The Letter from FID and RIPN to ICANN
Dr. Paul Twomey
Chief Executive Officer
Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers
4676 Admiralty Way, Suite 330
Marina del Ray, CA 90292
USA
Dear Dr. Twomey,
We are writing this letter as a follow-on to our discussion with ICANN
and IANA during the last ICANN meeting in Lisbon on March 26-30, 2007 and
subsequent meetings with the ICANN delegation in Moscow on April 4, 2007. We
found these discussions to be a good starting point for further negotiations on
the current status and future disposition of the .SU domain.
We fully understand and agree that the "SU" code element has
been removed from the ISO 3166-1 standard and that the ISO 3166 Maintenance
Agency (IS03166/MA) considers the code "transitionally reserved". We
understand that current ICANN policies require the list of country code
top-level domains (ccTLDs) be derived from the ISO 3166-1.
On the other hand, the current .SU top-level domain user community,
which largely established itself in the period between 1992 and 1998 when all
the former Soviet Union countries received top-level domains, consists of more
than 8,000 second level domains and more that 100,000 third level domains.
These numbers suggest the wide adoption on the Internet of the former SU
(virtual) space and reflect the existence of a community that identifies itself
by a common language, distinct cultural roots, a unified history, and human,
business and scientific links.
It is also important to mention that from the beginning, the .SU
registration model was based on a geographical/administrative principle that
suggests most of the individual domains are at the 3rd level. This delegation
model has created a situation in which the .SU domain as a whole continues to
grow even when the delegation was restricted at the 2nd level as has been the
case since 2000.
In order to resolve the current uncertain and contradictory situation
regarding the .SU top-level domain, the current .SU administrator "Fund on
Internet Development" (FID) together with the domain operator Russian
Institute for Public Networks (RIPN) started the ".SU Policy Development
Project" (.SU-PDP) in September 2006 in order to investigate possible ways
of resolving the .SU problem.
At the previously described meetings between ICANN/IANA and the .SU
administration, we presented our vision on possible steps to resolve the .SU
problem, namely:
- As a first step we would like to state our overriding priority as our
desire to protect the interests of the .SU user community within the
constraints of ICANN/IANA policies and procedures. We believe ICANN understands
the desire of FID in achieving this priority.
- As the next step, we will
investigate and discuss options on how we can keep the .SU domain while
continuing to comply with current ICANN/IANA policies and procedures.
With regards to the second
step, we understand that should ISO-3166/MA add the two letter code element
"SU" to the exceptionally reserved or indeterminately reserved IS03166-1
list will not be sufficient to clarify the status of .SU as current ICANN/IANA
policies require a venue in which legality of actions can be determined. We
also understand that redefining the SU string as a sponsored community oriented
TLD contravenes existing ICANN/IANA policies that reserve two-letter top-level
domains for ISO 3166-1 defined code elements.
In the event that no solution can be found for maintaining the .SU
top-level domain, we will be ready to start the migration process for the
current user community to a new TLD. We anticipate a period of 10-15 years
would be sufficient for migration purposes. We appreciate ICANN's understanding
that migration of such a large international and geographically dispersed user
community to a new TLD will be a complex task and that steps will need to be
taken to minimize disruptions encountered by users of the .SU TLD.
We understand that implementation of the discussions/vision summarized
above will require active consultations. We are planning to undertake these
consultations in the framework of the FID SU-PDP project mentioned above and look
forward to ICANN's active participation. On our side, as a first action in
respect to communication with the .SU user community we will immediately inform
the .SU user community about:
a) the start of the current talks; and
b) the possible outcomes, including
the chance of having to migrate the .SU user community to a new TLD
We appreciate your understanding and are ready to discuss further any
related issues regarding the resolution of the .SU domain problem.
Yours Faithfully,
_________________________________________Alexey Soldatov (FID)
_________________________________________Alexey Platonov (RIPN)
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