Administration and marketing of the ccTLD and its policy implications on Internet governance

Abstract

As the Internet serves every aspect of our social, cultural and economic life, the well-being of the Internet is one of the most critical issues of society today. To keep the Internet in shape, various roles and responsibilities should be undertaken by various stakeholders. In this context, domain name administration has always been a priority issue in the Internet governance arena. However, among various issues of domain name administration, the relationship between the way how domain names are administered and the way how the Internet is used, has not been fully explored. On one hand, domain names can be a valuable marketing resource for a product or service being marketed, and on the other, domain names can be used by ill-minded users for locating phishing sites, and sending spam email. The paper aims to provide analysis on the administration and usage of the country-code top-level domain (ccTLD). The author conducted a comprehensive study on the ccTLDs with regards to their relationship with ICANN, the variety of secondary or other sub-level domains and pricing policy. This papar also attempts to examine how the mode of administration of the ccTLD affect its usage and exploitation, and to draw the implication of ccTLD administration on Internet governance. In particular, the paper provides a high-level overview of how ccTLDs are marketed and to what extent the host of name spaces under the ccTLDs are utilised. In order to examine the situation of the administration of the ccTLD, the author conducted a survey on the 245 active and semi-active ccTLDs that are selected from the ccTLD list by IANA. As a result, the author identified more than 1,600 'name spaces', 15% of which are found to be non-existent or scarcely utilized. The author also found out a wide variety in terms of pricing policy, eligibility requirements and subcontracting of technical operation, across name spaces and ccTLDs. This itself will not cause any problem, but may have policy implication in the longer term. Although the administration of the ccTLD has been associated with the 'sovereignty' or self-determination of the ccTLD administrator and the sponsor entity behind it, it is apparant that more coordinated efforts are called for in order to repond to various security concerns and to implement newer domain name capabilities, such as internationalized domain names. The paper will help understand what kind of policy directions need to be followed in a time when more active coordination than ever is called for.