20(e) Provide a description of the applicant's intended registration policies in support of the community-based purpose of the applied-for gTLD

Prototypical answer:

* DESCRIPTION of the REGISTRATION POLICIES (Community Part) *

The following text is a shortened and descriptive version of the full registration policies which highlights the relevant information.

Out of the complete policy description provides in #18b the Community specific policies are the following:


* Eligibility Requirements *

To meet the requirements of ICANN to a community-based designation of the application and to meet a sufficient reference to BERLIN, the group of registrants is limited. Exclusively eligible to register a domain name under the top-level domain .BERLIN is

(i) any natural person, legal person, organization or association of persons, if they can demonstrate that they have an economic, cultural, historical, social or any other connection to the German capital Berlin, verifiable by
- their residence or second home, office or place of business, a branch or permanent establishment in the City of BERLIN, or
- a contact listed in the Whois database with a domicile in the City of BERLIN, or
- other appropriate proof e.g. the certification by an employer to enroll at a school or college, or birth certificate.

With the registration of a .BERLIN domain name each registrant implicitly signs the registration policies and agrees with the fact that he acknowledges compliance with the registration guidelines. Anyone can check compliance with the registration requirements by initiating an extrajudicial dispute resolution procedure (ʺ.BERLIN Eligibility Requirements Dispute Resolution Policy (ERDRP)ʺ).


* Domain Name Selection *

The Registrant undertakes as part of the registration guidelines not to register any domain names that violate the statutory provisions of the European Union and Federal Republic of Germany, that intervene in the rights of others or violate them, or for abusive, speculative or anti-competitive purposes. Concomitantly, the registrant obliges himself not to spread criminal, illegal, offensive, racist, discriminatory or pornographic content under the top-level domain .BERLIN. The Registrant further undertakes not to register domain names, which create the erroneous impression that these are domain names, content or services by public bodies or their affiliated organizations, so-called plagiarising authority domain names.

The registrant agrees not to register domain names that violate ethical or criminal law principles (illegal, violent, racist, ethnically offensive, harmful to minors, indecent, offensive or domain names that violate morality and public order) or may hurt the reputation of the City of BERLIN. In addition, domain names are not permitted that use the words or parts of words that could generally perceived as offensive. These include insulting, abusive or agitational words or words or word elements, which could violate the ethical, religious or moral sensibilities of Internet users.


* Content and use *

To meet the requirements of ICANN to a community-based designation of the application, the registrant must satisfy the following criteria for the content and the use of .BERLIN domain names:

(i) The contents of the website must be accessible under a domain directly related to the eligibility requirements, and
(ii) the domain must be in use within 12 months of registration.


* Enforcement, Termination and Deletion *

The Registry is entitled to lock, cancel, initiate the gTLD-deletion cycle or transfer domain names that do not meet the registration criteria if

i the domain name owner has persistently breached the registration policies and continues to do so after a warning and a deadline or

ii. The domain name contains in itself a manifestly illegal statement, or

iii. The domain name owner has agreed in writing, under penalty of law, not to use the domain name, or has issued a corresponding final declaration or an injunction has been issued a corresponding final national or international main judgment against him or

iv. it has been determined in a final and absolute national or international judgment that the registration of the domain name owner violates the rights of third parties, or the domain name owner has made a a final declaration to a corresponding injunction, or

v. the registration of the domain name to the domain name owner blatantly violates third party rights or is otherwise unlawful regardless of the specific use, or

vi. the use of the domain name or content under it is obviously abusive or can do harm to the public, for instance through illegal and fraudulent activities, spam, phishing, pharming, malware propagation, botnet activities, child pornography or unusual network activities (eg fast flux hosting), or

vii. the data given to the registry for the domain name owner or the administrative contact is incorrect or the identity of the domain holder or the administrative contact can not be found with the given data or

viii. the domain name is transferred at the request of the City of BERLIN for its own purposes, for example because of the need for availability or a registration request.

Without prejudice to further legal rights, as part of abusive use rules required by ICANN for gTLDs (ʺ.BERLIN Anti-Abuse Rulesʺ) the registry can under certain circumstances, remove a domain name and its technical data from the name servers for top-level domain .BERLIN (disconnection), change the contact data, or delete a domain name.

Furthermore anyone can check compliance with the registration requirements by initiating an extrajudicial dispute resolution procedure (ʺ.BERLIN Eligibility Requirements Dispute Resolution Policy (ERDRP)ʺ).

Similar gTLD applications: (3)