.sa
.sa is the ccTLD for Saudi Arabia. It is managed by the Communications, Space and Technology Commission.[1]
Rules and Restrictions[edit | edit source]
.sa can be registered only by the following:
- an entity physically located in Saudi Arabia;
- a natural person having Saudi nationality or Premium Residency;
- an entity with a registration or license issued by a pertinent authority in Saudi Arabia;
- an owner of a trademark or trade name that is registered in Saudi Arabia.
A registrant must warrant that:
- the domain name has a relationship to the Registrant, and it has not been registered or used in bad faith or used to impersonate or infringe the rights of others;
- the domain name is not used to defame any person or entity;
- the domain name does not nor will be used to contravene any applicable laws in Saudi Arabia;
- it will not permit or allow any third party to use the domain name or its sub-domains unless it has the prior consent of SaudiNIC.
Also, a Registrant may not register, use, or maintain a domain name, nor submit any Service Request related to it as a mean to do or to support any of the following activities:
- if the purpose is to prevent others from registering or taking advantage therefrom;
- promoting the reselling of the domain name for a fee or free through entities other than licensed registrars;
- cyber-squatting or phishing other websites and services;
- acquiring fraudulently personal or confidential information or other means of identification;
- spamming or sending malicious e-mails;
- hosting or distributing malware;
- hijacking domain names;
- cracking systems and networks, or perform denial of service attacks;
- activities or content against the Islamic religion or Saudi laws and regulations (e.g., pornography, illegal drugs, alcohol, gambling and intellectual property piracy);
- activities classified as information crimes according to the pertinent regulations.[2]
Second-level Domains[edit | edit source]
The following second-level domains are available:
- .com.sa: dedicated only for entities that provide commercial services with a valid Commercial Registration (or equivalent) issued by a pertinent authority in Saudi Arabia (e.g., Ministry of Commerce); or for locally registered trade names and/or trademarks;
- .edu.sa: dedicated only for entities that provide educational and training services directly to students (including, but not limited to, schools, universities, training institutes) with valid licenses issued by a pertinent authority in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (e.g., Ministry of Education, Technical and Vocational Training Corporation);
- .sch.sa: dedicated only for kindergartens, elementary schools, secondary schools, and high schools with valid licenses issued by a pertinent authority in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (e.g., Ministry of Education);
- .med.sa: dedicated only for entities that provide health services (e.g., hospitals, medical clinics, pharmacies), with valid licenses issued by a pertinent authority in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (e.g., Ministry of Health);
- .gov.sa: dedicated only for governmental entities in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia including ministries, authorities, and general agencies;
- .net.sa: dedicated to entities that provide information technology services, communications services, media services, or postal services (e.g., ISPs, web hosting, TV and news media), with valid licenses issued by a pertinent authority in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (e.g., CST, Ministry of Commerce, or Ministry of Media);
- .org.sa: dedicated for non-profit entities in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, including societies, charities, clubs, embassies, conferences and public organizations;
- .pub.sa: dedicated only for individuals.[2]
Characters[edit | edit source]
The domain name label should be at least 2 and no more than 63 characters. The first and last character should be a letter or number. Labels shall not include two consecutive hyphen (-) characters.
Only Latin characters (a-z), digits (0-9) and the hyphen (-) are accepted.[2]