Registrar

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A registrar has direct relationships with domain name registries and is authorized to sell domain names. In order to become a registrar, one has to be accredited through ICANN, which requires that they meet certain business and technical requirements.

See our list of registrars.

Related Terms

• Accredited Registrar: A Registrar that has been certified as meeting certain minimum criteria to act as a Registrar for a specific TLD. This term is almost solely used when referring to Registrars that have been certified by ICANN. ccTLD Registries also accredit registrars through a separate process, however though they may use differing terms, the concepts are largely the same.

• Sponsoring Registrar: The Registrar responsible for the submission of the domain name to the Registry.

• Registrar Operator: A term used to denote the entity providing the technical services to a Registrar in support of their registration services. Also referred to as a "Registrar Outsourcer" or "Registrar Provider".

Background

NSI Cooperative Agreement & the SRS

From 1993 to 1998, Network Solutions (NSI) was the only Registrar and Registry Operator for the .com, .net and .org top level domain names (TLDs), based on a Cooperative Agreement between NSI and the National Science Foundation (NSF). The Department of Commerce (DOC) extended and amended the Cooperative Agreement with NSI when the contract expired in 1998. Under the new Cooperative Agreement, NSI would continue to serve as a Registry Operator, but would implement a Shared Registry System (SRS) by June 1, 1999, meaning that multiple registrars could be accredited by a new non-profit organization that was to be created to take over the technical management of the DNS. Five new registrars were to be chosen by the new corporation to test the SRS. The Agreement was modified twice in order to adjust the date of the deployment of the SRS from June 1 to June 25, 1999, to include a registration fee for new domain names ($9 for one year and $18 for two years), and to include the Registrar License Agreement.

ICANN's Registrar Accreditation Policy

On November 1998, the DOC officially recognized ICANN as the new private, non-profit organization responsible in administering the technical management of DNS. Some of its responsibilities would include supervision of the deployment and transition to SRS, development and implementation procedures for registrar accreditation that would ensure a competitive registration system, and to maintain the stability and security of the internet.

On March 4, 1999, the ICANN Board adopted the Statement of Registrar Accreditation Policy for the .com, .net and .org TLDs. Under the policy, registrars seeking to participate in the SRS Testbed Program would be required to pay $2,500, while all other registrar applicants would pay $1,000. Applicants that were not selected for the test bed would be considered for regular accreditation.

Participants for the SRS Testbed Program

ICANN accepted applicantions for the SRS Testbed Program from March 11 to April 8, 1999. On April 21, 1999, ICANN announced that the following five registrars had been selected to participate in the testbed:

1. America Online (AOL)
2. CORE (Internet Council of Registrars)
3. France Telecom/Oléane
4. Melbourne IT
5. Register.com

In addition, ICANN also announced the names of 29 additional companies that would receive accreditation after the completion of the SRS Testbed Program. The testbed ended on November 30, 1999. The List of Businesses to be Accredited as Post-Testbed Registrars is available here.

ICANN has continued to accept applications for registrar accreditation since then. Here is a complete list of existing ICANN Accredited Registrars.

The Registrar Accreditation Agreement (RAA)

ICANN implemented a new version of Registrar Accreditation Agreement (RAA) on March 17, 2001 effective until March 21, 2009. A new revision was again introduced on March 21, 2009 with 17 amendments. Some of the revisions include:

• improved enforcement tools to ensure full compliance with the ICANN contract and policies
• expansion of requirements for reseller agreements
• additional requirements for audit and data escrow
• additional requirements to ensure precise contact information
• new notice requirements
• provisions for termination

Read the 2013 RAA.

Registry and Registrar

Vertical Separation

When the U.S. Department of Commerce amended Network Solutions' (NSI) cooperative agreement and implemented the Shared Registry System (SRS), the DOC also put a condition on the renewal of NSI's contract: the company would be able to automatically renew its contract for another four years as long as it separated its registry and registrar businesses. This was done in order to promote more competition in the domain space.

In 2000, Verisign purchased Network Solutions for $16 billion. Verisign decided to sell the registrar business to Pivotal Private for $100 million in order to concentrate on its new registry business. This move enabled Verisign to re-negotiate its registry agreement with ICANN. On April 16, 2001, a Revised Registry Agreement for .com, .net and .org was adopted. Number 23 (C) Fair Treatment of ICANN-Accredited Registrars on the revised agreement stipulated, "Registry Operator shall not act as a registrar with respect to the Registry TLD. This shall not preclude Registry Operator from registering names within the domain of the Registry TLD in compliance with Section 24. This also shall not preclude an affiliate (including wholly-owned subsidiaries) of Registry Operator from acting as a registrar with respect to the Registry TLD, provided that Registry Operator complies with the provisions of Subsection 23(E)." Sub-section E also stated that Registry Operators must ensure that their assets and revenues would not be utilized to advance the interests of their affiliate registrars against other accredited competitor registrars.

The separation of ownership, or vertical separation, was also implemented to all un-sponsored TLD registry operators to maintain registrar competition.

ICANN's Policy Change on Vertical Separation

On November 5, 2010, the ICANN Board passed a resolution allowing the removal of registry-registrar cross-ownership restriction for existing and new gTLDs. Further explanation on this issue, vertical integration, is available here.

RADAR

ICANN maintains Registrar Contact Information Database, called RADAR, that Registrars can log into to perform Domain Name transfers and other functions.

On 29 May 2014, ICANN announced that a security breach had occurred and RADAR would be taken offline until a review was conducted. Registrar's passwords, usernames, and email addresses may have been accessed. ICANN stated that they had no evidence unauthorized logins had occurred but was resetting all Registrar passwords as precautionary measure. ICANN stated the database will be offline for at least two weeks while the organization conducts a security audit of RADAR and other ICANN processes.

Chinese version of this page/本页中文版

注册商

注册商与域名注册局有直接的关系，并有权销售域名。通过互联网名称与数字地址分配机构（ICANN）认证后才能成为注册商，而这要求他们符合一定的商务和技术要求。

See our list of registrars. 查看我们的注册商清单。

相关术语

• 委任注册商。指的是已经被证明符合作为一个特定顶级域注册商最低要求的注册商。该术语几乎仅用于指代已经通过ICANN认证的注册商。国家代码顶级域（ccTLD） 注册局也通过独立的流程委任注册商，虽然他们使用的术语可能不同，但是概念基本相同。

• 赞助注册商。指的是负责将域名提交至注册局的注册商。

• 注册商运营商。该术语用于指示向注册商提供技术服务以支持其注册服务的实体。也称为“注册商外包商”或“注册商提供商”。

背景

NSI合作协议和注册局共享系统

从1993年至1998年，根据NSI与国家科学基金会（NSF）之间的一份合作协议，Network Solutions （NSI）是顶级域（TLDs） .com、 .net 和 .org的唯一注册商和注册局运营商。]在1998年该合同到期后，商务部（DOC）续约并修改了与NSI的合作协议。在新的合作协议下，NSI继续作为注册局运营商存在，但需要在1999年6月1日前实施一个注册局共享系统（SRS），这意味着多名注册商将由一个新建的负责DNS技术管理的非盈利组织进行委任。新公司将选择5个新的注册商进行SRS测试。协议被修改了两次以适应SRS从1999年6月1日至6月25日的部署时间， 并且增加了新域名的注册费（一年9美元和两年18美元），以及 注册商许可协议。

ICANN的注册商委任政策

1998年11月，商务部正式承认 ICANN为负责DNS技术管理的新的民间非营利组织。其职责包括监督部署和过渡至SRS、开发并执行能够保证注册系统竞争性的注册商委任程序，并且维护互联网的稳定性和安全性。

1999年3月4日， ICANN 董事会采纳了有关顶级域.com、.net和.org的注册商委任政策申明。在该政策下，希望参与SRS测试平台项目的注册商需要缴纳2500美元的费用，而其他所有注册商申请人需要缴纳1000美元的费用。没有被选为参加测试平台的申请人将进行常规委任。

SRS测试平台项目的参与者

ICANN从1999年3月11日至4月8日接受了SRS测试平台项目的申请。1999年4月21日，ICANN宣布以下5个注册商已经获选参加测试平台：

1. 美国在线
2. 注册商互联网委员会
3. France Telecom/Oléane
4. Melbourne IT
5. Register.com

此外，ICANN还宣布了在SRS测试平台项目完成以后将接受委任的其他29家公司的名称。测试平台项目在1999年11月30日结束。将被委任为“测试平台后注册商”的企业名单详见[1]。

ICANN自此后继续接受了注册商委任申请。这里是完整的ICANN 委任注册商名单。

注册服务商委任协议(RAA)

ICANN在2001年3月17日实施了新版注册服务商委任协议（RAA），有效期至2009年3月21日。2009年3月21日再次引入新协议，其中有17处变更。部分变更包括：

• 改进的执行工具，以确保完全符合ICANN合同和政策
• 提高代理商协议的要求
• 对审计和数据第三方托管的额外要求
• 为了确保精确联系信息的额外要求
• 新的通知要求
• 解约条款

阅读2013 RAA.

注册局和注册商

纵向分离

在美国商务部（DOC）修改了Network Solutions（NSI）的合作协议并且执行注册局共享系统（SRS）时，商务部还增加了一条对NSI合约续约的约束：只要NSI的注册局和注册商业务实现分离，NSI就能自动获得4年的合同续约。此举是为了促进域名空间形成更多的竞争。2000年，威瑞信以160亿美元的价格收购了NSI。威瑞信决定将其中的注册商业务以1亿美元的价格出售给Pivotal Private公司，从而专注于其新的注册局业务。此举让威瑞信获得了与ICANN重新商定其注册局协议的机会。2001年4月16日，有关.com、.net 和.org的修订版注册局协议被采纳。修订后协议的第23条公平对待ICANN委任注册商（Fair Treatment of ICANN-Accredited Registrars）C款规定“注册局运营商不得充当注册局顶级域的注册商。此规定不得妨碍注册局运营商注册符合第24条规定的注册局顶级域中的域名。此规定还不应妨碍注册局运营商子公司（包括全资子公司）成为注册局顶级域的注册商，前提是注册局运营商符合第23（E）的规定。”E款中还规定，注册局运营商必须确保其资产和收益不会被用于保护其附属注册商的利益，而不利于其他委任的注册商竞争者。 所有权分离，或者说纵向分离，还在所有未赞助的顶级域注册局运营商中执行，以此保持注册商之间的竞争。

ICANN对纵向分离的政策转变

2010年11月5日，ICANN董事会通过了一项决议，允许取消现有的和新通用顶级域的注册局-注册商交叉所有权限制。对纵向整合的进一步解释，详见这里。

RADAR

ICANN负责维护注册商联系信息数据库，即RADAR，注册商登录该数据库后可以实现 域名转让和其他功能。

2014年5月29日，ICANN宣布出现了安全漏洞，RADAR将下线，直至检查完成。注册商的密码、用户名和电子邮箱可能已经被访问。ICANN声明说，没有证据表明有未经授权登录的情况出现，但是作为预防措施，他们正在重置所有的注册商密码。 ICANN表示，在其对RADAR进行安全审查以及进行其他ICANN流程期间，该数据库将下线至少两周。

Chinese Translation provided of this page thanks to TLD RegistryLtd.

External Links

GNSO Registrars' Constituency Mailing List

Top-Level Domain

Country code top-level domain

National Science Foundation