Greece’s request for .ελ turned down

[Avtal]

From DomainIncite:

Greece’s request for .ελ, a version of .gr in its local script, was rejected by ICANN because it looked too much like .EA, a non-existent top-level domain.

A couple of regulars from this forum added comments. One commenter suggested that this shows the advantage of IDN .com domains.

But I am not as sure. It seems possible that .κομ could be blocked because of visual similarity to .com.

Or, in a more likely scenario, Verisign might be forced to choose between .κομ (Greek) and .ком (Russian), because the two are visually quite similar.

Avtal

[blastfromthepast]

Non-existent domain wins? Strange.

[blastfromthepast]

Originally Posted by yanni

From According to Vaggelis Segredakis (of the dot GR registry who applied for .ελ), the IDNA2008 protocol does NOT allow capital letters.
So he asks “Why was the decision based on the capital letters which are not part of the DNS?”

[bumblebee man]

This is getting f****** ridiculous.

[blastfromthepast]

That’s true. There is no .ea. But that’s not to say one will not be created in future and, due to the way ccTLD strings are assigned, ICANN would not be able to prevent it on stability grounds.

Why would it not be able to prevent it?

[Avtal]

Originally Posted by blastfromthepast

Why would it not be able to prevent it?

As I understand it, ICANN assigns two-letter latin country codes on the basis of a list maintained by the ISO 3166 Maintenance Agency (ISO 3166/MA for short). This agency has decided that PS should be assigned to "Palestinian Territory (Occupied)", that SX should be assigned to "Sint Maarten (Dutch Part)", and that Abkhazia and Kosovo should get nothing at all. ICANN's list of ccTLDs reflects these decisions.

So if someday ISO 3166/MA assigns EA to the Republic of East Anglia, then ICANN will either have to assign .ea as East Anglia's ccTLD, or for the first time ever deviate from the ISO 3166 list of two-letter latin country codes.

As for the argument about capital letters: When you type EXAMPLE.COM into your browser, you expect your browser to take you to that domain. And in fact, if you do a whois search at Moniker on example.com, the first line is:
Domain Name: EXAMPLE.COM
So capitalized names are frequently used. And you can't deny that .EA (East Anglia, some day) looks a lot like .ΕΛ (capitalized version of .ελ).

Anyway, the above is what I imagine ICANN's official explanation would be, if they bothered to provide one.

Cynical unofficial version: The purpose of the fast-track IDN ccTLD process was to get China and Russia off of ICANN's back. Mission accomplished. If Bulgaria and Greece don't like the results of the fast-track process, they can wait for the slow track. (Or so I imagine is the thinking at ICANN).

Avtal

P.S. .ΚΟΜ (Greek) sure looks a lot like .КОМ (Russian).

[bumblebee man]

Why should East Anglia have a ccTLD?

[Avtal]

Originally Posted by bumblebee man

Why should East Anglia have a ccTLD?

Hypothetical situation. If East Anglia declares independence, and ISO 3166/MA recognizes East Anglia as a country or territory, then East Anglia will be assigned a country code, perhaps EA. In that case ICANN's policies will require ICANN to offer .ea to the competent authorities in East Anglia.

I am not in a position to comment whether East Anglia is likely now, or in the future, to declare independence. But neither is ICANN. The main point is that ICANN has to hold all two-letter latin combinations in reserve, in case they are assigned some day by ISO 3166/MA.

Avtal

[Rubber Duck]

Originally Posted by Avtal

Hypothetical situation. If East Anglia declares independence, and ISO 3166/MA recognizes East Anglia as a country or territory, then East Anglia will be assigned a country code, perhaps EA. In that case ICANN's policies will require ICANN to offer .ea to the competent authorities in East Anglia.

I am not in a position to comment whether East Anglia is likely now, or in the future, to declare independence. But neither is ICANN. The main point is that ICANN has to hold all two-letter latin combinations in reserve, in case they are assigned some day by ISO 3166/MA.

Avtal

Fast Track getting ahead of policy decisions.

They are probably not saying that East Anglia has priority over Greece. They are probably just saying that is beyond the scope the Fast Track to allow it at this time.

[alexd]

I had always believed that Greece would be awarded .ελ. It seemed like the logical fit to me. The other "alternative" could have been .γρ ( .gr in Greek equivalent on the keyboard ) but this really doesn't mean anything in Greek / to Greeks.

Alex

[bramiozo]

Originally Posted by Avtal

From DomainIncite:



A couple of regulars from this forum added comments. One commenter suggested that this shows the advantage of IDN .com domains.

But I am not as sure. It seems possible that .κομ could be blocked because of visual similarity to .com.

Or, in a more likely scenario, Verisign might be forced to choose between .κομ (Greek) and .ком (Russian), because the two are visually quite similar.

Avtal

Verisign wouldn't have to choose if it owned both brands and simply accepted the similarity. If verisign doesn't claim all translations (which is likely) the smaller languages are likely to get sacrificed.

[Avtal]

Originally Posted by bramiozo

Verisign wouldn't have to choose if it owned both brands and simply accepted the similarity.

Unfortunately, that's not the case for the first gTLD round. The visual-similarity test will be carried out by an independent committee, and two strings that are considered to be confusingly visually similar will be lumped into a single "contention set". Only one string in the contention set will be allowed into the root. So Verisign will have to choose one. Verisign won't be allowed to simply accept the similarity.

Last summer, Chuck Gomes tried to introduce the concept of "non-detrimental similarity", which would have allowed Verisign to waive the visual similarity test in these cases, but the ICANN board turned this idea down, for the first round anyway.

I believe that .com will eventually be implemented in all scripts, but in some cases this will have to wait until later rounds, after ICANN modifies the rules.

Avtal