GAC Agenda Item 10: Three-Character Country Codes as Top-Level Domains in Future Rounds

Two different issues ref. country codes THIS SESSION! Three-character country codes at the top-level in future rounds e.g. domainname.CCC Policy Development Process (PDP) First round forbade country names or codes at top-level

Background The joint ccNSO and GNSO working group on use of country and territory names at top level domains (CWG-UCTN) is looking at the possibility of lifting the current restrictions on 3-letter codes as well as country names. They sent out a questionnaire on Sept. 2015 > The GAC provided its initial input on Dec. 2015. Questions covered all 3-character combinations, in ASCII and IDN characters. On ISO 3-letter codes, the GAC noted their strong association with countries and territories > High risk of confusion with ccTLDs. Significant support for maintaining current protections. Less than 2% (300) of the 3-character ASCII letter-letter-letter combinations (17,576) are country codes (ISO 3166-1 Alpha-3). The joint ccNSO and GNSO working group (CWG-UTCN) has divided its work into three work streams and is at an early stage in its policy development process on 3-letter codes. It is starting to look at the treatment of 3-character codes and gathering early input into the PDP from the GAC and others for the future, but does not have proposals at this stage. It is posing questions that correspond to rough scenarios, should the GAC wish to offer early views on some or all of them.

What is the issue? The CWG-UCTN released “straw woman paper” at ICANN 55 Marrakech = possible policy approach to make three-character ISO-3166-1 alpha-3 country codes eligible as gTLDs in future. GAC Geonames WG has prepared a reasoned response to the “straw woman proposal” to uphold current protections. The response is submitted to the GAC for endorsement following Guidelines for GAC WGs. The joint ccNSO and GNSO working group (CWG-UTCN) has divided its work into three work streams and is at an early stage in its policy development process on 3-letter codes. It is starting to look at the treatment of 3-character codes and gathering early input into the PDP from the GAC and others for the future, but does not have proposals at this stage. It is posing questions that correspond to rough scenarios, should the GAC wish to offer early views on some or all of them.

GAC options - Country and territory names as SLDs Review and comment on the proposed response put forward by the GAC WG on geonames to the straw man paper and submit to the CCWG-UTCN. Pose questions to the CWG-UCTN Co-Chairs at ICANN56 in Helsinki. Cross Community session: country and other geographic names Forum (Wednesday 15:15 h.) Additional GAC members could engage in the activities of the CWG-UCTN. The RA sets review by the GAC as a condition to release CTNs. The RA does not specify what GAC review means and ccTLD manager for two-character codes

Thank you ! Questions? Ideas?