.ga

Status:	Active
country:	Gabon
Introduced:	1994
Manager:	ANINF
Registry Provider:	ANINF
Type:	ccTLD
More information:

.ga is the ccTLD for Gabon. It is managed by the Agence Nationale des Infrastructures Numériques et des Fréquences (ANINF).

Delegation History

The .ga domain was initially delegated to RIPE Network Coordination Centre in 1994. The domain was redelegated to the Office des Postes et Télécommunications de la République Gabonaise (OPT) in 1998. The public telecommunications service, Gabon Telecom, became the sponsoring organization in 2004.

Following privatization of Gabon Telecom in 2007, reorganizations and commercial priorities "necessitated the transfer of the management of the .GA domain." Agence Nationale des Infrastructures Numériques et des Fréquences (ANINF), was created in 2011, and became involved in management of the .ga domain at the beginning of 2012. ANINF requested and was granted redelegation of the .ga domain in 2013.

Rules and Restrictions

To register and renew a .ga domain name, the registrant must be a natural or legal person or legal entity. They must be able to prove that:

• they live in Gabon; or
• they carry out professional, personal, commercial or cultural activities in Gabon;
• they have any other direct or indirect ties with Gabon.

The registrant must also agree that the .ga domain name use shall be :

• of a nature generally accepted as legitimate; and
• based on good faith at registration time and thereafter.

Names contrary to these conditions are, in particular, those whose use is likely to mislead the public, for example the geographical location to which the name refers or the official nature of its origin.

The registrant also agrees to not :

• use the .ga domain name in a manner that infringes upon the rights of any third parties, including but not limited to intellectual property rights;
• use the .ga domain name as a commercial service similar to a registry operator service to offer registration of third-level domain names to third parties;
• use the .ga domain name to disseminate undesirable commercial contrary to applicable law;
• engage in following practices: distribution of malicious software, botnets misuse, phishing, piracy, infringement of intellectual property rights, fraudulent or deceptive practices, counterfeiting or any other activity contrary to legislation;
• use the .ga domain name for the sole purpose of selling it, reselling it or transfer it in any way to applicants. In addition, the registrant shall not permit any third party to achieve this purpose, nor shall you voluntarily help any third party to achieve this objective, nor contribute to the achievement of said objective;
• use the .ga domain name in a manner that may damage or impair the name, image or reputation of the Gabonese state and its representatives.

Reserved Names

• Any public authority name at any level, including any variant or abbreviation of that name, as well as any other term commonly used to describe such authority ; neither
• any name directly or indirectly associated with a public service for which public authorities of the Republic of Gabon have specific responsibilities. These include the following departments: public order and security, public affairs and institutional relations,

public health, taxes, economic development and promotion, transport, urban planning and environmental protection, culture and citizen participation and tourism.

The Registration of these domain names is reserved for these public authorities.

Free and Open Registration

It was previously possible to register .ga domains for free when there was a partnership with Freenom because they were not able to" provide the Internet community with a satisfactory service". Considering this, it is no longer possible to register .ga domains for free. It was considered that individuals who opt to register a free domain were not deemed to be registrants in the traditional sense of the term, and their use of the domain could be revoked at any time or upon failure to renew within a narrow window of time at the end of the free registration period.

Characters

The .ga domain name must comply with ANINF defined syntax standards. Numbers, letters and hyphens are accepted, as well as all characters used in French language, with accented and special characters exception.

Denial of Registration to Kim Dotcom

During Kim Dotcom's battle to maintain his Megaupload storage-as-a-service business, Dotcom registered me.ga for use as an alternative domain name for a relaunched site. However, ANINF's parent ministry, the Ministère de la Communication et de l'Economie Numérique, suspended the registration, stating that Gabon could not support violation of intellectual property laws.

Country code top-level domain