The non-profit body also plans to allow people to register names
consisting of terms that make up other parts of domains, such as
com, gov or edu.
Nominet's Policy Advisory Body (PAB) has recommended the changes
and it has now asked users and industry to respond to the plans,
which it backs.
"These recommendations and suggestions have been reviewed
internally and we consider that in general where there is no longer
a technical or policy reason for a restriction in our rules, then
those rules should be removed," said a Nominet statement.
Nominet's rules of domain name registration forbid one-character
domain names at the 'third level', ie the part of a domain name
that comes before the '.co.uk' or '.org.uk' part. The rules also
forbid the registration of two-letter domain names in many of the
domains that Nominet manages, though a letter and a number combined
is allowed.
It is these rules that Nominet is considering changing. It is
running a consultation that closes on 8th June.
Nominet said that it would operate a 'sunrise' period, a time
during which only those with trade mark or other rights to terms
can apply for names.
"Given that many of these domains are likely to be highly
attractive due to their intrinsic brevity, we agree that is seems
appropriate to follow the PAB recommendation for a controlled
sunrise release mechanism," it said.
A first round would be open only to the holders of registered
trade marks in force in the UK that are identical to the name
applied for. Any names left after that process would be open for
registration by the holders of unregistered rights.
Nominet is still not decided, though, on how to decide who
should get a domain name when two organisations or people have
equal rights to it.
"We consider that charities and not for profit organisations
should have priority for org.uk domains, and that commercial
organisations should have priority for co.uk domains," it said.
But for other domain names where no such distinction can be
made, it said that it was "inclined" to opt for a sealed bid
auction to decide who should own the name.
The Nominet plan involves only charging enough to cover the
costs of the process, it said.
"If any auctions generate a surplus, we intend to gift that
surplus to Nominet Trust, a charitable organisation established by
Nominet with the objects including the education, relief of
financial hardship and protection of children in the area of the
Internet and information technology," it said.
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