Summary

Board endorses version 2.0 of IDN Guidelines, authorizes implementation of IDNs on the basis of the guidelines, and directs the IDN Working Group to prepare additional recommendations.
 
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Whereas, the ICANN Board on the 27 March 2003 meeting resolved that the ICANN Board endorses the IDN implementation approach set forth in the draft Guidelines for the Implementation of Internationalized Domain Names, as they may be amended in further consultation with registry operators or evolve in view of new technical standards, for implementation of IDNs.

Whereas, the following gTLD registries since then have been authorized to implement IDNs by following the IDN guidelines, .info, .museum, .biz, .org, .name, .com, .net.

Whereas, discussions concerning the issue of domain name spoofing in relation to IDN domain names has increased dramatically over the last year, and these discussions resulted in a focus from the IDN Registries and ICANN to work on a revision effort on the IDN Guidelines to prevent certain types of spoofing attacks.

Whereas, this focus was highlighted at the IDN Workshop in Luxembourg where the IDN Workshop panel agreed that revision of the current set of ICANN Guidelines for the Implementation of Internationalized Domain Names should be based on among others, the following principle: The successor document to the current guidelines must maximize the ability of a registry to support IDN in all regards where it is reasonably needed, and must minimize the ability for the abuse of IDN for deceptive purposes.

Whereas, a working group of gTLD and ccTLD representatives was formed to initiate the revision of the IDN Guidelines, with the following members: gTLD Registry Constituency Representatives: Cary Karp, MuseDoma; Pat Kane, VeriSign; Ram Mohan, Afilias and ccNSO Representatives: Hiro Hotta, JPRS; Mohammed EL Bashir, .sd Registry and ICANN Staff: Tina Dam

Whereas, a draft revised version of the IDN Guidelines was posted for public comments and subsequently modified in accordance with commentary received after which a final draft of version 2.0 then was submitted to the ICANN Board for endorsement.

Whereas, that the ICANN Board of Directors recognizes the considerable amount of concern, expressed in the received commentary, concerning the format of the IDN Guidelines.

Resolved (05.98) that the ICANN Board of Directors in thanking the working group members and thereby acknowledges the work that has been done to revise the IDN Guidelines to limit the deceptive use of visually confusable characters from different scripts in individual IDN labels

Resolved (05.99) that the ICANN Board of Directors endorses the version 2.0 of the IDN Guidelines for a period of nine months, and agrees that the President is authorized to implement the Guidelines by authorizing registration of IDNs in registries with agreements with ICANN on the basis of those Guidelines;

Resolved (05.100) that the ICANN Board of Directors tasks the IDN working group to continue its important work and return to the board with specific IDN improvement recommendations before the ICANN Meeting in Morocco, currently scheduled for June 2006. Additionally, the board supports the working group's continued action to reframe the guidelines completely in a manner appropriate for further development as a Best Current Practices (BCP) document, to ensure that the guideline directions will be used deeper into the DNS hierarchy and within TLDs where ICANN has a lesser policy relationship.

Implementation Actions

  • Publish and implement version 2.0 of the IDN Guidelines.
    • Responsible entity: President and ICANN staff
    • Due date: None provided
    • Completion date: 8 November 2005
  • Present specific improvement recommendations.
    • Responsible entity:  IDN Working Group
    • Due date: 30 June 2006
    • Completion date: 27 February 2006

Other Related Resolutions

Additional Information

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