IE Domain Registry

Type:	Not-for-profit
Industry:	Internet
Founded:	1999
Headquarters:	Windsor House - 14 Windsor Terrace Sandycove CO, Dublin
Country:	Ireland
Website:	domainregistry.ie
Key People
Sean Scanlan, Chairman David Curtin, CEO

IEDR (IE Domain Registry Limited) is an independent, not-for-profit organization that serves as the domain registry for Ireland's country code top-level domain (ccTLD), .ie. It is not a governing or regulatory body, rather it manages and maintains the .ie name space for the public interest of the Irish internet community and internationally.

IEDR is a member of the Council of European National Top-Level Domain Registries (CENTR).

Background

The University College of Dublin was the original operator of the .ie ccTLD. On July 2000, IE Domain Registry Limited took over the administration. Members of IEDR, who also serve as its directors, own the company but do not have beneficial interest on its reserves, as IEDR administers the .ie ccTLD as a public service.

The Electronic Commerce Act of 2000 provides rules for the .ie ccTLD wherein the Minister of Communications has the power to introduce regulation.

Controversies

In 2002, IEDR was disheveled by a series of disputes and concerns over the company’s financial stability and organizational management. The Internet Service Providers Association of Ireland expressed their concerns and said that .ie ccTLD’s management should be transparent, represents the broad interests of Ireland, and sell domain names at a cost-effective price that would support the growth of internet services.

Based on Section 31 of the Electronic Commerce Act, the Minister of Communications has the power to resolve such issues. The Minister reluctantly stepped in and conducted a dialogue with IEDR Chairman John Scanlan and consultations with the Ministers for Enterprise, Trade and Employment and other public bodies, including the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN).

In 2004, Communications Regulation (ComReg) took over the policy functions of IEDR under the Communications Regulation (Amendment) Bill 2007, which was legislated on May 15, 2007. IEDR remained as administrator for the .ie ccTLD with Dave Curtin as the new CEO.

.ie Disruptions

On October 9th, 2012, both Google and Yahoo! experienced prolonged disruptions in their services under the .ie country code top-level domain name (ccTLD). Technology.ie was the first party to report that Google's nameservers had experienced an "unauthorised change" that directed them to fraudulent nameservers in Indonesia.

Though IEDR initially stated that "an unauthorised change was made to two .ie domains on an independent registra'’s account which resulted in a change of DNS nameservers", on November 9th, it stated that a further investigation confirmed that "neither the Registrar of the affected domains nor its systems had any responsibility for this incident." The registry further said that hackers probed its system for 25 days before breaking in via a vulnerability in its Joomla content management system, which enabled the attackers to access back-end databases and upload malicious PHP scripts.

Registration Policy

Registrants of .ie domain name who are not situated within the 32 counties of Ireland must demonstrate a substantial connection in the country such as:

• copies of invoices (showing trade to or from Ireland)
• high-quality brochures showing a significant intention to trade in Ireland
• a signed letter on headed paper from a bank manager, firm of chartered accountant, registered auditor, tax consultant or solicitor confirming the applicants trade with Ireland.

Dispute Resolution

Any registrant with a complaint regarding domain names must initiate action under Administrative Proceeding. The complainant must show that he or she is a current registrant and has the right to the domain. The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) appoints an independent and impartial panel of experts to decide on the complaint. IEDR is to implement the decisions made by the panel.

Awards & Recognition

On November 2009, IEDR received the 2009 Designed Awards from the Society of Chartered Accountants. The award was based on IEDR’s 2008 Annual Report and Review. Furthermore, .ie has been ranked by 2009 McAfee Mapping the Mal Web Report as the safest domain name in Europe and the second safest domain name in the world following .jp.

IEDR and ICANN

On June 9, 2010, IEDR CEO David Curtin filed an application to become member of ICANN ccNSO.

Country code top-level domain