New Top-Level Domain Rules to Change Domain Industry
In a bold and unexpected move, the overseer of the Internets name space, ICANN has voted to allow co-ownership between registries (the entities that run Top-Level Domains) and registrars (the entities that sell domain names to end-users.)
The issue of Registry/Registry separation has been ongoing since before ICANN first announced that it would open up the Internet to New Top Level Domains, like SiTE. In 2007, members of the community expressed concern over the issue and ICANN commissioned a study to be carried out by the research firm CRA International. The CRA Report was published in October 2008 and set the stage for two years of debate, four revisions of the New gTLD Draft Applicant Guidebook, and several thousand email exchanges in a Policy Development Working group before the ICANN Board took matters into its own hands. In a matter of eight months, or a little more than 230 days, the ICANN board did an one-eighty on its original decision requiring strict separation.
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