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ICANN tests emergency registry with dead dot-brand

Kevin Murphy, January 27, 2016, 12:21:53 (UTC), Domain Registries

ICANN is running a test of its Emergency Back-End Registry Operator program, using the dead dot-brand gTLD .doosan as its guinea pig.
Doosan Group, a large Korean conglomerate, decided to kill off its gTLD, .doosan, last September. ICANN revealed the news in October.
The dot-brand had never been put to productive use and really only ever had nic.doosan live.
As it’s a dot-brand, it’s protected by the part of the Registry Agreement that prevents it being transferred to another registry operator.
Rather than letting the gTLD slip away into the night, however, ICANN is taking it as an opportunity to test out its EBERO system instead. ICANN says:

Simulating an emergency registry operator transition will provide valuable insight into the effectiveness of procedures for addressing potential gTLD service interruptions. Lessons learned will be used to support ICANN’s efforts to ensure the security, stability and resiliency of the Internet and the Domain Name System.

EBERO is the process that is supposed to kick in when (or if, I guess) a gTLD with a significant number of third-party registrations goes out of business and no other registry wants to take it over.
The EBERO provider takes over the running of the TLD’s critical functions for a few years so it can be wound down in an orderly fashion, giving registrants enough time to migrate to other TLDs.
Nominet, one of the designated EBERO operators, has taken over .doosan for this test, which is only a temporary measure.
Its IANA record was updated today with Nominet named as the technical contact and ICANN as the sponsor and administrator. Its name servers have switched over to Nominet’s.
Right now, www.nic.doosan resolves to ICANN’s EBERO web page. The non-www. version doesn’t seem to do anything.
ICANN said it will provide updates when the test is over.


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Comments (1)

  1. Vishal says:

    This is a good news for domain owners, if something happens to a some TLD’s they will not lose their time and money and have good time to migrate to any TLD. This is a great step by ICANN, and hope that never needs to happen but for emergency it’s a step ahead to solve problem.

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