Top domain names

Legal users of domains

Registrant

Most of the NICs in the world receive an annual fee from a legal user in order for the legal user to utilize the domain name (i.e. a sort of a leasing agreement exists, subject to the registry's terms and conditions). Depending on the various naming convention of the registries, legal users become commonly known as "registrants" or as "domain holders".

ICANN holds a complete list of domain registries in the world. One can find the legal user of a domain name by looking in the WHOIS database held by most domain registries.

For most of the more than 240 country code top-level domains (ccTLDs), the domain registries hold the authoritative WHOIS (Registrant, name servers, expiry dates, etc.). For instance, DENIC, Germany NIC, holds the authoritative WHOIS to a .DE domain name.

However, some domain registries, such as for .COM, .ORG, .INFO, etc., use a registry-registrar model. There are hundreds of Domain Name Registrars that actually perform the domain name registration with the end user (see lists at ICANN or VeriSign). By using this method of distribution, the registry only has to manage the relationship with the registrar, and the registrar maintains the relationship with the end users, or 'registrants'. For .COM, .NET domain names, the domain registries, VeriSign holds a basic WHOIS (registrar and name servers, etc.). One can find the detailed WHOIS (registrant, name servers, expiry dates, etc.) at the registrars.

Since about 2001, most gTLD registries (.ORG, .BIZ, .INFO) have adopted a so-called "thick" registry approach, i.e. keeping the authoritative WHOIS with the various registries instead of the registrars.

Administrative contact

A registrant usually designates an administrative contact to manage the domain name. In practice, the administrative contact usually has the most immediate power over a domain. Management functions delegated to the administrative contacts may include (for example):

  • the obligation to conform to the requirements of the domain registry in order to retain the right to use a domain name
  • authorization to update the physical address, e-mail address and telephone number etc. in WHOIS

Technical contact

A technical contact manages the name servers of a domain name. The many functions of a technical contact include:

  • making sure the configurations of the domain name conforms to the requirements of the domain registry
  • updating the domain zone
  • providing the 24×7 functionality of the name servers (that leads to the accessibility of the domain name)

Billing contact

The party whom a NIC invoices.

Name servers

Namely the authoritative name servers that host the domain name zone of a domain name.

Politics

Many investigators have voiced criticism of the methods currently used to control ownership of domains. Critics commonly claim abuse by monopolies or near-monopolies, such as VeriSign, Inc. Particularly noteworthy was the VeriSign Site Finder system which redirected all unregistered .com and .net domains to a VeriSign webpage. Despite widespread criticism, VeriSign only reluctantly removed it after the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) threatened to revoke its contract to administer the root name servers.

There is also significant disquiet regarding the United States' political influence over ICANN. This was a significant issue in the attempt to create a .xxx top-level domain and sparked greater interest in alternative DNS roots that would be beyond the control of any single country.

Truth in Domain Names Act

In the United States, the "Truth in Domain Names Act" (actually the "Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act"), in combination with the PROTECT Act, forbids the use of a misleading domain name with the intention of attracting people into viewing a visual depiction of sexually explicit conduct on the Internet.

This guide is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia.

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