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Canada Seeks Domain Dispute Resolution

Modeled on dispute resolution rules developed by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) for use in the popular .com domain, the procedures proposed by the not-for-profit Canadian Internet Registration Authority are aimed at resolving so-called "cybersquatting" claims out of court.

Cybersquatters are Internet users who reserve popular or trademarked names in various Internet domains with the intention of either selling those names to the trademark owners or otherwise using the names to turn an illicit profit.

In addition to drafting rules against cybersquatting, the Canadian registration authority has also "Canadianized" the proposed rules to assure that the .ca domain be reserved for Canadian citizens and companies, a CIRA spokesperson told Newsbytes today.

The .ca domain is one of the two-letter country-code top-level domains, or ccTLDs, that are assigned to sovereign nations. Individual nations are given a great deal of control over their proprietary domains and can decide whether they should be more or less open to all (as is the case with the United Kingdom's .uk domain) or largely off-limits to non-citizens (as is the case with Japan's .jp domain.

Canada appears to be leaning toward adopting the Japanese model, looking to develop a system under which "registrants must be Canadian citizens, residents, companies or other legal entities as defined by Canadian law and must be operating in Canada and have a physical presence in Canada (in the case of companies or legal entities) or be resident in Canada in the case of citizens," according to registration authority documents.

"People operating within .ca would be subject to Canadian law," said the spokesperson, who asked to remain anonymous.

Similar to ICANN, which is incorporated as a California-based not-for- profit firm, but acts as a worldwide governance body, the Canadian Internet Registration Authority is in the process now of assuming control over .ca. A volunteer group within Canada currently manages the .ca domain.

The registration authority hopes to assume control of .ca in June.

All of the organization's proposals are available online at www.cira.ca.

Reported by Newsbytes.com, www.newsbytes.com.

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