Some people were able to jump the gun to register domains early, but they didn’t get to keep the domain names.
Investors in IDN.com domain names (internationalized domain names) have waited a long time for Verisign to release its IDN.IDN-transliteration-of-com domain names. So, many were dismayed at what they say was a screwup on the launch of the Japanese transliteration .コム.
Verisign is releasing its IDN domain names in four phases. It starts with a traditional sunrise period and ends with general availability. But between sunrise and landrush is a Priority Access Program designed to let owners of example.com register example.IDN (presumably because the second level domain is an IDN in the same language/script).
The priority period for .コム was scheduled to end May 15 and landrush began May 16 at 00:00 UTC. Landrush allowed anyone to register a domain name, even if they didn’t own the corresponding second level domain in .com.
But on May 15, people were able to register .コム domains at eNom even if they didn’t own the corresponding example.com. Some IDNers speculate that there was lack of clarity of the start time between 00:00 UTC and 12 am in Japan.
Over a hundred domain names were registered early at eNom/Name.com on March 15, before the landrush window opened.
This irked people who were waiting to snap up domains during landrush.
Now the people who were able to get the domains early at eNom are irked.
Without notice to the registrants, the domains were deleted and picked up by the CEO of another registrar.
I reached out to both eNom parent Rightside as well as Verisign for comment.
Rightside replied:
Enom and Name.com followed the procedures as set forth in the agreements. We defer to the Registry for comments on their enforcement.
Verisign replied:
Certain domain names that were registered during the Priority Access Program Period in the .コム (XN–TCKWE) new generic top-level domain were not registered according to our Registration Policy. Verisign notified all .コム registrars and then made the domain names available to all .コム registrars for registration on a first-come, first-served basis.
In other words, Verisign says the domains registered on May 15 at eNom were registered during the priority period before landrush began. Because the registrants didn’t own the corresponding .com, they were in violation of the policy.
Verisign then informed registrars it was going to delete the domains, but apparently some of the eNom registrants weren’t aware of this.
Perhaps it was wise for Verisign to release just one IDN transliteration domain so far. Hopefully, the launch of its other IDN top level domains will be without controversy.
They have let the names split!!
Imagine the owner of the idn.com now finds out the idn.idn version of their name is owned by someone else. Icann’t and versign are idiots for letting this happen. For over a decade idn.com owners have floated this boat and then both groups basically stick a knife in current registrants backs. They should all be ashamed of this colossal bungle.
That wasn’t verisigns fault. Icann forced them to do it.
OK, but they were part of the negotiations. Epic fail.
Trying to negotiate with ICANN is like a husband trying to argue with his wife; none of them works.
“Premium” pricing for idn.idn versions of the idn.com I already own??!!?? Huge scam trying to extort money from existing idn.com owners because Verisign KNOWS current idn.com owners want the idn.idn version of thier names. Nasty bunch of parasites over at that Verisign. Taking money from idn.com owners for over 10+ years leading them to believe they would get the idn.idn version of their names and when that looked like a wash they decide to gouge existing owners for more cash for the idn.idn names!!! Parasites extraordinaire!!!!
Which is why ICANN are so keen to be beyond juristiction.
The next Verisign launch is going to be a bust too, again thanks to ICANN incompetence and Verisign inaction.
.닷컴 and .닷넷 are in sunrise now and priority registration starts in about 5 days time.
Thanks to ICANN’s anti-Asian hang-up with single character TLD’s, Verisign was forced to use 2 character names for the Korean version of .com and .net.
Here’s the problem:
컴 is the transliteration for “com” and 넷 is the one for “net”. So what is 닷 the transliteration for? You guessed it – “dot”.
So here we have 2 entire TLD’s where when the domain name is spoken out loud, the word “dot” has to be said twice, and the first one has to be the DNS-understood “.” and then the 2nd the Korean word.*
Epic fail, anyone?
But wait, there’s more!
IIRC Verisign intend to obtain the .컴 and .넷 TLD’s when ICANN finally understand how CJK languages work (probably 20 years out from new).
Thanks to ICANN not allowing grandfathering (although Verisign could have got around that by allowing peppercorn registration in the priority period) the owner of 예.com and 예.닷컴 may end up to be different entities – especially since Verisign’s “premium” domain pricing kicks in at priority registration instead of at landrush as it should.
So when .컴 becomes available, who gets 예.컴? Since .닷컴 is never going to fly, I believe it should be the owner of 예.com, since they have been paying renewal fees for 10+ year ALREADY, waiting for .컴
If it’s the owner of 예.닷컴, then that forces the owner of 예.com to register it – possibly having to pay an extortionate US$15k “premium” fee, just to (possibly) guarantee that some date out in the distant future, they get second dibs on 예.컴 (because someone could just go get a weak TM on it to get it for base reg fee)
Gaaaaaaa!
* a piece of relevant trivia: When Japanese are discussing a website in a forum, they will often not type the “.” in the domain name, they use the Japanese word for the near equivalent “dotto” ドット so there is a ton of error traffic going to the root servers where Japanese are typing in domain names with the “.” replaced with “ドット”. 18 million results in Google for “ドットコム”
To force them to think of “.” you have to replace “dot” with “終止符”
https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/終止符
So Verisign should be using the phrase “shūshifu komu” rather than “dotto komu” when speaking, because then Japanese would be more likely to type “.” instead of “ドット”.
IDN.IDN in Chiese will also make good material for a Stand Up Comedian.
It is probably still born.
“Verisign notified all .コム registrars and then made the domain names available to all .コム registrars for registration on a first-come, first-served basis.”
Which is why they were all then snapped up by one registrar CEO who realized a bunch of premium names would be made available, leaving the corresponding idn.com domain registrants screwed.
The idn.com registrant still gets most of the traffic for now and a long time probably. It’s just the fact that they are letting the names split. Unbelievable mess. Actually I think if anyone registers the idn.idn version of an existing idn.com the idn.com owner will benefit traffic wise. imo
Anyone know the amount registered so far? Or how many other launches there will be? I just want to know if I should buy some more verisign stock 🙂
Looks like about 5,000 in the zone file so far.
https://ntldstats.com/tld/xn--tckwe
Thank you!