.bible

Status:	Proposed
Manager:	American Bible Society
Registry Provider:	Minds + Machines
Type:	Generic
Category:	Culture
Priority #:	1114 - American Bible Society
More information:

.bible is a proposed TLD in ICANN's New gTLD Program. The applicant is the American Bible Society.

Objection

Saudi Arabia's Communications and Information Technology Commission (CITC) filed an objection against the TLD.

The GAC representative from India issued a GAC Early Warning regarding the application. The warning system is noted as a strong recommendation on behalf of national governments to the ICANN Board that a given TLD application should be denied as it stands. Applicants are encouraged to work with objecting GAC members.

The Indian warning states that the applicant has not taken into account India's large Christian population, and that it does not fit with the secular nation of the state and its laws.

Application Details

Excerpted from Response to Question 18:
"The goal of the .BIBLE top-level domain is to establish itself as the recognized choice for registrants who want to market and promote themselves and their websites to, and reach, the Internet-using community, for ministry, business, personal or any other purpose, through a positive association with the Bible; and, as the recognized top level domain name for Internet consumers to know which people, businesses, information sources or other online resources associate themselves with the Bible. This applicant, like most organizations, takes its good reputation seriously. For nearly 200 years, we have provided the Bible for exploration, supporting free speech rights across a full range of faith traditions. Accordingly, we are fully cognizant that artistic, political, economic and social issues, all of which can be associated with the Bible, often provoke heated debate and are at times controversial. We believe that such expressions of opinion are important to the success of the .BIBLE, and that stifling them would be more harmful than good to .BIBLE’s reputation, ministry, and business success. That being said, to protect .BIBLE’s reputation and the associational benefits it offers registrants and Internet consumers, we will actively promote and enforce our Acceptable Use and Abuse Prevention policies and procedures, which we believe will effectively combat improper or unlawful unprotected speech and online conduct. We believe that these mechanisms will be effective in assuring the reputation of the .BIBLE top level domain, its registrants, and Internet Users, as well as the public. The .BIBLE top-level domain will be marketed to registrants who want to associate themselves, their products, services, thoughts, ideas or anything else in a positive way with the Bible. Therefore we believe that the great majority of registrants who apply for a .BIBLE domain name will do so because of its association with the Bible and because they want to reach those who do. In these ways, the .BIBLE top-level domain will bring a special association with the Bible to the top-level domain name space."

Top-Level Domain

Governmental Advisory Committee. Considers and provides advice on the activities of ICANN as they relate to concerns of governments, particularly matters where there may be an interaction between ICANN's policies and various laws and international agreements or where they may affect public policy issues (ICANN Bylaws).