Cira to release IDN Domain Names

[Adam Dicker]

Dear Adam Dicker,
As part of our effort to continually enhance the .CA domain, the Canadian Internet Registration Authority (CIRA) is considering the implementation of French character Internationalized Domain Names (IDNs) at the second level (to the left of the dot).
An Internationalized Domain Name is simply a domain name that contains characters other than a-z, 0-9 or hyphens.
CIRA is planning the addition of the following accented characters to .CA domain names:
• é, ë, ê, è
• à, â
• ô
• ù, û, ü
• ç
• î, ï

This means you could soon see domain names like préside.ca, grâce.ca, etc. Before we can implement IDNs, CIRA is preparing a framework that will help us create a policy for launching accented domain names. As a Registrant, we are seeking your input on our proposed framework.
On September 20, 2011, CIRA opened a public consultation concerning our planned launch of IDNs. The feedback received from .CA holders like you, as well as our Members, Registrars and other stakeholders, will help us shape the final IDN launch policy. Learn more about the proposed policy and share your views at www.idnconsultation.ca.
About CIRA

The Canadian Internet Registration Authority is the Member-driven organization that manages Canada’s .CA domain name registry, develops and implements policies that support Canada’s Internet community, and represents the .CA registry internationally.

[msn]

It is one thing for CIRA to support French language specific characters which provide the various accents, but there should be no provision for other languages at this time.

If CIRA decides to 'support' German and other language characters then it is clear they are only doing this for the money, and implicitly looking to encourage yet another wave of speculators.

[katherine]

It is one thing for CIRA to support French language specific characters which provide the various accents, but there should be no provision for other languages at this time.

According to the post above, it looks like it - only a few designated French characters are to be allowed.

If CIRA decides to 'support' German and other language characters then it is clear they are only doing this for the money, and implicitly looking to encourage yet another wave of speculators.

Canada being a multicultural society there might be instances when more flexibility would be desirable

Judging by the experiences of a few other countries (including the ones that have backed down on such plans) I don't think IDN have a bright future in .ca.
This would concern the French domains anyway.
I just ran a check against the base of .is domains and surprisingly 2000 domains out of 35000 are IDN. Since IDN are not so mainstream I think many if not most are just defensive regs.

[msn]

According to the post above, it looks like it - only a few designated French characters are to be allowed.


Canada being a multicultural society there might be instances when more flexibility would be desirable

Judging by the experiences of a few other countries (including the ones that have backed down on such plans) I don't think IDN have a bright future in .ca.
This would concern the French domains anyway.
I just ran a check against the base of .is domains and surprisingly 2000 domains out of 35000 are IDN. Since IDN are not so mainstream I think many if not most are just defensive regs.

It is likely that you are right about defensive registrations driving this to a degree; it is a key item in the 'consultation' which the special consultants for CIRA are running.

As usual, CIRA announces the policy and runs their consultation as to the details instead of asking if they should even do something at all.

As far as other languages goes, Canada has two official languages, and one has to wonder why there was no proper support for both until now, but going beyond that is burdensome and perhaps would even encourage speculators.

[DropWizard.com]

The sunrise period allows the existing registrant to make a defensive registration. However basedon the number of characters this would be impractical for any large scale owner of domains. I saw a thread where it was demonstrated some 75 defensive registrations for a particular domain. If they are going to do that the current owner should get those registrations for FREE and eliminate any confusion. Allow only new registrations where the primary domain is not taken.

IDN's are going to be hugely confusing to the average user hell I don't even know how to do it on the keyboard after 13 years on a computer.

[Gerry]

That would certainly be big news if Canada (CIRA) implemented french characters before ICANN.

---------- Post added at 04:52 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:51 PM ----------

Canada has two official languages...

English and Canadian?

[msn]

Here you go for any English language-only keyboard users:

128 80
Latin upper case C with cedilla
129 81
Latin lower case u with diaeresis
130 82
Latin lower case e with acute
131 83
Latin lower case a with circumflex
132 84
Latin upper case A with circumflex
133 85
Latin lower case a with grave
134 86
Pilcrow sign
135 87
Latin lower case c with cedilla
136 88
Latin lower case e with circumflex
137 89
Latin lower case e with diaeresis
138 8A
Latin lower case e with grave
139 8B
Latin lower case i with diaeresis
140 8C
Latin lower case i with circumflex
142 8E
Latin upper case A with grave
143 8F
Section sign
144 90
Latin upper case E with acute
145 91
Latin upper case E with grave
146 92
Latin upper case E with circumflex
147 93
Latin lower case o with circumflex
148 94
Latin upper case E with diaeresis
149 95
Latin upper case I with diaeresis
150 96
Latin lower case u with circumflex
151 97
Latin lower case u with grave
153 99
Latin upper case O with circumflex
154 9A
Latin upper case U with diaeresis
157 9D
Latin upper case U with grave
158 9E
Latin upper case U with circumflex
159 9F
Latin lower case f with hook
161 A1
Acute accent
162 A2
Latin lower case o with acute
163 A3
Latin lower case u with acute
164 A4
Diaeresis
165 A5
Cedilla
167 A7
Macron
168 A8
Latin upper case i with circumflex

The whole thing will be useful for the 4.2 million computers in Canada which have French or bilingual English/French keyboards; now some of those extra keys will get some online usage. If someone can now go to www.comprimé-à-usage-prolongé.ca then all is good.

CIRA could have and should have simply supported the base set from the get go and not gone with the 'xn--&dfwu9' nonsense.

Other than that, this is looking more and more like a shakedown.

The sunrise period allows the existing registrant to make a defensive registration. However basedon the number of characters this would be impractical for any large scale owner of domains. I saw a thread where it was demonstrated some 75 defensive registrations for a particular domain. If they are going to do that the current owner should get those registrations for FREE and eliminate any confusion. Allow only new registrations where the primary domain is not taken.

IDN's are going to be hugely confusing to the average user hell I don't even know how to do it on the keyboard after 13 years on a computer.

[whitebark]

Someone at idnconsultation.ca wrote:

Existing domain owners must have our utmost protection.


I propose that:

non-accented domain holders have exclusive rights to all accented variants until they sign away those rights
non-accented domain holders must pay to use accented versions of their domains, or else they remain dormant, i.e. "Not found"


This way CIRA can make some more money, but no one is forced to buy domains they don't want, and they are still protected from cybersquatters and phishers.

Sounds good to me.

[msn]

If it makes sense CIRA will not do it.

[Gerry]

Someone at idnconsultation.ca wrote:

That is pretty much how IDN.idn was proposed to be handled.

[hugegrowth]

Great idea for french domains! hopefully currently holders of the non-accented versions will get first crack at the accented ones.

[msn]

Of course, it will also permit someone to register bücher.ca and that is not French, but I guess that is par for the course.

[whitebark]

They should handle it the way they did with the provincial extensions - the current holder must be notified and asked to allow someone to register the variant.