensure that the date is correct, truthful and updated, which it is required to be at all times. Any registrant that doesn’t comply with the terms and conditions may find their domain is cancelled.

Another change for .es domains is that as of 28 May, the current SSL certificate will be replaced with a new one, with a key length of 2048 bits and SHA-256 algorithm. With this update, Red.es will improve its portal protection and increase the security of established connections with the website.

ICANN and Governance

ICANN: Cyrillic Script Community Forms Generation Panel for Developing the Root Zone Label Generation Rules

ICANN logoICANN is pleased to announce the formation of the Generation Panel to develop Root Zone Label Generation Rules (LGR) for the Cyrillic script.

Following the Call for Generation Panels to Develop Root Zone Label Generation Rules, on 2 December 2015 the Cyrillic script community submitted to ICANN the Proposal for the Generation Panel for the Cyrillic Script Label Generation Ruleset for the Root Zone [PDF, 563 KB]. ICANN staff has reviewed the proposal including panel composition and scope, to ensure that requirements set forth in the LGR Procedure [PDF, 772 KB], and in particular the criteria set forth in the Call for Generation Panels to Develop Root Zone Label Generation Rules, are fulfilled.

“On behalf of ICANN we are grateful to the Cyrillic script community for volunteering to develop the Cyrillic script LGR proposal for the Root Zone,” said Sarmad Hussain from the IDN Program at ICANN.

With composition and work plan approved, the Cyrillic script Generation Panel will start its work on the label generation rules. According to the LGR Procedure [PDF, 772 KB], the starting point of any Generation Panel’s work is the Maximal Starting Repertoire (MSR), with its second version (MSR-2) released on 27 April 2015. The full specification of Generation Panel’s tasks can be found in the LGR Procedure [PDF, 772 KB] in particular, Section B.3 “Variant Rule Generation Procedure”.

ICANN has provided a central public workspace on the project website where the Cyrillic script Generation Panel composition, work plan updates, public reports, contact details, and any other relevant information will be included.

As a reminder, and to highlight the importance of script community involvement required in the development of the IDN Root Zone LGR, we would like to reiterate the Call for Generation Panels to Develop Root Zone Label Generation Rules. A successful development of the Root Zone LGR depends on having Generation Panels for each script represented in the Root Zone. In addition to ongoing efforts by the communities for Chinese, Cyrillic, Ethiopic, Greek, Japanese, Khmer, Korean, Lao, Latin, Neo-Brahmi and Thai, Generation Panel formation is expected to cover other scripts including Georgian, Hebrew, Myanmar, Sinhala and Tibetan.

For further information on how to form a Generation Panel, please refer to the Call for Generation Panels to Develop Root Zone Label Generation Rules and to the additional supporting documentation provided on the Root Zone LGR Project website. Individual interests may be emailed to idntlds@icann.org.

About ICANN

ICANN‘s mission is to ensure a stable, secure and unified global Internet. To reach another person on the Internet you have to type an address into your computer – a name or a number. That address has to be unique so computers know where to find each other. ICANN coordinates these unique identifiers across the world. Without that coordination we wouldn’t have one global Internet. ICANN was formed in 1998. It is a not-for-profit public-benefit corporation with participants from all over the world dedicated to keeping the Internet secure, stable and interoperable. It promotes competition and develops policy on the Internet’s unique identifiers. ICANN doesn’t control content on the Internet. It cannot stop spam and it doesn’t deal with access to the Internet. But through its coordination role of the Internet’s naming system, it does have an important impact on the expansion and evolution of the Internet. For more information please visit: www.icann.org

This ICANN announcement was sourced from:
https://www.icann.org/news/announcement-3-2015-12-10-en

Domain Name Registrants, Domain Name Registrars, Domain Name Registry, New gTLDs

.ҚАЗ Open Registration Commences 15 August

Kazakhstan Network Information CenterThe priority registration period has now closed for the new .ҚАЗ TLD, the Cyrillic internationalised domain for Kazakhstan, and open registration commences on 15 August the Kazakhstan Network Information Center has announced.

As of 15 August eligible registrants will be able to register domain names containing Kazakh alphabet characters.

The first domain name, registered for testing purposes in March 2012, was тест.қаз.

For more information, see the Order of introduction of «.ҚАЗ» domain name and Regulations of the priority domain name registration in .ҚАЗ domain.

New gTLDs

PIR Aims To Broaden International Reach With Creation of Cyrillic, Chinese and Devanagari TLDs

Public Interest Registry .ORG logo[news release] Public Interest Registry (PIR) – the not-for-profit operator of the .ORG domain – today applied for the creation and management of four internationalized domain names (IDNs) recognized as .ORG in non-Latin-based scripts. As part of its application to the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), PIR submitted for the generic top-level domains (gTLDs) that translate “organization,” “org” or “structured organization” into Devanagari, Cyrillic and Chinese-simplified scripts. The four applications- one in Devenagari, one in Cyrillic, and two in simplified Chinese- were filed as part of ICANN’s global Internet expansion initiative which will go into effect as early as 2013.

“With each IDN launch, the Internet takes a big step toward becoming a truly global entity,” said Brian Cute, CEO of Public Interest Registry. “These specific IDNs help ensure the Internet’s accessibility and availability to millions of individuals worldwide – especially those who do not speak Latin-based languages like English, French, German and Spanish, and who were previously offline or only use the Internet in a limited way.”

PIR took the first step in supporting non-English languages in 2005 through the introduction of IDNs at the second level – IDNs where the name (left of the dot) is in a non-English language and the gTLD (right of the dot) remains in English. While these second-level IDNs proved useful in countries such as Sweden, Denmark, Hungary, Iceland, Poland and Korea (among others), they do not directly address communities who use languages such as Arabic or Chinese that are either character-driven or read right to left. These four new IDNs will provide a holistic, in-language domain name for native speakers of Devanagari, Cyrillic and Chinese, resulting in a consistent end-user experience and overall adoption of IDNs.

“Conservative estimates show that at least 20 percent of the world’s population speaks in a language derived from these scripts,” added Mr. Cute. “The Chinese IDN, for example, will make the Internet more user-friendly by enabling relevant Internet users to write a domain name or URL exactly the way it is supposed to be written in its native language – without substitution or translation.”

In addition to applying for the four IDNs, PIR also submitted an application for the creation and management of the .NGO and .ONG domain names. Since its inception in 2002, PIR has served the interests of not-for-profit and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) online. The registry plans to expand its position as an advocate for these communities by providing an exclusive domain extension for NGOs looking for immediate recognition online and broader opportunities for public engagement, funding and partnerships.

ICANN plans to announce all TLD applicants in June and will review all applications during a “batching process” in the months ahead. For more information on PIR, please visit www.pir.org.

This PIR news release was sourced from:
pir.org/pr/2012/idnsfiled

Domain Name Registrants, Domain Name Registrars, Domain Name Registry

.РФ TLD Two Years Old!

RU Coordination Center logo[news release] Today on May 12, 2012 Russian Cyrillic ccTLD .РФ celebrates its second birthday. Two years ago domain .РФ became one of the first IDN-domains in the world on May 12, 2010 registers of root server of global domain addresses received an entry about Cyrillic domain .РФ and on November 11, 2010 domain started an open registration of domain names.

Within two years of its work domain .РФ became an unconditional leader among global IDN-domains and also took the 16th place among European ccTLDs. Currently it contains 797,325 of registered domain names.

The increase of delegated domain names in domain .РФ for the last year accounted for 14 %, the number of delegated domain names is 573, 948 or 72% of the total. 289, 056 (36%) domain names in domain .РФ place working websites (a year ago there were 20%). 88,038 (11%) of domain names are used for re-direct.

76% of domain names have been registered by individuals, 24% – by legal entities. The most widespread length of a domain name in domain .РФ – 9 symbols(as in domain .RU). Notably, on average a domain name in .РФ is longer than that in .RU (the average length: 11.1 symbols vs.9.4).

95.7% domain names in .РФ have been registered by Russians. Leaders by the number of registered names in .РФ are Moscow (259,116 names or 32,5%), Moscow region (70,172 names or 8,8%) and St. Petersburg (64,914 names or 8,1%).

“Domain .РФ reached a stable level of its growth. By the end of 2012 we expect that the number of domain names in domain .РФ will reach 1,000,000-says Director of the Coordination Center for TLD RU/РФ Andrey Kolesnikov. –“What is more important is not the growth itself but that the domain names in Russian are increasingly used by Russian companies, private users for placing their web-sites on them. Domain in the national language influenced the growth of the Internet in Russia. We thank all who support and develop national Cyrillic domain.

This Coordination Center for TLD RU news release was sourced from:
cctld.ru/en/news/news_detail.php?ID=3760.

Europe Registry logoTo register your .РФ domain name, check out Europe Registry here.

ICANN and Governance, New gTLDs

ICANN Boss Advises Bulgarians Time To Choose Another Cyrillic IDN

In an interview with the Bulgarian Novinite.com upon his visit to the capital, Sofia, Rod Beckstrom has advised Bulgarians that are continuing to argue for the .бг Cyrillic internationalised domain name they should think about choosing another Cyrillic domain.The visit to Bulgaria was intended to promote the new generic Top Level Domain (gTLD) programme to the Bulgarian internet community, government leadership, civil society, and companies in a short and busy 24 hours.Responding to a question as to whether Bulgaria should continue to push for .бг, ICANN’s CEO and president said he “would advise the Bulgarians to go for something else.” He went on to say “the job of ICANN … is to implement the policies that are developed by the global communities. Those communities did not allow the initial application to go through because of potential visual confusion. So I think the Bulgarians can go back and they can choose what they want to apply for.”The Bulgarians can apply for a three-character name, they can apply for .българия in Cyrillic, it’s really up to the local community.”It’s great to see how much the local community cares; the Bulgarian government has been involved in our policy-making and what we call the Government Advisory Committee but we are hoping that even more people from Bulgaria – users and companies – will get involved in ICANN to help shape the policies in the future that they want to see.”Beckstrom outlined three options for Bulgaria in its desire for a Cyrillic IDN, these being “to wait for the policies to change and to participate in changing policies, and to apply again, … to come up with another string … whether it’s three characters, or .българия in full or something … to abandon the concept and move on to other ideas – some new gTLD, for example.”The full interview with Rod Beckstrom is available at www.novinite.com/view_news.php?id=134438.

Domain Name Registrants, Domain Name Registrars, Domain Name Registry

Russian .РФ Rockets Past 800,000

RU Coordination Center logoThe .РФ internationalised top level domain, the Russian Cyrillic IDN, rocketed past 800,000 active registrations on 4 April 2011, less than five months after it became available for general registration.

At the time registration became open to all, there were 18,391 domains registered, and then in its first month, starting 11 November 2010, there were another 596,294 domain names registered. Since then monthly registration figures have dropped dramatically with 85,742 domains registered in month two, then 35,872, 31,824 and 28,686 registrations in subsequent months.

The .РФ IDN appears to have been easily the most successful IDN launch since ICANN began approving the IDN ccTLDs. It has also become the 15th largest European TLD, recently passing the Czech ccTLD .CZ.

What makes .РФ even more impressive is that it is only available for Russian individuals and businesses for the first 12 months.

It has also been much more successful than the widely publicised .CO that hit 500,000 active registrations in September 2010, the last time the registry made statistics publicly available.

The .РФ registry also announced the share of already delegated domains, the domains in operation, hit almost 57 per cent, or 453, 395, domains. Thus, each day the number of Russian companies, which use IDN TLD .РФ for their websites, has been growing.

Europe Registry logoTo register your .РФ domain name, check out Europe Registry here.