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18(b) How do you expect that your proposed gTLD will benefit registrants, Internet users, and others?

gTLDFull Legal NameE-mail suffixDetail
.music.music LLCfarfurther.comView
How do you expect that your proposed gTLD will benefit registrants, Internet users, and others? Answers should address the following points:

1. What is the goal of your proposed gTLD in terms of areas of specialty, service levels, or reputation?

Our goal is to work with members of the global music community to create a trusted, secure and restricted TLD for accredited members of the music community. The dotMusic Registry will provide qualifying registrants the opportunity to register their preferred domain name in a safe, reputable and globally accessible TLD. Registrants will be identified and validated as members of the music community through their existing and maintained membership in existing associations related to the creation and support of music.

The World Wide Web today features a large number and enormous variety of music-related websites. While our business model depends only on modest uptake in the early years, we anticipate that as the .music TLD demonstrates the trust and security of a specialized namespace over time, more and more music-related content and related economic transactions will be moved to the .music TLD from current gTLD and ccTLD domains.

• The .music TLD will meet or exceed the ICANNʹs availability requirements. The .music TLD will operate as an exemplary registry, using best practices and deploying appropriate technology to safeguard creative rights, providing end users assurance about the identity and community qualifications of the TLD’s registrants.
• The .music TLD will use a variety of online scanning tools that search for key words that are commonly used to signal the availability of music distributed without appropriate authorization or in violation of intellectual property rights to aid in mitigating copyright infringement for the music community in general.
• The .music TLD will maintain a reputable marketplace for end-users through our general abuse policies and their active enforcement.

2. What do you anticipate your proposed gTLD will add to the current space, in terms of competition, differentiation, or innovation?

Among ICANN’s core values is a fundamental commitment to “Introducing and promoting competition in the registration of domain names where practicable and beneficial in the public interest.” The dotMusic Registry will be a new direct competitor to the current group of global generic TLDs, offering an entirely music-focused environment and branding. Our business plan is to serve musicians in economically-developed, as well as key growing international markets, who will benefit from a TLD registry dedicated to address the unique needs of its community.

The dotMusic Registry’s differentiation will be “supporting and sustaining musical creativity through respect for intellectual property”. More than any of the current community-focused gTLD registries, we will provide end-users a domain space that assures them of the community qualifications and identity of a registrant. The reputation of that registrant is tied to their domain registration through verification of their membership standing by their applicable music association. The dotMusic Registry will directly verify a registrant’s affiliation with a qualifying music association member both at initial application and through annual reviews of each association. Intrinsically, this adds the reputational weight of many music associations (through our .music registrants) to that of the domain name.

The dotMusic Registry’s innovation will focus on two areas: 1) The restricted registrant participation of our string, which we believe is an ideal combination of inclusiveness for all music associations and their members AND validation of community standing, and 2) Our enhanced abuse management programs to ensure the sustainability of the artist and songwriter through protection of their creations.

New gTLD registries have largely focused on North America and European marketplaces. Since music is the “universal language”, as the dotMusic Registry, we will offer the .music TLD to international markets, with the goal of a truly global distribution of registrants. To further serve the international market, the dotMusic Registry may at its option, offer the IDN equivalents of .music in other scripts⁄languages.

Our intent is to operate .music with a focus on trust and security for the .music brand. This entails running a robust rights protection program from initiation, which in our case meets - and significantly exceeds - ICANN’s requirements. We will engage an abuse-detection and prevention team, as well as bring on board an experienced and disciplined management team. These, along with other strong provisions (detailed in our answers to 28, 29 and 30), will enable us to act where registrars are remiss in their responsibilities. The dotMusic Registry will have the potential to set new standards for the reduction and mitigation of domain abuse.

3. What goals does your proposed gTLD have in terms of user experience?

The purpose of .music is to provide an online “home” to registrants identified as members of the .music community to hold active registrations for their name or online identity⁄brand The Internet user will know that they are dealing with a registrant that is identity-verified and compliant in their use and distribution of intellection property. This assurance allows Internet users of the .music TLD to have high expectations of trust and security regarding content purchased or consumed. These are intrinsic in the qualifications associated with our defined community.

The dotMusic Registry will deploy DNS Security Extensions, also known as DNSSEC, for the .music TLD. DNSSEC will help prevent data integrity attacks, and the risk of users being diverted or hijacked to malicious or unsafe sites, which often are involved in identify theft. DNSSEC deployment will ensure that visitors to .music domain names are in fact reaching their intended website and not subject to malicious activity such as phishing or identity theft. We will also abide by all policies and practices required by ICANN in the Registry Agreement and⁄or via any Consensus Policy.

In support of this registration requirement, we make a firm commitment to protecting users of our TLD and to maintaining the TLD as a reputable space. Our .music will have powerful policies and procedures for dealing with abusive registrations, and the illegal or malicious use of domain names. We describe those plans fully in our response to Question 28 (“Abuse Prevention and Mitigation”).

The introduction of .music will include a rollout planned with a primary goal of protecting trademark rights and intellectual property. We describe those plans fully in our responses to Question 18(c) and Question 29 (“Rights Protection Mechanisms”).

Users of the .music TLD will also have the use of the WHOIS service; registrants and other contacts will have their contact details available via WHOIS. Please see our answer to Question 26 regarding “searchable WHOIS” and rate-limiting. Limiting the mining of WHOIS data will mitigate spammers and other malicious parties who abuse access to WHOIS services by mining the data for their own illegitimate purposes.

Provide a complete description of the applicant’s intended registration policies in support of the goals listed above.

Musical artists, musicians, songwriters and music professionals who are validated members of a qualifying music association will be permitted to register second level names (name, online identity⁄brand) in the .music TLD. As such, the TLD will have a restricted registration policy so that Internet users are assured that a .music registrant is in fact a member of at least one or more Member Organizations in the Global Music Community. The TLD is supported by music organizations and associations from around the globe, and will be available to registrants in all areas of the world. Since many qualifying music associations themselves are global in nature and⁄or accept membership from individuals globally, we anticipate rapid international participation. Domain registrations may be accepted, but will not resolve until the registrant has been identified and validated as a member of the music community via their membership in at least one existing association related to the creation and support of music. Second level .music domain names can be registered by individuals, businesses and not-for-profit entities.

Members of the community of musical artists, musicians, songwriters, and music professionals have highly varying needs and use websites in a wide variety of ways. In addition, because .music will operate as a global registry from inception, formatting flexibility is required to accommodate bandwidth constraints that may be experienced in the developing world. Accordingly, the registry will not mandate any particular formatting or usage. Registrants must, however, hold valid rights to all materials displayed on and⁄or distributed through their specific site. We anticipate this will result in innovative and creative websites by .music registrants.

Reserved Names:

In .music 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, and as per our response to Question 21. 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.music, and registry.music,), 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.music, ietf.music, www.music, etc.), for delegation of those names to the relevant organizations upon their request. Reservation of this type of name 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.


Premium Names:

• The dotMusic Registry will also designate a set of “premium names,” which will be set aside for distribution via special mechanisms. Premium names have been a standard feature of gTLD and ccTLD rollouts since 2005. The list of premium names will be published publicly before the Sunrise period begins, so that registrars and potential registrants will know which names have been set aside.
• Premium names will be distributed by application only. We will accept applications that describe intended use of a given premium name that best supports the development of the .music community consistently with its defining criteria. The policies and procedures for receiving, reviewing, and awarding premium name applications will be posted on the .music web site in advance, based on input from the .music Policy Advisory Board. We will create policies and procedures that ensure clear, consistent, fair, and ethical distribution of names. For example, all employees of the dotMusic Registry operator, and its contractors, will be strictly prohibited from bidding in auctions for domains in the TLD. As an additional protection for Rights Holders we will continue to use the Trademark Clearinghouse during General Availability (Trademark Claims Service) for an additional 60 days, for notifications of new registrations only where the string is a complete match with a filing in the Trademark Clearinghouse. Additionally, we will address this process asynchronously to the registration process and in consideration of the technical capabilities⁄limitations of the Trademark Clearinghouse, once an implementation model for the Clearinghouse has been finalized.

Dispute Resolution Mechanisms:

• Registrants and rights holders will have access to several dispute mechanisms. These are fair and transparent processes to adjudicate claims to domain names, and they also protect registrants against reverse domain hijacking.
• Names registered in the Sunrise Period will be subject to a Sunrise Dispute Policy. This policy and procedure will be in effect for a finite time period, to provide special protection of qualified trademark rights. Please see our response to Question 29 (“Rights Protection Mechanisms”) for full details.
• As required by ICANN, .music domains will be subject to the Uniform Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP). Please see our response to Question 29 (“Rights Protection Mechanisms”) for full details.
• As required by ICANN, .music domains will also be subject to the Universal Rapid Suspension (URS) policy. See the URS specifications in Applicant Guidebook Module 5. Please see our answer to Question 29 (“Rights Protection Mechanisms”) for full details about how we will provision for our URS responsibilities.
• We will provision systems to take in and administrate cases as per ICANN’s Registrar Transfer Dispute Resolutions Policy ( http:⁄⁄www.icann.org⁄en⁄transfers⁄dispute-policy-12jul04.htm ) This process will allow registrars to protect registrants by filing disputes about inter-registrar transfers that they believe were unauthorized or improperly executed.
• MEDRP: .music will support the Music Eligibility Dispute Resolution Requirements Procedure. This dispute mechanism will be available to members of the .music community and end-users to file claims against registrants of the .music domain for violations of the .music eligibility and use community rules and policies. We will select an adjudication service from the list of ICANN approved arbitrators to facilitate MEDRP claims (please see Q28 and Q29 for further details).


Will your proposed gTLD impose any measures for protecting the privacy or confidential information of registrants or users? If so, please describe any such measures.

We will have several measures for protecting the privacy or confidential information of registrants or users.

• Please see our answer to Question 26 regarding “searchable WHOIS” and rate-limiting. That section contains details about how we will limit the mining of WHOIS data by spammers and other parties who abuse access to the WHOIS.
• Please also see our answer to Question 28, regarding the use of proxy and privacy services. We will allow the use of such services, where they comply with ICANN policies and requirements, which can protect the privacy and personal data of registrants from spammers and other parties that mine zone files and WHOIS data. If ICANN establishes a privacy⁄proxy service accreditation program, registrars will be required to use accredited providers only. We are aware that there are parties who may use privacy services to protect themselves from political or religious persecution, and we respect this need. In Question 28, we also describe our proposed policies to limit the use of privacy and proxy services by malicious parties, thereby reducing e-crime within the TLD.
• As per the requirements of the new gTLD Registry Agreement (Article 2.17), we shall notify each of our registrars regarding the purposes for which data about any identified or identifiable natural person (“Personal Data”) submitted to the Registry Operator by such registrar is collected and used, and the intended recipients (or categories of recipients) of such Personal Data. (This data is basically the registrant and contact data required to be published in the WHOIS.) We will also require each registrar to obtain the consent of each registrant in the TLD for such collection and use of Personal Data. As the registry operator, we shall not use or authorize the use of Personal Data in a way that is incompatible with the notice provided to registrars.
• As the registry operator we shall take significant steps to protect Personal Data collected from registrars from loss, misuse, unauthorized disclosure, alteration, or destruction. In our responses to Question 30 (“Security Policy”) and Question 38 (“Escrow”) we detail the security policies and procedures we will use to protect the registry system and the data contained there from unauthorized access and loss.
• As registry operator we plan to use ICANN accredited registrars who agree to a variety of information technology policies and procedures designed to verify registrant eligibility, validate registrant contact data, and protect registrant data from unauthorized access, use, or alteration. These may include standards for access to the registrar and registry system, password management protocols. Please see our response to Question 30 (“Security Policy”) for details.

• We also plan to offer a “registry lock” service, designed to help protect participating registrants’ contact data from unauthorized modification, and against unauthorized domain transfers and deletions. Please see Questions 23 (“Registry Services”) for details.

Describe whether and in what ways outreach and communications will help to achieve your projected benefits.

Our goal for .music is to create a trusted brand and secure name space for accredited members of the .music community. To achieve this, we will emphasize distribution channels internationally – not just in one or more focused regions. Our business plans call for focused outreach through our accredited community associations, who in connection with verifying registrant eligibility, may interact directly with ICANN-accredited registrars that have demonstrated their ability and willingness to adhere to the .music standards. As part of that relationship development, we will design our communication approach to initially target those accredited music associations seeking to work with registrars to distribute .music domains as potential resellers to their members.

We anticipate that ICANNʹs outreach and communications program will benefit all new gTLDs. Media coverage about the availability of new TLDs will validate and reinforce our efforts. The more that members of the .music community understand that new TLDs are available, the faster they are likely to adopt our .music registrations and other new TLDs.
gTLDFull Legal NameE-mail suffixDetail
.menExclusive Registry Limitedfamousfourmedia.comView
Q18b
How do you expect that your proposed gTLD will benefit Registrants, Internet users, and others?

The Applicantʹs primary intention is to provide a favorable ecosystem for the growth and evolution of the sector. The key to achieving this aim are significant provisions for brand integrity and protection of intellectual property. The Applicant intends to push the boundaries of what can be done through innovative design of the new top level domain, including technologies that capitalize on the sectorʹs needs. A close relationship with the sectorʹs stakeholders is essential to this purpose, and will enable .men to grow in response to both Registrant and user needs. The gTLD also contains significant opportunities as a next generation organizational scheme for online content, including provisions for abuse prevention to defend users against malicious registrations. The gTLD has been meticulously designed by a team of industry leaders from an array of different fields. This has enabled the creation of an airtight financial strategy, an inspired technological development plan as well as a close and dynamic relationship with the sector community - all critical needs on the path to the enduring success of the gTLD.

18(b)(i) What is the goal of your proposed gTLD in terms of areas of specialty, service levels, or reputation?

Specialty

The Applicant’s key specialty goal is to enable a secure and stable gTLD dedicated to providing global Internet users with a targeted space for subject matter of interest. This gTLD will serve as a home for both Registrants and end-users who feel an affinity with this sector and its associated content. Consequently they will prefer to register domain names, create and post content and seek information in a highly targeted manner.

Allowing users the ability to create a targeted, unique space within the new gTLD will enable them to customize their online offering and presence. The .men gTLD will by itself clearly signal the nature and purpose of such websites to Internet users.

The applicant intends to actively promote gTLD specific vertical searching in the gTLD for the benefit of Registrants, end-users and other stakeholders. This specialization through Vertical Search will also benefit Internet users seeking authentic online information and products or services as they will no longer have to wade through content completely unrelated to their desired results.

As the gTLD is sector specific it will provide a better context for second level strings allowing for a much higher number of relevant and more conscise domains. This more targeted environment will simplify the user experience across multiple platforms specifically with smartphones and tablets where minimal input is favoured.


Service Levels

The goal of the gTLD Registry is to offer domain name registration services of the highest level, exceeding both ICANN requirements and current sector norms. To achieve these goals, the Applicant has contracted with well established, proven service providers offering the highest possible level of quality in Registry and Registrar services. The expertise of the service providers will ensure that the security and quality of the gTLD will be uncompromised.

The Applicant will further provide the highest level of service to trademark, legal rights owners and second-level domain owners. To achieve this goal the Applicant will be implementing a range of Abuse Prevention and Mitigation policies and procedures. The Applicant is also firmly committed to the protection of Intellectual Property rights and will implement all the mandatory Rights Protection Mechanisms (RPMs) contained in the Applicant Guidebook. Aswell as these The Applicant will further protect the rights of others through the implementation of additional RPMs. The RSPʹs experience will ensure that the gTLD provides this high level of service to trademark and other legal rights owners to combat abusive and malicious activity within the gTLD.

The Registry will respond to abuse or malicious conduct complaints on a 24⁄7⁄365 basis, respond to requests from governmental and quasi-governmental agencies and law enforcement in a timely manner, and promptly abide by decisions and judgments of UDRP and URS panels, in accordance with ICANN consensus policies.

The Applicant will also provide fast and responsive (24⁄7⁄365) customer support to both Registrars and end-users in a number of languages to assist with general enquiries as well as complaints of abusive or malicious conduct.


Service Levels related to Registry Backend Services

The Applicant will work with ARI Registry Services Inc. (hereinafter “RSP”) whose extensive experience spans more than a decade. This will ensure delivery of the protected, trusted, and permanently-running Registry infrastructure necessary to reliably host and operate a gTLD. The Applicant will also work with its Registrars to ensure that consumers receive secure, fast, and reliable domain name registration services with a high-level of customer service.

The global DNS network that will be utilised for the resolution of domains in this gTLD has already been operating for over 10 years. It currently delivers DNS resolution for several TLD customers and provides low latency query responses with a 100% DNS uptime service level agreement.

The Applicant will further leverage the RSP’s existing DNSSEC infrastructure, capabilities, and experience to provide a robust and standards compliant implementation that ensures DNSSEC services are always available as part of the DNS.

The Shared Registry System (“SRS”) to be used for the Applicantʹs gTLD is a production-proven, standards-based, highly reliable and high-performance domain name registration and management system that has been designed to operate at the highest performance levels. The Applicantʹs RSP has been able to meet or exceed their SLA requirements nearly every month since itʹs inception. Their Registry has achieved a 99.997% success rate in meeting SLAs since 2004.

The Applicantʹs RSP has extensive experience providing ICANN and RFC-compliant WHOIS services for each of the gTLDs that it operates as a Registry Operator for both gTLDs and ccTLDs. The RSPʹs thick WHOIS solution is production proven, highly flexible, and scalable with a track record of 100% availability over the past 10 years.

The Applicant will comply with all the data escrow requirements documented in the Registry Data Escrow (“RyDE”) Specification of the Registry Agreement and has a contract in place with Iron Mountain Intellectual Property Management, Inc. (“IM”) for RyDE Services. The Applicant and its RSP will in conjunction with Iron Mountain work to ensure that the escrow deposit process is compliant 100% of the time.


Reputation

The Applicant will ensure that the Registry enjoys an excellent reputation through its core focus on creating a secure, sustainable, and specialized gTLD, thus supporting ICANN’s primary goals for the new gTLD program in promoting consumer trust, consumer choice, competition and innovation.

The Applicant will strive to become a reputable and successful new gTLD by providing secure, fast and reliable customer service throughout the registration life cycle of all domains in the gTLD.

The Applicant will endeavour to ensure that only non-fraudulent Registrants have domain names in the gTLD via a WHOIS that is searchable, thick and reliable and by being highly responsive to complaints from legal rights owners. The Applicant will further implement an industry leading range of Abuse Prevention and Mitigation policies and procedures as well as RPMs.

The Applicant will provide the financial and operational stability to protect Registrants and ensure the reputation of the Registry. The Applicant has estimated the maximum costs of the critical functions for a three year period by taking the largest single year cost estimate (year 5) and multiplying this by 3. If the calculation used a lower figure the costs estimate would not be at the potential highest amount during the 5 years and the COI instrument would be too small in order to fund the costs of the 5 critical functions for at least 3 years.

The Applicant has decided to commit to providing the highest level of protection to Registrants and Stakeholders by providing ICANN with a COI for the maximum amount as recommended by ICANN in its COI Guidance. This ensures the Registry is reputable, remains conservative and mirrors ICANN’s core objectives. In a worst case scenario where the Applicant will not receive any revenue Registrants will be protected not only by the COI, but also by the fact that the Applicant has enough capital to operate for over 3 years.

Question 18(b)(ii) What do you anticipate your proposed gTLD will add to the current space, in terms of competition, differentiation, or innovation?

It is expected that .men will provide significant competition for existing and forthcoming gTLDs. The .men gTLD will provide a blank canvas of second level domains that will inevitably lead to increased consumer choice and significant innovation from the sector. It will allow Registrants to seek new and varied ways to separate themselves from the competition.

Competition

The Applicant will enhance competition by allowing new Registrants to create new online products and services serving the global marketplace and connecting geographically diverse Registrants and users with a common affinity for the specialized subject matter exemplified by the new gTLD. The new gTLD process and its resulting gTLDs are likely to incentivize top-level domains to improve the security and quality of their online products and services as well as introducing new ones. Thus, this gTLD will benefit consumers by increasing the likelihood of new innovative online products and services.The addition of a new gTLD such as .men will also increase competition between existing registries.

The Applicant will promote competition to the benefit of the Registrants by amongst other things:

- Building a healthy growth trend of domain registrations to validate the specialty space
- Promote the migration of sector relevant content from other TLDs
- Maintaining competitive pricing of domains

Differentiation

Currently, there is no gTLD available on the Internet that signifies the specialized products, services, and subject matter encompassed by this gTLD. The gTLD string itself will give a clear indication to website visitors that the site has content relevant to the sector. This will result in the gTLD becoming globally recognizable and viewed as a trusted source of goods, services and information.

Innovation

The gTLD will demonstrate innovation through cutting edge RPMs.

Firstly the Applicant considers the Protection of Intergovernmental Organization (ʺIGOʺ) names to be very important. The Applicant will use strings registered as second level domains in the .int gTLD as the basis for this protection. To register in the .int domain, the Registrants must be an IGO that meets the requirements found in RFC 1591. The Applicant will reserve these strings and only allow for their future release if an IGO on the “reserve list” wishes to make use of the protected string in the gTLD and provides the Applicant with sufficient documentation.


Finally if a Registrant during sunrise and landrush applies to register a domain name identical to a capital city name of a country or territory listed in the ISO 3166-1 standard it will receive a Capital City Claims (“CCC”) notification stating this. Subsequently they will have to reply unconditionally agreeing to comply with requirements to protect the reputation of the capital city and any further terms.

These functions will enhance Internet stability, security and will demonstrate to Registrars, Registrants, and end-users of the Registry that abusive or malicious conduct will not be tolerated. They will further contribute significantly to the integrity of the gTLD enabling an environment where stakeholders can innovate with confidence.

Question 18(b)(iii) What goals does your proposed gTLD have in terms of user experience?

The Applicant’s goals for the new gTLD are to provide a trusted, secure, and user friendly environment whereby domain names and content relating to its specific affinity group can flourish.

The Applicant believes that the success of the gTLD will be determined by the sector’s key stakeholders globally. The Applicant believes that stakeholders should have the opportunity to influence the gTLD and the way it is governed. Accordingly, the Applicant is establishing a Governance Council (“GC”), to serve as an advisory body.

.men will be developed with consumer trust, choice and satisfaction in mind and after the initial 2 years, the Applicant will conduct a survey to analyse the gTLDʹs success in these areas to help further improve the user experience.

To ensure a high level of service the Applicant will further measure:

- Service Availability Targets for the Critical Registry Functions
- The number of abuse incidents and takedowns
- ICANN Compliance
- Rights protection incidents (i.e. UDRP and URS)
- WHOIS data accuracy

The Applicant intends to promote consumer choice by providing the following:

- Highly available and geographically diverse Registrar distribution channel;
- Effective sunrise and trademark services.

Question 18(b)(iv) Provide a complete description of the applicantʹs intended registration policies in support of the goals listed above.

Registration Policies

The purpose and goal of the Applicant’s policies are to ensure competition, fairness, trust and reliability for Registrars, Registrants, the user community, and other stake holders, while maintaining security and stability for the gTLD.

General Policy

Aside from certain start-up mechanisms, all domain names will generally be registered on a first-come, first-served basis. A Trademark Claims service will be offered for the first 90 days of general registration, with the intent of providing clear notice to potential Registrants of the existing rights of trademark owners with registered trademarks in the Trademark Clearinghouse.

Registration Policies

As per ICANN’s requirements, the Applicant will be operating both a Sunrise and Landrush period ahead of general availability for the gTLD.

Governance Council

The Applicant is establishing a the GC, to be comprised of key sector stakeholders that will serve as an advisory body. Each GC will elect its own Board of Directors, which will be responsible for self-governance, the recommendation of sector-specific registration policies,the formulation of guidance on intellectual property and other best practices related to the gTLD.


The Applicant aims to develop an Abuse Prevention and Mitigation Working Group in conjunction with the GC. It will give the Applicant’s team advice on abuse preventions and mitigation and how this may effect registration policies. The group will meet to regularly discuss the latest trends in domain name abuse and the most effective way to prevent and remedy them.

Question 18(b)(v) Will your proposed gTLD impose any measures for protecting the privacy or confidential information of Registrants or users? If so, please describe any such measures.

Data and Privacy Policies

The Applicant shall comply with all the Data, WHOIS, and Privacy requirements in the Applicant Guidebook required by ICANN. The Applicant will take all possible steps to maintain the security and privacy of information or data that it may collect in connection with the planned function and usage of names domains, and will remain in compliance with all confidentiality and security regulations in relevant jurisdictions. This data will be held by the Applicant in accordance with the Registry Agreement that the Applicant will execute with ICANN.

The Applicant has further ensured that its suppliers also understand that keeping information secure and private is of crucial importance and will take all available steps to maintain the security and privacy of information collected from the Applicants in the Sunrise, Landrush and General Availability Phases.

Question 18(b) Describe whether and in what ways outreach and communications will help to achieve your projected benefits.

The Applicant plans on making the gTLD the premier gTLD where individuals and organizations can register, build and maintain websites relating to their specific interest area. Thus, communication with the public and development of an outreach campaign are important goals in connection with the gTLD.

During the gTLD evaluation process, the Applicant plans to conduct a two-to-three month communications campaign aimed at reaching sector stakeholders and informing them of the gTLD’s mission and the opportunity to participate in the GC. The communication outreach will include email communications to hundreds of leading sector organizations. It will also be accompanied by the launch of a website for communicating information about the gTLD and allowing interested members of the related sector to express interest in serving on the GC. Other communications efforts, including but not limited to, press releases and social media campaigns may all be initiated to raise further awareness regarding the gTLD.

Shortly after completing the evaluation process and being awarded the gTLD, the Applicant will institute marketing and outreach efforts to inform the public about the new gTLD, its launch schedule, and its intended affinity group. The Applicant will use different outreach and communications methods and venues to get the new gTLD mission and message out to the public, including but not limited to the following: online and print press releases, communications with various media outlets, domain name sector groups, mobile apps and various social media platforms. The GC will be used as a further means of outreach and communication to the Internet community.
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