Posts Tagged ‘Domain Names’

TRA .OM Domain Names Public Consultation

Sunday, November 2nd, 2008

This is a reminder for all of those interested in .OM domain names, the deadline for submitting feedback to the TRA’s public consutlation paper on .OM domain name framework is November 8th (Next Saturday). So if you have any opinion on how domain names in Oman are regulated then please take a moment to read this and send your feedback.

You can download the proposed framework from here (Warning PDF link).

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New Domain Regulations

Wednesday, September 17th, 2008
I finished reading the new Domain Name Policy Frame work I told you about yesterday. It’s pretty interesting. The main highlights of it are:
  1. A new department in the TRA called .OM Domain Administration (omDA – We can call it 3umdah in Arabic I guess!) will be created and will be responsible for .OM domain names.
  2. 3umda will grant a license for companies to become Domain Name Registrars so that any company can offer domain name registration services and not just OmanTel. (They call it accreditation instead of license).
  3. Only companies with a working capital of more than RO 50,000 (sorry this was a typo) RO 20,000 can apply to become a registrar. The company (or some of its staff) must have at least six month experience in the domain name business before it can apply for accreditation. The application fee is RO 500, there are no annual fees. 3umda can terminate the service of non-performing registrars.
  4. 3umda will not specify retail prices and will give all companies the same wholesale price. Companies can set their own retail price. If only one company ends getting accredited then 3umda will have to agree to the retail prices with it.
  5. Companies will have to buy domain names from Registrars, not from 3umda directly.
  6. Individuals CANNOT buy domain names. Nobody can buy a domain name for personal use.
  7. Omani Tribe names are reserved names, you cannot register a domain name that is also a tribe name.
  8. Domain names cannot be sold. The policy says that people who register domain names do not own it, they merely have the right to use it and they cannot sell that right. If a registrar or 3umda learns of a sale transaction of a domain name the domain name will be suspended and neither the buyer or the seller will have it.
  9. 3umda  will suspend your domain name if a government authority or the police request that.
  10. You cannot buy a domain name that contains a trademark, a word close to it or a misspelled version of it.
The Framework has a lot of things which I thought were great and well thought out, make sure you read the whole thing if you are interested in learning about the domain name business.
I have issues with some of the points I mentioned above, especially the fact that individuals cannot buy .OM domain names – Oh my God that is so stupid. Individuals can have mobile phones, faxes, PO Boxes, land properties, computers, and internet lines, but they cannot have domain names, why? Because the internet is a place exclusive for businesses to sell us products. I find this so stupid I do not know where to begin.
Another major issue I have with this is the fact that people here do not understand the basics of trademark law and think that the safe way to prevent problems is by not allowing anyone to register a domain name that has a trademark. This does not make sense because a trademark does NOT grant its owner a global monopoly over the use of a term or a mark, but protects him from the use of the same trademark in a manner that will confuse other people in regard to the source of a product/service in question. Two people can legally register the same trademark for different businesses as long no customers are confused to the source of the product/service. Example:

Khaled decides to create a restuarant in Al Khode which he names “Cisco”. He applies for a trademark for the term Cisco under the one of the categories related to restaurants and catoring services. Cisco’s trademark is not violated because nobody would think that Cisco the restaurant is the same as Cisco the technology company.

This is clear from the meaning of Article 36(2)(vi) and Article 39(1) of the new Industrial Property Law (Royal Decree 67/2008) as both of these articles talk about “connected services and products”. This is the international position of this matter, but it is clear that the TRA has no idea about this as their framework does not take it into consideration.
The deadline for submitting your feedback about the new domain name framework is the 8th of November 2008. There is more than a month to read the framework and send your feedback to the TRA if you have any comments on it. I am going to sleep on this, do some research a bit and then write a response to the TRA. No idea if they will listen to what I will say but I would have done my part and tried to stop bitching and start a revolution.

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The TRA .OM Public Consultation

Tuesday, September 16th, 2008

The TRA announced two days ago the opening of a public consultation paper (Direct link to PDF) on the registration and usage of the .OM top level domain. In this public consultation paper the TRA shows us the regulations they are proposing and welcome any feedback from anyone in the public. They have no obligation to listen to what we say, but they might consider it. If you have any problems with the way domain names are registers this is your opportunity to speak up and tell them how you think it should be done.

For those who do not know, each country has a TLD (Top-Level-Domain) post-fix such as .uk, .jp, .ca which it can offer 3rd or 2nd level domain names to people to register their websites with. Oman owns the .om TLD and offers companies and organisations the opportunity to regsiter third level domain names under certain 2nd level domain extensions such as .com.om, .net.om, .org.om, etc.
In developed countries of the world, businesses and individuals have made use of locally branded domain names such as .co.uk, .co.jp, to let people know that this website has a geographically targetted audience. In Oman, .com.om domain names have never picked up, mostly because of the ridiculously expensive fees and the weird regulations required for registering a domain name. The current state of domain names in Oman is a mess:
  1. Companies do not seem to see a benefit in registering a .COM.OM domain name as opposed to a .COM domain name. Companies that host their website under a .COM.OM are finger countable. Even the biggest companies that can easily afford .COM.OM and .OM domain names do not seem care about one: BankMuscat, Bank Sohar, OIB, Galfar, Oman Air.
  2. The currently available 2LD domains are confusing, we have .om, .com.om, .co.om, and .ac.om and .edu.om. 
  3. The few bodies which use .OM TLDs and 2LDs do not use it under any clear logic. I do not understand why Omantel’s website is a .NET.OM, while Oman Mobile’s website is a .OM. Why don’t PEIE, KOM, or Origin Oman domain names have .GOV.OM domain name when they are government bodies/initiatives.
I personally do not think that the public in Oman make a connection with .OM domain names and local businesses, when somebody tries to guess a name of the website they will never try guessing .COM.OM domain names. I personally will not think that someone is more credible just because he/she has a .COM.OM domain name and I don’t think most people do. 
For the public to start making a connection with .OM domain names and local businesses these domain will have to be registered. Nobody is registering domain names because:
  1. There is no easy way for registering them online. You can search for available domain names through Omantel, but it is barely helpful. We can argue that we couldn’t register domain names online in the past because of they didn’t have a proper method for accepting payments online, but now that ITA launched the ePayment Gateway we will start seeing some.
  2. Currently, Omantel is the only .OM registrar and its prices are for registering domain names are extortionate. Currently a .COM.OM a domain name can set you back at RO 40 to RO 50 – on the other hand a straight forward .COM domain name will cost you less than $10 (RO 3.85). There are other TLD such a .UK domain name costs £2.95 (RO 2). In Oman, only a first class company with a capital of more than half a million (I think 1/2 a million is the number) can get the .OM domain name.
  3. The craziest thing about .OM domain names in Oman is that only registered bodies and professionals can apply for them. Individuals cannot register any .OM 2LD domain names for their personal use. There is no such rule in the US or the UK. Bloggers such as Muscati.com, KishorCariappa.com, Amjad248.com, MuscatxDubai.com, and even myself wouldn’t have had our domain names if such a rule if there was one, hell, even Sablat Al Arab and all Omani websites and forums won’t exist if there was such a rule in the US.
The domain name business has many players, first, there is ICANN, the international body that is responsible for TLD. The in Oman we have the TRA that is responsible for the .OM TLD, and then we have registrars, which are companies that register domain names such as OmanTel.
The new suggested .OM TLD framework will open up the .OM registration market by allowing any company with a working capital that exceeds 50K to become a registrant. The frame work provides the selection criteria, the fees involved and the code of practice. The TRA is also of the opinion that the current rules are generally too stringent and should be relaxed a bit to encourage people to register .OM domains.
I have not finished reading the framework yet. I will do that and then post some of my comments on it here before I send it to the TRA.

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Major Expansion of Domain Name System

Friday, June 27th, 2008

ICANN, the not-for-profit organisation responsible for taking care of top level domains (TLDs) such as .com, .net, .org and all the country TLDs such as .uk, .jp, and .om, has announced that it will allow individuals and organisations to register any top level domain name they wish. For exmaple:

One should be able to register http://ahmed.albalushi/ instead of http://ahmedalbalushi.com/

Countries can register their full name as the top level domain. Example:

The Ministry of Tourism can be registered at http://tourism.oman/ instead of http://mot.gov.om/

Companies can also register their own name as their top level domain:

Apple can register http://apple.mac/ instead of http://apple.com/

This might be the start of a new domain craze just like the mid nineties when people were registering all the domain names they can think of in hope of making money by selling them later to people who might be intersted in them or by by simply parking them and generating money through advertising. However, history might not exactly repeat itself as some people predict that the cost registering a TLD might start from $50,000 to $100,000. (In comparison to the $10 you need to pay to get a .com domain name).

ICANN will provide trademark owners with an objection-mechanism to stop people for registering their domain names. This will surely be easier said that done because of the regional and industrial scope limitations of trademarks.

An object mechanism will also be made for stopping people from registering TLDs which are offensive to the public.

The second major update to the domain name business is that Arabic and Asian characters will be allowed in domain names. I can understand why people would want to it, but why would you ever want to have a domain name in characters that cannot even be typed by the rest of the world?!

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