UNINETT Norid AS

Type:	Non-Profit
Industry:	Internet governance
Founded:	1 July 2003
Ownership:	Uninett AS
Headquarters:	Abels gate 5 – Teknobyen NO-7465 Trondheim
Country:	Norway
Employees:	14
Email:	info [at] norid.no
Website:	norid.no
Key People
Hilde Thunem, General Manager Annebeth Lange

UNINETT Norid AS ("Norid") runs the .no registry and maintains the database for all domain names under .no. They are responsible for developing the domain name policy for .no according to the needs of the society and within the framework of the Domain Regulation. Norid's vision and organization are anchored in a strong social responsibility.

Norid is a member of CENTR.

History

Norway was the first country, following the United States, to join ARPANET in 1973. In 1983, the .no TLD was delegated for research by Jon Postel. Responsibility for the ccTLD was assigned to the neutral agency UNNINET in 1987, after the project's creation the year before. By 1989, there were 19 registered domains, stored in the oldest zone file. In 1993, UNNINET AS is established as its own corporation. By the end of 1995, 1000 domains were registered under .no.

The .no project started being referred to as Norid in 1996, which stands for Norwegian service for registration of Internet domain names. In 1998, the advisory body Norpol was formed, and in 1999, Norid operations were transferred from UNINETT to the newly-formed subsidiary, UNINETT FAS AS. Later in 1999, the registrar system was introduced. As of March 2001, 100000 domain names were registered, after a spike caused by the liberalization of domain name rules. In 2003, UNINETT Norid AS was established as a subsidiary under UNINETT. In 2004, domain name rules were liberalized yet again, and by March of that year, 200000 domains were registered.

By early 2011, half a million domain names had been registered under .no.

In October 2011, Norid raised the number of domain names a company can own from 20 to 100.

Controversies

.co.no.

Norid announced in October 2010 that it and CoDNS would begin offering third-level .co.no names to the public, in order to bring some flexibility to the .no ccTLD. CoDNS was slated to be outsourced by Norid as the registry offering registrations under the .co.no domain name.

Prior to 2001, the domain name co.no -- and other similar two-letter possibilities -- were on a list of .no names forbidden from user registration. In 2001, the restriction was lifted, and a company called Elineweb registered co.no. Nine years later, the name was placed back on a list of forbidden names, and registrants were allowed to maintain usage of those names, though theyre barred from transferring them to other registrants.

Norid realized in 2009 that the Whois record for co.no lists Elineweb as the owner of the domain name, though rights had already been outsourced to CoDNS for selling registrations under that third-level domain name. CoDNS had already offered a similar service in the Netherlands, under the third-level domain name co.nl. According to the Operational Manager of CoDNS, Sander Scholten, CoDNS sued Norid in 2011 after an inability to solve the ownership dispute in an "amicable way".

Elineweb also sued Norid in October 2011. In July 2012, Norwegian courts ruled that Norid cannot revoke Elineweb's registration or transfer it to a third party. As a result, Elineweb plans to offer .co.no domain names, in partnership with CoDNS, on a first-come, first-serve basis.

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Top-Level Domain