Tag Archives: Sint Maarten

Domain Name Registrants, Domain Name Registrars, Domain Name Registry

CIRA Adds .SX To The TLDs It Provides Registry Services For

Canadian Internet Registration Authority CIRA logoCanada’s ccTLD registry, the Canadian Internet Registration Authority (CIRA), has now added .sx (Sint Maarten) to its Fury Registry Platform. CIRA has been on a bit of a “acquisition” role recently with this week’s adding to a number of similar recent announcements.

Wednesday’s announcement says SX Registry SA, who operates the .SX country code top level domain on behalf of the Sint Maarten government, is now running on CIRA’s Fury Registry Platform.

“While we chose the Fury platform due to its advanced features and stability, what truly amazed me was how seamless the migration was,” said Normand Fortier, CEO, SX Registry SA. “As a business person and especially as a registry, I cannot afford downtime, and the CIRA transition team exceeded my most optimistic expectations.”

CIRA describes their Fury Registry Platform as a next-generation TLD management platform with features and functionality designed for the modern TLD business. Fury features a modern interface with role-based access to key registry functions that provide flexibility in pricing, promotion, and domain management to help operators run their business and grow their registry.

Another of the benefits that CIRA touts is Fury’s tags feature—an industry first—enables operators to apply advanced business rules to individual domains or domain groupings to make adjustments to pricing and promotions in real-time.

The migration to Fury took less than 30 days, and was executed seamlessly by the CIRA transition team. Another to have migrated to Fury was .KIWI who adopted the platform last year.

“We developed the Fury Registry Services Platform with the flexibility and agility to manage any modern TLD business,” said Dave Chiswell, Vice President of Product Development, CIRA. “The TLD market is rapidly evolving, and accompanied by the support of CIRA, the FURY platform provides operators with a set of next-generation tools to compete and win.”

The consolidation of registry services is a bit of a global trend as registry operators look for partners to provide services rather than provide bespoke services every time. CIRA has been aggressive in seeking partners and in late October announced Uniregistry and SIDN had signed on to receive CIRA’s D-Zone DNS services for their TLDs. These announcements have followed announcements in February of 2 other joint ventures with the New Zealand and Portuguese ccTLD registries, InternetNZ and Associação DNS.PT, to deliver Anycast DNS services.

Domain Pulse has previously reported of SIDN who manages the .nl (Netherlands) ccTLD with more than 5.7 million domains under management, has itself been branching into other services. Speaking at the Domain Pulse conference in Vienna in February SIDN’s Michiel Henneke said the registry has been experimenting with opportunities in similar areas.

“DNS is required for e-billing so SIDN became a co-creator of a DNS billing service in the Netherlands, but there are few other markets that are as attractive when it comes to revenue as domain names and the e-billing service is just a small part of revenue. We’ve also taken over an e-identity company with 12 million users, so we believe this will be a significant contributor to future revenue.”

Domain Name Registrants, Domain Name Registry

Pirate Bay ccTLD World Tour Moves On Again After .PE Option Canned

The Pirate Bay’s world tour has moved to another ccTLD after the Peruvian option was cut off after only a few days. This time TPB has moved to Guyana (.gy).

This week has been especially busy for TPB with the .sx (Sint Maarten) option cut off after pressure from the Dutch anti-piracy group BREIN. And this was only eight months after it was forced to change from .se (Sweden). From .sx, TPB had a brief stopover in .ac (Ascension Island) before moving for what it hoped was a more permanent stay in .pe.

However while it would obviously hope the stays would be more permanent, TPB says they have more than 70 domain names, by which one would assume they mean ccTLDs, in reserve.

The .pe option was suspended yesterday without prior warning reported TorrentFreak, which has been keeping tabs on TPB’s moves. And it means the site has had to switch to its fourth ccTLD in a week.

TorrentFreak reports it is unclear how long the Co-operative Republic of Guyana will allow the site to use its domain name, but they are ready to relocate again if needed.

“We have some 70 domain names left, so eventually we will find one that sticks,” a Pirate Bay insider told TorrentFreak. “A few domains have been prepared so we can switch over whenever’s needed.”

Opinion

TLD Hopping Pirate Bay Seeks World Where Domains Irrelevant

The Pirate Bay this week was forced to change its TLD from .sx (Sint Maarten) to .ac (Ascension Island) after pressure from the Dutch anti-piracy group BREIN. And this was only eight months after it was forced to change from .se (Sweden). And it seems TPB, which flagged this as only a temporary move due to the Ascension Island’s links to the United Kingdom, has already moved on to its next TLD – .pe (Peru).Clearly global anti-piracy groups have TPB in their sights. But TPB is already thinking ahead to their next move saying they have “a new system currently under development [that] will not only make domain names irrelevant, but will herald the arrival of a new generation of hardened file-sharing services,” according to TorrentFreak.Currently under development, TorrentFReak continues, “is a BitTorrent-powered browser that will enable users to store and distribute The Pirate Bay and other sites without need for central hosting. This means sites will be able to exist in a new and decentralized form with no reliance on a public-facing website.””In a message to ‘BREIN and friends,’ The Pirate Bay cautions that while closing down domains may be an irritant today, that loophole won’t be open forever.””They should wait for our new PirateBrowser, then domains will be irrelevant,” an insider told TorrentFreak.”Once that is available then all links and sites will be accessible through a perfectly legal piece of browser software and the rest of it will be P2P, with no central point to attack via the legal system.”And according to the spokesman this process of attack and adaption, such as Pirate Bay’s move to the cloud last year, is leading to one place – the advent of new and hardened file-sharing networks.”By their actions they finally brought on the next generation of decentralized services,” the insider concludes.TorrentFreak is informed that the new system, which is still under development, will appear as a standalone browser and also as Firefox and Chrome plugins. Until then the varied climate of Peru will suffice.

Domain Name Disputes

TLD Hopping Pirate Bay Forced To Move Once Again

Following the seizure of its .sx domain name, The Pirate Bay has once more been forced to change its domain, this time moving to .ac, the ccTLD for Ascension Island.Its previous domain with the Sint Maarten ccTLD was shut down Monday night. The Pirate Bay has previously used the ccTLDs of Iceland (.is), Sweden (.se), Greenland (.gl). The latest stop with .ac is only temporary though and is the fifth TLD used in 2013.”Fearing a domain seizure by the Swedish authorities The Pirate Bay quickly switched to a Greenland-based domain in April, later hopping to Iceland, and eventually landing .SX domains as other problems became apparent,” reported Torrent Freak.”The AC domain is directly connected to the UK, so it’s just a quick stop there,” a Pirate Bay insider told Torrent Freak. After solving some technical issues the infamous torrent site plans to move to the Peruvian .PE ccTLD.The latest seizure has come about following pressure from the entertainment industry, the .sx ccTLD appearing to seize the domain, Torrent Freak also reported. “The torrent site itself hasn’t been taken down and has quickly relocated to a new address on Ascension Island’s .AC ccTLD.””It’s seems possible that the domain seizure is connected to pressure applied by Dutch anti-piracy group BREIN, which represents a variety of copyright holders,” Torrent Freak also reported.”Last month BREIN sent a letter to the contact email address for The Pirate Bay’s domain, which is registered to site co-founder Fredrik Neij. In their letter BREIN pointed out that the site infringes on the rights of copyright holders worldwide.”The group added that the .SX domain is controlled by the Dutch part of Sint Maarten, suggesting that BREIN has jurisdiction over it.””We expressly point out that by registering domain names and using these and/or allowing these to be used by The Pirate Bay, you infringe on the rights of Rights Owners. Therefore, the Rights Owners hold you liable for the damages that they have suffered and will suffer from your actions,” the letter read. The letter threatened a €25,000 per day fine if the site remained online.

Domain Name Registrants, Domain Name Registrars, Domain Name Registry

.SX Domains Available To All On 15 November

Anyone wanting to register a .sx domain name, the ccTLD for Sint Maarten, can do so from 15:00 UTC, today, 15 November.

The general availability follows phases that gave local business and residents priority to register domain names.

In November 2011, St. Maarten relaunched its country code top level domain, with .SX, becoming one of two countries with the same two letter code .sx and three letter airport code SXM. The other country is Mexico which is represented as .mx and airport code MEX. This has opened up many possibilities for the island in the internet industry. And the ccTLD’s closeness to “sex” is being used to encourage registrations.

Sint Maarten, according to Wikipedia, is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, encompassing the southern half of the Caribbean island of Saint Martin.

Domain Name Registrants, Domain Name Registrars, Domain Name Registry

32 Days to Launch Registration Local Phase .SX

[news release] SX Registry will officially launch the local Sint Maarten Priority Phase. This phase will be launched in two timeframes. The first timeframe is for companies only and will launch on September 22nd until Oct 6th. Companies registered at the Chamber of Commerce prior to January of 2012 are eligible. The second part will launch on October 7th and run till Oct 21st, and will give individuals the opportunity to register their domain name(s) and email(s). Individuals interested should have established their residency in Sint Maarten prior to January of 2012.
The local Sint Maarten Priority phase is to help companies and individuals from the island benefit from the .SX domain. Usage of a top level domain will affect how search engines will perceive your site, and will affect the amount of traffic you will receive, therefore Sint Maarten having her very own TLD will increase the interest for the island in the various industry via the world wide web. SX Registry’s objective is to promote the usage of .SX domains on a national and international level.A sales force to finalize agreements with local Registrars is busy at the moment and the local registrars will be announced very soon in the coming weeks. This entails that local companies and soon individuals will be able to register their new domain(s) and email(s). Government and the business community is encouraged to take the necessary steps within their operations and secure their domain(s) and email(s) registered as .SX. for more information please visit www.Registry.sx

Last November 2011, St. Maarten launched its new top-level internet domain (TLD) .SX, becoming the only other country in the world with the same two letter code .SX and three letter airport code SXM. The other country is Mexico which is represented as .MX and airport code MEX. This has opened up many possibilities for the island in the internet industry. SX Registry is an open registry that markets on the open market making potential for revenue greater compared to closed registry.

The registry of the .SX top Level Domain (TLD) is managed by SX Registry SA. SX Registry promotes the usage and the registration of .SX domain names on a national and international level via attractive registrar packages and a dedicated marketing program. Truly global, the Registry is based on the island of Sint Maarten with technical operations performed by OpenRegistry.com in Canada and Luxembourg.

This nic.sx news release was sourced from:
www.registry.sx/news

Domain Name Registry

OpenRegistry To Operate New .SX ccTLD

The recent autonomous territory of Sint Maarten is about to take advantage of its .SX ccTLD and open up to registrations. The territory only gained its autonomy in October 2010 and hopes its ccTLD will be online in the very near future.

For more information on this upcoming ccTLD, see the news release below or openregistry.com.

OpenRegistry to operate the .SX country code Top Level Domain [news release]
At ICANN’s 40th meeting, OpenRegistry and SX Registry SA announce they have entered into an exclusive agreement with the government of the autonomous territory of Sint Maarten to manage and operate its .SX country code Top Level Domain (“ccTLD”).

“When our country became autonomous in October 2010, we knew an Internet country code Top Level Domain would play an essential part in our economy, both locally and internationally. Recently, the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) attributed the “SX” two-letter code to our country, which was the first step in putting us on the digital map. Having SX Registry managing our Internet domain will undoubtedly provide Internet users across the world with an unparalleled safe and robust technical environment within which they can securely interact and transact,” explains H.E. Franklyn Meyers, Minister of Telecommunication of Sint Maarten.

SX Registry SA is a joint-venture established by OpenRegistry and Mediafusion Inc to focus on the management aspects of the ccTLD. With the help of the government and its local Internet community the vehicle will immediately submit a request to ICANN to obtain delegation of the .SX ccTLD. OpenRegistry will then manage the technical infrastructure of the Top Level Domain.

“All members of our team have a ccTLD background” comments Jean-Christophe Vignes, CEO of OpenRegistry. “Helping a newly formed country to expand its presence on the Internet is both an extraordinary opportunity and an honour for all of us. In cooperation with the government of Sint Maarten, we will help develop innovative domain name registration policies. These policies allow us to create a completely open but secure Internet extension in which anyone can register while preserving the rights of third parties and ensuring the extension is not misused.”

OpenRegistry has already appointed the ClearingHouse for Intellectual Property (CHIP – www.ipclearinghouse.org) to ensure a safe and secure start-up of the .SX TLD.

“Many domain name registrars and registrants have already expressed an interest in the extension and OpenRegistry’s systems” comments Normand Fortier, CEO of SX Registry SA “For additional security, the .SX TLD will implement from the start the DNS Security Extensions (DNSSEC), which will make it the first Internet extensions to provide for the highest secure environment as from day one”.

While the Internet industry is currently awaiting the new ‘generic Top Level Domains’, a country code TLD such as .SX isn’t subject to the same rules or timelines.

“We would like to see .SX on the Internet as soon as possible,” insists Minister Meyers.

“Sint Maarten’s businesses and visitors would immediately benefit from using the country’s identity on the Internet. By relying on the combined expertise of OpenRegistry and its partners, the continuity of the .SX TLD will be ensured”.

Registry policies and accreditation procedures for registrars will be announced in the coming weeks.