.press

Status:	Delegated
Registry Provider:	ARI Registry Services
Type:	Generic
Category:	Media
Priority #:	634 - Radix (DotPress Inc.)
More information:

.press is a gTLD that was proposed in ICANN's New gTLD Program. The applicant and now Registry Operator is Radix (DotPress Inc.). Their application succeeded and was delegated to the Root Zone on 31 May 2014.

Background

GAC Early Warning

Radix received a GAC Early Warning as an entire applicant, where each one of the applicants was flagged by the U.S. Government. This seems to be the only time a portfolio applicant had all of their applications warned. The issue does not deal with the technical capabilities or thematic content of their applications, but rather the inclusion of an email address associated with the US' Federal Bureau of Investigation. It seems that Radix included correspondence with this address as a recommendation with each of their applications.

Application Details

The following is excerpted from the TLD applicant's response to question #18:

"Business entities need to communicate important news about their business activities, industry updates, news related to their products and services and so on, on an ongoing basis in order to keep their stakeholders engaged. Consumers of this information are those that are immediately related, such as vendors, suppliers, resellers, contractors, customers, potential customers, and so on. It is also the news media and press who take this news information further to the public. One can safely say that the 4th estate plays a critical role in the dissemination of this infomation.

Companies strive to keep their stakeholders engaged and updated in order to build a lasting relationship with them. Thus, usually the news section of a business website is an actively updated and frequently visited section. The Press today is in the need of a convenient single point of source from where they can receive press releases, blogs and other media updates. If they are to be the eventual means to reach the relevant stakeholders and beneficiaries, there arises a need for a solid dediated online presence which businesses can use to reach these mouthpieces.

The mission of the .Press TLD is to serve as a single, distinct source on the web for any business to post news worthy information about themselves. .Press will faciliate a clear and distinct channel on the web for the media to follow, in turn, passing this information on to their audience. The stakeholders can also directly identify and access this as an original and legitimate source for such updates.

4. REGISTRATION POLICIES IN SUPPORT OF GOALS

4.1 GENERAL NAMES

The goals of .Press are outlined in the sections above. These goals are supported by the following artifacts –

• Registration policies and processes
• Acceptable usage policies and content guidelines
• Abuse mitigation processes
• Rights protection mechanisms
• Dispute resolution polices

To this effect we have created unprecedented Abuse mitigation policies and Rights protection mechanisms that go significantly above and beyond mandatory requirements and common practice. The salient aspects of all of the above are described below –

• DotPress Inc. is a wholly owned subsidiary within the Directi Group. The Directi Group runs various businesses including several ICANN Accredited Domain Registrars (ResellerClub.com and BigRock.com) and Web Hosting companies. With over four million active domain names registered through its registrars, Directi has significant experience (over 10 years) of managing domain name abuse mitigation and rights protection. Directi has been heralded as a white hat registrar and the undisputed leader with respect to abuse mitigation.
• Our Abuse and compliance processes will be run by the Directi Group
• We have an elaborate and detailed Accepted usage and content policy that covers over 11 macro forms of violations
• .Press will create a zero-tolerance reputation when it comes to abuse
• We have a defined SLA for responding to abuse complaints ensuring guaranteed turn-around time on any abuse complaint depending on its severity
• We will work closely with LEA and other security groups to mitigate abuse within TLD by providing them with special interfaces (eg searcheable whois) and interacting with them regularly in terms of knowledge sharing.
• Other abuse mitigation steps we undertake include profiling, blacklisting, proactive quality reviews, industry collaboration and information sharing, regular sampling, contractual enforcements and sanctions
• The protection of trademark rights is a core goal of .Press. .Press will have a professional plan for rights protection. It will incorporate best practices of existing TLDs, going above and beyond the ICANN mandated RPMs to prevent abusive registrations and rapidly take-down abuse when it does occur.
• Standard RPMs such as Sunrise, Trademarks claims service, URS, UDRP, SDRP, PDDRP, SPOC etc are all provided for. Additional RPMs such as Optional Trademark declaration, profiling and blacklisting, proactive quality reviews, APWG Review and others will also be provided.

The above salient points barely scratch the surface in detailing the steps that .Press will take in order to build a reputation of operating a clean, secure and trusted namespace. Significant details of all of the above and more are provided in our responses to Q26, Q27, Q28 and Q29

4.2. OTHER NAMES

• We will reserve the following classes of domain names, which will not be available to registrants via the Sunrise or subsequent periods:

• • The reserved names required in Specification 5 of the new gTLD Registry Agreement.
  • The geographic names required in Specification 5 of the new gTLD Registry Agreement. See our response to Question 22 (“Protection of Geographic Names”) for details.
  • The registry operator will reserve its own name and variations thereof, and registry operations names (such as nic.Press, registry.Press, and www.Press), so that we can point them to our Web site. Reservation of the registry operator’s names was standard in ICANN’s past gTLD contracts.
  • We will also reserve names related to ICANN and Internet standards bodies (iana.Press, ietf.Press, w3c.Press, etc.), for delegation of those names to the relevant organizations upon their request. Reservation of this type of names was standard in ICANN’s past gTLD contracts. The list of reserved names will be published publicly before the Sunrise period begins, so that registrars and potential registrants will know which names have been set aside.
• We will reserve generic names which will be set aside for distribution via special mechanisms."

Contract Signed

On 3 April 2014 Radix received a Registry Agreement signed by ICANN for .press after passing all the required processes needed to become a Registry Operator for the string.

Delegation and Availability

.press was delegated to the Root Zone of the DNS on 31 May 2014, completing the successful application for the string.

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).

Top-Level Domain

Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy