[RFCI-Discuss] com.ro

[Derek J. Balling]

Here's my take on "com.ro". To put it in perspective, I'm going to  
compare and contrast with "asso.fr", which recently came up, as well  
as "uk.com", which is a classic counterexample.

1.) Presence of the gSLD (generic Second Level Domain) in WHOIS

	Both "asso.fr" and "com.ro" have presence in the WHOIS database,  
indicating that they are "container objects" for lack of a better  
word. Ostensibly, from looking at their description, they are there  
simply so that nobody else registers "asso.fr" or "com.ro".  This,  
from a technical standpoint about how their systems probably work,  
makes a lot of sense.

	"uk.com", on the other hand, does not appear different in any way  
from any other WHOIS entry, for instance, MICROSOFT.COM.

2.) Presence of tertiary-LDs in WHOIS

	When a gSLD is legitimately delegating its tertiary-LDs, you would  
expect to see the tertiary-LDs *also* in WHOIS, such as  
"anrt.asso.fr". In the case of ".com.ro", similarly, domains  
registered below it also seem to appear in WHOIS.

	Contrarily, tertiary-LDs under UK.COM do not appear in the WHOIS  
database, nor does the .COM WHOIS server point a request for  
EXAMPLE.UK.COM down to an appropriate secondary-level WHOIS server.

I would propose then, the following change to the policy-abuse  
document to delineate this difference:

Adding the following sentence to the paragraph that mentions "...  
WHOIS registry is the level ..."

	"An exception to this rule would be WHOIS entries which exist  
clearly as placeholder or container objects in the WHOIS database for  
generic SLDs, where the registry in question either handles any  
request it receives for a tertiary-level domain, or refers such  
requests to an appropriate WHOIS server for resolution."

I think that this verbiage clarifies and codifies the understanding  
that seems to exist around gSLDs which have WHOIS entries, but also  
does *not* give folks who operate a la UK.COM, where they simply  
cannibalize a single (regular) domain name registration, a workaround.

Comments?

Cheers,
D