ntc draft (as of feb 6, 2004): guidelines in the administration of the .ph domain name

7/30/2019 NTC Draft (as of Feb 6, 2004): Guidelines in the Administration of the .Ph Domain Name

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Working Draft

As of 6 February 2004

Guidelines in the Administration of the .Ph Domain Name

WHEREAS:

1. The .ph domain name is a public resource and is part of the Philippine national

patrimony.

2. The State has the sovereign right over Internet-related public policy issues.

3. The administrator of the .ph domain, as defined hereunder, is the trustee of the

country code top level domain for the Philippines and the global Internetcommunity.

4. As such trustee, the administrator of the .ph domain name is accountable to the

local Internet community and must be able to carry out the necessary

responsibilities, and have the ability to do an equitable, just, honest and

competent job.

5. The local Internet community must be ensured with an efficient, stable, fair

and transparent administration of the .ph domain, consistent with the policy to

uphold and maintain consumer rights.

6. In order to ensure that the .ph domain is administered in accordance with these

principles, these Guidelines are hereby adopted.

Article I. Definition of Terms

ccTLD - A country code top level domain in the top level of the global domain name

system, assigned according to the two-letter codes in the ISO 3166-1 standard codes

for the representation of names of countries or territories. The .ph domain is theccTLD for the Philippines.

ccTLD Registry - The system on which is recorded domain names for the country

code top level domain name, according to policies and rules, and following

procedures, established with the Local Internet Community (as defined below). The

ccTLD Registry is administered by the ccTLD Administrator or ccTLD Manager.

ccTLD Administrator or Manager, referred to in these Guidelines as the

Administrator - A company, organization or juridical entity managing a ccTLD

Registry.


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Communication or Correspondence refers to the law, regulation, agreement,

document, contract, memorandum of understanding, or any other written instrument,

as appropriate, among the Administrator, the Philippine government and ICANN. The

Communication or Correspondence shall be subject to periodic review by the parties.

Delegation - refers to the delegation by ICANN/IANA of responsibility for theadministration of a top level domain in the DNS root.

Designation - means designation by the relevant government or public authority of

the Delegee.

Delegee - means the duly incorporated or organized entity, organization, or enterprise

designated by the Relevant Government or Public Authority to exercise the public

trust function of a ccTLD Administrator and consequently recognized through a

Communication between ICANN, the designated entity, and the Philippine

government for that purpose. The Delegee also refers to the ccTLD Administrator or

ccTLD Manager.

DNS - means domain name system.

DNS Records - the database of domain names maintained by the ccTLD

Administrator.

Relevant Government or Public Authority - means the national government of the

Republic of the Philippines and the relevant public agency and/or instrumentality

thereof, with the responsibility over Internet-related concerns.

Registrant - A company, organization or individual for whom a name has been

registered as a domain name in the ccTLD domain name register.

Registrar - refers to a person or entity that contracts with Registrants and with the

ccTLD Administrator and collects registration data about the Registrant and submits

registration information for entry in the Registry database

ICANN - Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers.

IANA - Internet Assigned Numbers Authority, which was incorporated into ICANN

in 1999.

Local Internet Community - refers to the Internet industry and its users, including the

government and the academe.

Zone File the complete and authoritative resource records for a domain.

Article II. Qualifications of the Administrator


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Section 1. The Administrator must be a duly organized non-stock, non-profit

Philippine corporation. At least sixty percent (60%) of its members must be

Philippine citizens. No member of the board of trustees of the registry must be related

up to the second degree of consanguinity or affinity or have any interest in any

Registrar or the Registrar business.

Section 2. The Administrator must obtain the necessary government registrations,

permits and licenses, and comply with all legal requirements for non-stock, non-profit

Philippine corporations.

Section 3. There must be an administrative contact and a technical contact for the .ph

domain, duly approved by the Relevant Government or Public Authority. The

administrative and technical contacts must be residents of the Philippines their contact

information must be made publicly available.

Section 4. The Administrator must not show any bias regarding requests coming

from customers or businesses related to the Administrator.

Article III. Delegation and Recognition of the Administrator

Section 1. The current Administrator must secure recognition from the Philippine

government as the legitimate Delegee, in accordance with these Guidelines.1 The

procedures for the replacement of the Administrator shall be the subject of separate

guidelines to be drafted by the Relevant Government or Public Authority in the future,

taking into consideration relevant policies of ICANN and IANA.

Section 2. The designation and resulting relationship between the designated

Administrator and the national government of the Philippines shall be documented by

way of Communication or Correspondence, as the term is defined herein. The

Communication shall make reference to these Guidelines and be binding upon the

Administrator and submitted to ICANN/IANA. A written Communication or

Correspondence should likewise be obtained or secured by the designated

Administrator from ICANN/IANA to document the delegation. It is envisioned that

no delegation from ICANN/IANA shall be deemed valid within the Philippines unless

the Delegee has been previously duly designated by the Relevant Public or

Government Authority in the Philippines.

The Communication or Correspondence between the Philippine government and the

Administrator shall be governed by Philippine laws.

Article IV. Technical Competence

1 It is proposed that this first sentence be deleted since the premise of these Guidelines

is the NEDA Option 3, which involves maintenance of status quo and to harmonizewith Article XIII, Section 1 on the Interim Provisions.


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Section 1. The Administrator must do a satisfactory job of operating the DNS service

for the domain. Duties such as the assignment of domain names, delegation of sub-

domains and operation of nameservers must be done with technical competence.

Section 2. The Administrator must supervise the domain names and operate the

domain name system in the Philippines with competence and in accordance with theseGuidelines. Equipment used by the Administrator must reflect at least the state of the

art prevailing in the DNS globally.

Section 3. The Administrator must be on the Internet. There must be Internet

Protocol (IP) connectivity to the nameservers and email connectivity to the

management and staff of the Administrator.

Section 4. At a minimum, the ccTLD Administrator must provide permanent

connectivity to at least two (2) nameservers and the registry servers, twenty four (24)

hours per day, seven (7) days per week. There should be published e-mail and web

address contacts, updated facsimile numbers, phone numbers, mobile numbers, andoffice addresses, and these should be permanently accessible to the public.

Section 5. The primary servers should be in the Philippines, while secondary servers

may be located outside of the country. However, the Relevant Public or Government

Authority must have access to Registrants contact information and the Administrator

must furnish the Relevant Government or Public Authority such information on a

quarterly basis, and in such format as will be designated by the Relevant Government

or Public Authority.

Section 6. The Administrator must keep IANA/ICANN advised of the status of the

domain, responding to requests in a timely manner, and operating the database with

accuracy, robustness and resilience.

Section 7. The Administrator must take all reasonable professional measures to

ensure that all registry data is secured against damage or loss, including using the best

technology in prevailing use for such purposes.

Section 8. The Administrator has the sole obligation to manage and maintain the

Registry and may not subcontract any aspect of the management and maintenance of

the Registry.

Section 9. The Administrator is required to submit and provide updates on how it

will ensure the accuracy, robustness, resilience and reliability of the DNS to the

relevant government or public authority. Towards this end, the Administrator is

required to submit documents pertaining to the network design, backup and disaster

recovery strategy and recovery commitments, physical and network based security

strategies, and related documents and declarations that support compliance with ICP-

1. The Relevant Government or Public Authority reserves the right to request

additional documentation and declarations from the Administrator in line with this

requirement.

Section 10. The Registry shall use a shared registry system to allow multipleRegistrars access to the Registry.


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Article V. Management and Delineation of Functions

Section 1. There shall only be one Registry. Multiple Registrars shall be encouraged

to facilitate competition.

Section 2. All policies to be implemented by the Administrator shall be in

consultation with the local Internet community and shall be submitted to the relevant

government or public authority, at least thirty (30) days before implementation. Such

policies must be available for public inspection on the Internet.

Section 3. The price to be offered by the Administrator to the Registrars shall be the

subject of negotiations between the Relevant Government or Public Authority and the

Administrator in their Communication or Correspondence.

Article VI. Registration of Domain Names

Section 1. The Administrator must register domain names in an efficient and timely

manner and follow policies, rules and procedures that have been established and

published in a transparent manner in consultation with the local Internet community.

Section 2. The Administrator must collect the necessary information to ensure that

the Registrant can be authoritatively identified.

Section 3. The Administrator must have a standard contract with Registrants.

Section 4. The Administrator should recognize that the management and

administration of a ccTLD Registry is a special function and, as such, imposes unique

duties and responsibilities. It is a function which should not be abused.

Article VII. Use, Marketing and Promotion of the .ph Domain

Section 1. The .ph domain should be protected as part of the public resource,

representing the Philippines in the global domain name system.

Article VIII. Transparency and Accountability

Section 1. The Administrator must keep the Relevant Government or Public

Authority advised of any changes to the information concerning the domain that is

maintained in IANAs register database, and must respond to requests for information

from the Relevant Government or Public Authority and ICANN relating to the status

and technical operations of the domain in a timely manner.

Section 2. The Relevant Government or Public Authority and ICANN must have

access to all zones on a continuing basis so that the domain can be easily checked for

operational status and database accuracy.


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Section 3. Any guidelines or policies from ICANN or IANA to be implemented by

the Administrator must be consistent with these Guidelines. In the event of conflict,

these Guidelines shall prevail, provided that the same shall not adversely affect the

stability of the DNS.

Section 4. The policies adopted by the Administrator must comply with theseGuidelines and should be available for public inspection, or posted on the web.

Section 5. Any practice or policy adopted by the Administrator that will directly

affect the Local Internet Community must be communicated to the Relevant

Government or Public Authority at least thirty (30) days before implementation, for

appropriate action.

Section 6. The WHOIS service should be required, maintained and kept publicly

accessible.

Section 7. The Administrator may be required to file reports or provide documents ordata to the relevant government authority on a periodic basis, or as may otherwise be

required, and in such format designated by the relevant government or public

authority.

Article IX. Fairness

Section 1. The Administrator must be equitable and fair to all eligible registrants that

request domain names. Policies defining which organizations, businesses, individuals,

etc. are eligible to register domain names under the .ph ccTLD must be defined by the

Administrator in consultation with the local Internet Community. Specifically, the

registration of domain names should be based on objective criteria that are transparent

and non-discriminatory. The definition must be documented, available for public

inspection, and transparent to the Local Internet Community.

Article X. Service

Section 1. The Administrator should respond to requests for domain names in a

timely and accurate manner.

Section 2. The Administrator is required to activate registration requests from

Registrars within twenty four (24) hours of receipt of such request. Suspension,

deletion and updates of the zone files in the database are likewise expected to be acted

upon within twenty four (24) hours. The Administrator is required to submit to the

Relevant Government or Public Authority a system update document which includes

the process flow illustrating the manner by which the Administrator intends to employ

manual and/or automated technology to consistently deliver this turnaround

requirement.

Section 3. The Administrator is required to publish its support mechanisms and

infrastructure. This includes a twenty four- (24-) hour, seven- (7-) day per week email


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and phone hotline, and an escalation procedure that includes the email, phone and

mobile numbers of the person or persons responsible for each escalation level.

Section 4. The Relevant Government or Public Authority may formulate separate

guidelines specifically for service requirements.

Article XI. Privacy

Section 1. The Administrator and Registrars must develop contractual relationships

in which the privacy of Registrants is protected.

Section 2. The Registry and the Registrars shall protect the privacy of each individual

registrants by ensuring that data obtained from the registrants are for the sole purpose

of fulfilling the requirements for a DNS registration. The unambiguous consent of the

registrant must be obtained by the [ Registrant/ ]Registrar if the data are to be used for

purposes other than for what they were originally solicited. The [Registrant/]Registrar must obtain the unambiguous consent of the registrant before the data

obtained from the registrant is made available to any third party. The data collected

from the registrant will be destroyed immediately after the registrant has ceased to be

a registrant.

Article XII. Ownership of DNS-Related Data

Section 1. No rights or ownership, particularly in the domains and data pertinent

thereto, shall vest in the Administrator, as trustee of the ccTLD for the local and

global internet community, as well as in the technical or administrative contact by

virtue of their administration or management of the ccTLD. Therefore, any claim of

rights or ownership of the domains and data pertinent thereto by the Administrator

shall be deemed inappropriate.

Section 2. The Administrator has no ownership or other proprietary rights over the

data in the registry.

Article XIII. Dispute Resolution

Section 1. The Administrator must define and publish its domain name dispute

resolution policies and procedures, in consultation with the Local Internet

Community. Mechanisms should be established by the Administrator to handle fairly

and independently any such disputes arising between Registrants, or other parties, and

the Administrator. Making judgments in relation to disputes between third parties and

domain name Registrants are outside the remit of the Administrator. Such dispute

resolution policies and procedures shall be based on a model to be provided by the

Relevant Government or Public Authority.

Section 2. The Administrator and the Registrars must extend cooperation in the

settlement of disputes arising from domain names.


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Section 3. The Relevant Government or Public Authority may draft separate

guidelines on the (a) relationship between the Registry, Registrars and resellers, and,

to the extent valid and without curtailing competition, (b) conduct of Registrars.

Section 4. The Administrator shall cooperate with the Relevant Government or

Public Authority in case of disputes with respect to intellectual property issues.

Article XII. Re-delegation

Section 1. In cases where there is misconduct, or violation of these Guidelines, or

persistent, recurring problems with the proper operation of a domain, re-delegation

proceedings may be undertaken.

Section 2. The Relevant Government or Public Authority shall draft re-delegation

procedures internal to the .ph domain, rules and criteria at a later time.

Article XIII. Interim Provisions

Section 1. The current administrator shall remain as such and is hereby recognized

by the Philippine government as the duly authorized administrator of the domain

name system in the Philippines.

Section 2. Unless otherwise posted on its website or previously provided to the

Relevant Government or Public Authority, the current Administrator shall forward

and submit to the Relevant Government or Public Authority a statement of policies

and practices it observes for determination of their compliance with these Guidelines

and general review and appropriate action by the Relevant Government or Public

Authority.

Section 3. The current Administrator shall be subject to, and immediately comply

with, these Guidelines, unless otherwise provided herein (specify portions).

Section 4. The current Administrator shall be given three (3) months from the

effectivity of these Guidelines to act as Administrator and Registry. Prior to the end of

such period, the Administrator must inform the Relevant Government or PublicAuthority whether it will act as an Administrator or Registrar, but not both. In the

event the current Administrator chooses to remain as the Administrator of the ccTLD,

he must fully comply with these Guidelines within three (3) months from the end of

the initial three (3) month period herein specified. The Relevant Government or

Public Authority may commence re-delegation procedures in the event of the

Administrators failure to comply with the same within the periods herein provided.

Section 5. New registrars shall be encouraged and accredited.

Section 6. The Relevant Government or Public Authority may formulate separate

guidelines on the re-delegation of the administration of the Registry.


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Article XIV. Effectivity

Section 1. These Guidelines shall be effective ---

ntc draft (as of feb 6, 2004): guidelines in the administration of the .ph domain name

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