.asia is a
sponsored top-level domain
sponsored by the DotAsia Organization, with the back-end registry
operated by
Afilias. It was approved by
ICANN on
19 October,
2006 as a
sponsored TLD.
It will serve as a
regional domain for companies, organisations, and individuals based
in the region of Asia, Australia, and the Pacific
.
Roll-out/Response
The
.asia domain opened to registrations, first-come,
first-served, on
26 March 2008.
The sunrise period for .asia began on
9
October 2007, and ended on
31 January 2008.
From
20 February 2008 to
12 March 2008, .asia was in the
land rush state. Anyone
meeting the .asia registration requirements could apply for any
available .asia domain name. Each domain name for which there was
more than one request auctioned among the applicants after the
initial registration period closes. The auction process is
considered innovative for a TLD launch, however, it may be biased
against individuals and non-profit driven entities, as they
typically lack the scale of funds available to commercial
enterprises.
During the land rush state 473,633 domain registration applications
were received, bringing the total number of applications to
505,838. (Note that these are applications for registration rather
than actual registrations, so many may be contested by auction or
be disqualified.)
The first commercial Web site to launch under the .Asia domain was
Admart.Asia, founded by Wayan Chan, of the
Special
Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China on
26 March 2008.
Controversy
Eligibility
Although intended to confine eligibility to genuine denizens of the
extended Asia-Pacific region, in practice, many entities outside
the area have been able to register .asia domains without qualm by
selecting an agent (typically provided by a registrar). It is yet
to be seen if this will disqualify auction contenders or lead to
legal challenges, as it may contravene the .asia charter:
- To sponsor, establish and operate a regional Internet
namespace with global recognition and regional significance,
dedicated to the needs of the Pan-Asia and Asia Pacific
Internet community.
Conflict of interest
Allegations of
insider trading and
conflict of interest have been levelled at the CEO of Pool.com, a
Canadian company with exclusive rights to auction .ASIA domains
prior to initial allocation. The CEO,
Richard Schreier, is accused of securing
with unfair advantage several premium .ASIA domain names via a
number of corporations he apparently has links with.
Mr Schreier specifies that he does
"not have any ownership
interest" in the corporations involved. As of 15 May 2008, it
is unclear whether Mr Schreier has control over the domains in
question, nor whether this would breach the DotAsia contract or any
laws for countries that the TLD applies to.
The 'DotAsia.com Plot' website that makes the allegations, claims
to have received correspondence from CEO of DotAsia, Mr Chung,
stating that
"Being a party related to a bidding party, in my
understanding, does not automatically create any issue." If
there is such an affiliation, it would almost certainly be illegal
under Australian competition law (where one of the companies
involved, Throne Ventures Pty Ltd, is registered.)
Some of the domains in question:
porn.asia; dating.asia;
insurance.asia; lotto.asia; stocks.asia; auction.asia; beer.asia;
fitness.asia; girls.asia; wine.asia
However, all of these domains according to the .ASIA whois service,
were awarded during the Sunrise period which means their
applications were made with a claim of prior right (registered
trademark identical to the domain name). These claims would have
been validated by the .ASIA validation partner (there were two,
including Deloitte Touche) and where multiple applications were
received, the domains would go to auction. The actual auction
schedule shows these domains did not go to auction from which it
can be concluded there was only a single verified application for
the domains in question.
References
- DotAsia Auctions Aim to Address Problems of the
Past
-
http://www.dotasia.org/pressreleases/DotAsia-PR-LRClosed-2008-03-13_EN.pdf
-
http://www.icann.org/tlds/agreements/asia/appendix-s-06dec06.htm#1
- the dotasia-complot
- Asia and Pool.com Come Under Fire | Domain Name
News
- the dotasia-complot
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