1

The Internet Content Management Registry

Response to Request For Proposal

New TLD Application

Volume 1 Part#1

Volume 2 and Annexes

Volume 3

API

Application Programmers Interface

APS

Application Service Provider

ARS

A Technology Company, Inc.’s Registration System

ATECH

A Technology Company, Inc.

ccTLD

International Standards Country Code top-level domain name

CDNR

Coalition of Domain Name Registrars

CIRA

Canadian Internet Registry Authority

CONE

“COM” “NET” & “ORG” Generic Domain Registrations

DNS

Domain Name System

DNSO

Domain Names Supporting Organization

DOC

US Department of Commerce

gTLD

Global top-level domain name

IANA

Internet Assigned Number Authority

IAP

Internet Access Providers

ICANN

Internet Corporation for Assigned Names

ICM Registry

Internet Content Management Registry Inc.

ICMR

ICM Registry, Inc.

IDC

International Data Corporation

IP

Internet Protocol

ISOC

Internet Society

NSI

Network Solutions Inc. renamed VeriSign Global Registry Services on September 14, 2000

RASP

Registry Application Service Provider

RRP

Registry Registrar Protocol

SRS

Shared Registration System

TLD

Top Level Domain

WC3

ICANN Working Committee 3

WIPO

World Intellectual Property Organization

Legal Name:

ICM Registry, Inc.

Contact:

Jason Hendeles, Founder, President and Chairman

Principal Address:

2300 Yonge Street, Suite 907
P.O. Box 2326
Toronto, Ontario, Canada, M4P 1E4

Telephone:

(416) 485-3888

FAX:

(416) 485-6195

E-MAIL:

jason@iy.com

Legal Name:

Holland & Knight LLP

Contact:

Jose I. Rojas, Esquire

Principal Address:

701 Brickell Avenue, Suite 300

Telephone:

(305) 789-7799

FAX:

E-MAIL:

jrojas@klaw.com

Legal Name:

The .TV Corporation International

Contact:

Anthony Bishop

Principal Address:

130 West Union Street
Pasadena, CA

Telephone:

626-685-4982

FAX:

(626) 535-2701

E-MAIL:

a@www.tv 

Legal Name:

Verisign Global Registry Services Inc.

Contact:

Lori Whitted

Principal Address:

505 Huntmar Park Drive
Herndon, VA 20170

Telephone:

(703) 742-0400

FAX:

E-MAIL:

whitted@netsol.com

Legal Name:

DMR Consulting Group Inc.

Contact:

Greg McIntyre, Client Manager

Principal Address:

Constitution Square

360 Albert Street, Suite 600
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, K1R 7X7

Telephone:

(613) 238-2697

FAX:

(613) 238-2802

E-MAIL:

greg_mcintyre@dmr.com

DUNS Number

13-049-3794

DotTV

Supplies the existing dot.TV infrastructure to support the .XXX gTLD.  In this capacity, this firm provides Primary Whois services, full DNS services, Auction services, Registry/Registrar protocol, Billing and Payment service, Registrar API development, Registrar Customer service, Reserved Names and Registry Database Management, Web Services.

Transaction fee of $6.00 per domain name

VeriSign

Provides primary infrastructure operations for the .KIDS gTLD consistent with the existing infrastructure supporting the .com, .net & .org gTLDs.  That includes, but is not limited to: supplying Name Server services, Zone file maintenance and WHOIS Services. Provides data escrow and registry failure services, hosts accounting, dispute mediation, reserved names and content policy setting applications.

Develops mark protection, RRP enhancements and API's for the Registrar h two routes:  first, through sophisticated algorithms for the identification of character strings within domain names which could be seen to potentially violate rights to a trademark, and, second, through the identification of famous marks ‘general single marks’.

Filtering Technologies

One of the major draws of the Internet is the ease and speed with which anyone who has access can find information, pictures and sounds and videos on virtually any topic.  This is also one of its drawbacks:  the world wide web is not content zoned; the content is not always appropriate for every audience, particularly we mean children.  This is the main impetus behind the establishment of the .XXX registry. 

The aim of the .XXX registry is to create a responsible means to identify and group adult content materials so that they will reach their intended audience.  ICM REGISTRY intends to develop identify superior means that can be used to identify and filter out Internet sites meeting criteria which identifies them as adult content sites.  Two routes are under investigation:  filtering at the domain name server, and IP filtering.

Proprietary DNS Filtering

Additional information can be provided to ICANN upon request.

IP Filtering

An alternate means which ICM Registry intends to explore, is IP filtering. Packet filtering involves examining the IP address of where the content has come from. Packet filtering takes place on a router. Routers are special purpose computers that steer packets through the Internet from source to destination: they form the backbone of the Internet. Whilst top-of-the-range routers can implement packet filtering without performance degradation, the main problem is its granularity: packet filtering is particularly coarse. An IP address represents a particular computer – not a Web site – and therefore, attempting to filter an Internet site by using its IP number blocks a large number of legitimate sites hosted on the same computer.  However, it has been found that a significant number of adult content web-sites emanate from a few IP addresses.  ICM REGISTRY intends to investigate the efficacy of using packet identification as a means of filtering adult content.

ICM Registry is negotiating with I-dns International, Inc. on the details of a sub-contract to jointly develop the abovementioned technology solutions.

i-DNS.net International is the company behind the Internationalized Domain Name System (iDNS) - technology that allows people to use the language of their choice for their Internet Domain Name.   They are headquartered in the United States at Silicon Valley and currently has regional offices in Singapore, Taiwan, Hong Kong, China, Japan and India.

Established in October 1999 with long-term financial backing from US-based General Atlantic Partners LLC. iDNS is the result of over two years of intense research and development at the National University of Singapore conducted under the auspices of the Asia Pacific Networking Group (APNG). It continues to be jointly developed in the United States and Singapore today.

The mission of i-DNS.net International is to enable multilingual access to the Internet for everyone, everywhere. By pioneering the global deployment of iDNS technology and championing the use of multilingual domain names, i-DNS.net International seeks to bridge the gap that has hindered Internet access for non-native English speakers of the world.

i-DNS.net International's global strategy is to work closely with valued partners located in every country in the world. This includes collaboration with government bodies, local Internet authorities, Internet Service Providers, amongst others, to jointly promote the iDNS back-end technology in the indigenous cultural context.

i-DNS.net International strongly believes in the necessity and demand for this technology and looks forward to sharing its vision with the world.

D13.2.2  Revenue Model

Revenue will be generated from a variety of sources: registration fees, name auction fees, WHOIS database inquiries & statistic provisions, banner advertising on its web-site, trademark and famous name protection services, and filtering & DNS security services.  

Registration Fees:

Each name that is submitted for registration will require a fee of  $28.00 US.  It is expected that the first year’s growth rate will be 85%, 85% in year 2, 33% in year 3, and 22% in year 4.

Auction Fees:

Each request for a name will be, after being qualified as a legitimate request, submitted to an online auction process to allow anyone else who might be interested in also using the name to bid for it.  After 30 days, the highest bidder will receive the rights to the name.  The average revenue expected per name in the first year of the auction process is $250.00, dropping to $50 in year 2, $37.50 in year 3, and $28.13 in year 4.  Because of the pent-up demand that currently exists for registrations, it is expected that there will be a high volume of auctions occurring in year 1.  This demand will taper off drastically after the first year; in fact, most of the volume in the following years will occur from domain names that are not renewed and which will be put up for auction for a 30-day period.  After this expiry period, expired domains will be available for anyone to register.

Other Services:

ICM Registry intends to provide a number of other services that are complementary to the registry function.  Some of these other services include:

Filtering: identification of particular words or character strings that are in domain naming systems and in World Wide Web documents in order to block unwanted materials, or to identify desirable material.

DNS filtering: the identification of domain naming systems that identify trade names protected by some authority and that are possibly being used illegally.

Proprietary Domain Name Content Management Services (additional information can be made available upon request).

WHOIS Data Watch: a service to notify domain name registrants when any information contained in the whois field has changed.  It will also do special statistical data mining for legitimate requests in the WHOIS database.

Banner Advertising: offering banner ad design capabilities that will appear prominently on each page of the registry web site.

Intellectual Property Protection Services:  a service to help protect famous marks or substrings from undesirable usage in domain naming.  Also, a service to assist owners of trade marks in identifying web-site naming conventions that might be considered illegal use of the mark, derogatory or uncomplementary use of trade marks, famous marks, or strings that contain such marks.

D13.2.3  Market

Market Definition:

Entering the 21^st century, the Internet is poised to become the primary tool for acquiring information and conducting business. Over the past three years, all predictions of growth in Internet usage have been dwarfed by the actual results. That trend will continue, and the estimated 220 million people currently accessing the Internet worldwide is expected to exceed 500 million by 2004. Business conducted on the Internet is predicted to reach $1.3 trillion by 2003.

There are an estimated 300,000 adult-oriented websites, accounting for approximately 3 per cent of all domain addresses.  These sites, however, account for 34 per cent of Internet traffic.  Analysts estimate that the online adult website market is a $2B industry capturing almost 20% of the total pornography industry, which is expected to be more than $10 B per year in revenues this year.  This represents from 5-10% of total consumer purchases on-line at the present time.

A new .XXX domain will appeal to those adult sites wishing to be instantly recognized as such, and those interested in accessing new addresses that are currently restricted or unavailable on existing TLDs.  The new .XXX domain offers an opportunity for enhanced product branding in the adult entertainment industry for those who want it.  Initial discussions with operators of adult content sites indicates that more than 50 per cent would be interested in converting to the new domain in its first year of operation.

With respect to the proposed .KIDS domain, the availability of a new TLD exclusively devoted to providing content appropriate to children under 12 will appeal to a wide range of existing providers of website services.  The ICM Registry proposal to set up Public Advisory Boards and a mechanism for the voluntary rating and listing of content means that parents can be confident that sites on .KIDS enjoy “a seal of approval,” a significant value added to those potential registrants addressing that audience.  ICM Registry anticipates that demand for addresses on the new .KIDS domain will mirror general growth rates for the Internet.

Overall, demand for registration on the two new TLDs is expected to be 3 per cent of the total demand for new TLDs, with .XXX accounting for the majority of registrations in the initial years of operation but greater growth in registrations for .KIDS in subsequent years.  ICM Registry projects that the market for registrations on these new TLDs would reach 165,000 in the first year, climbing to 485,000 in 2003.

By offering a .XXX domain, adult sites wishing to be recognized as adult content sites will be able to switch to this new one.  It will open up more site naming conventions that currently are restricted and unavailable on the .COM domain because names are already registered, or taken by "cybersquatters".  The .XXX domain also offers product branding to those seeking to distinguish their site.

Conversely, families are concerned about the potential harm their children are vulnerable to if they are subjected to the “XXX” adult content, as it violates a child’s experience of the world as safe and secure.  They need both protection form the adult sites as well as child friendly sites where they can safely surf with impunity.  For this market of children twelve and under there is a whole world of children, and while many do not yet have Internet access, there are millions still vulnerable to its reach.  .KIDS is the answer for them – a safe and secure set of sites on which to work and play.

Size of the Internet Adult Content Market:

According to Forrester Research, revenue in the United States from value-added Internet services, such as electronic commerce and security services will grow 34% annually from approximately $3.0 billion in 1998 to $12.9 billion in 2003.  Forrester Research has estimated that the market for managed Web site hosting in the United States will grow from less than $1.0 billion in 1998 to over $14.0 billion in 2003.  Dataquest predicts Europe will experience similar strong growth, with corporate Internet access revenue increasing 40% annually from approximately $1.7 billion in 1998 to $9.1 billion in 2003.  International Data Corporation estimates that the user base for the Internet will grow to 502 million people by the end of 2004.  Consistent with that growth, Forrester Research estimates that the international e-commerce market will grow from $43 billion in 1998 to more than $1.3 trillion by 2003.  Thus, demand for registry services, directly linked to the demand for domain registrations, is expected to show substantial growth in the next 5 years.

The Internet's growth is unabated.  International Data Corporation ("IDC") estimates that there are currently 84 million Internet users in the U.S.  That number is expected to grow to 136 million by the end of 2002.  Projections for worldwide growth on the Internet show that the 170 million current users will grow to 320 million by 2002.  According to Datamonitor, consumer spending in the adult Internet industry generated approximately $1.0 billion in sales in 1999, and is expected to generate $3.12 billion by 2003.  In addition, Datamonitor estimates that adult entertainment accounts for the majority of spending for online content (including subscription and pay-on-demand services).

In the early stages of the Internet, it was clear there was a great deal of unmet consumer demand for adult entertainment and it was relatively easy for operators to open up an adult storefront.  With few hurdles to overcome online, including city licensing, leasing, taxes, and objecting neighbors, many new independent adult web sites were born, creating a highly fragmented environment.  As more competition emerged, operators were determined to create ways in which to distinguish themselves.  They developed more distinctive products and methods of organizing content, and they developed technologies to improve ease-of-use and increased speeds of content delivery.  With more independent operators opening up shop, reselling content and providing outsourced services became the means by which some of the more innovative and sophisticated operators could grow their businesses.  This allowed for the evolution of a business-to-business market in addition to the large business-to-consumer market.

Today, the adult Internet industry is dominated by less than ten companies, of which only one is part of a publicly traded company.  Over the last 10 years, companies like this established themselves as leaders in the adult Internet industry by creating traffic flow among thousands of adult webmasters.  Those adult webmasters subsequently generated traffic from other sources including search engines, "vanity" domain names (i.e. nude.com) and opt-in email programs.

Currently, one key adult provider generates more than two million visits per day.  According to Media Metrix, several adult web sites are included among the top 25 adult destinations on the Internet.

Traffic to web sites is generated through three primary sources.  The first,"type-in" traffic, is generated when a consumer types the name of one of a specific site or one of its (average) 1,300 domain names into their browser address bar.  The second is generated by affiliates’ marketing programs via banner ads, hypertext, or graphic links.  The webmaster is compensated for the referred visitor. The third source, search engine traffic, is generated from listings of adult web sites in search engines and directories.  Through HitWerks, adult sites can use discreet and proprietary technology to position (optimize) sites so that visitors using a search engine to look for certain types of content have a higher chance of finding what they want.  In combination, these three methods generate over two million Internet visits each day to one adult provider’s business-to-consumer and business-to-business sites, or over 60 million visits per month.  How many are unintended is unknown.

Demand:

Demand for new domain names is expected to experience very high growth over the next few years.  One key driver is the growth of e-commerce - a domain name becomes an Internet address.  US small businesses, which account for 50% of GDP and 98% of all businesses in America, have yet to join the Internet revolution, with fewer than 20% having an active web address today.  When these become active enormous demand will surface. 

Furthermore, individuals have yet to begin registering themselves on the Web; current industry estimates (IDC, McKinsey) suggest that about 85% of domain name registration are for corporate entities.  Some estimates calculate that only 4% to 6% of the market for domain names has been penetrated. 

As of September 26, 2000, there were about 29.4 million domain names registered worldwide, of which about 18 million were .com domains, 3 million were .net domains, 1.8 million were .org domains, and 6.4 were ISO and other country level domains (DomainStat/NetNames Domain Name Information Services, September 26, 2000).  Of the 23 million non-ISO and country domain names, about 58% are US owners.  By the year 2004, over 380 million domain names are expected.  A significant portion the new demand is expected from areas of the world outside of North America, as they gain access to the Internet.

Accessibility:

Accessibility to the .XXX domain names will be through ICANN accredited registrars.  Registrars will submit the applicant requests to the ICM Registry, who will in turn make them public through an auction mechanism for anyone to bid on the names.  Once the winning bidder has been determined, the registry will be notified and updated, and the name with its IP address will be made available to web users.

The same basic process will apply to .KIDS, with one key exception.  The exception is that prior to being approved to operate in the .KIDS domain all applicants will be screened for suitability to provide the safe and secure child-friendly site they purport to operate.  A careful watch will be in place, based on the policies of the user community that will act through the Advisory

D13.2.4 Marketing Plan

Marketing Strategy

The existence of a specialty domain clearly identified as adult-oriented will provide the adult entertainment industry with an opportunity to enhance its branding to directly reach its target audience.  It also provides the industry with an opportunity to take the lead in proactively addressing the concerns surrounding their products and their availability on a public medium like the Internet.  Once ICM Registry wins the right to operate a new .XXX TLD it will undertake an extensive marketing campaign within the adult entertainment industry to inform them of the advantages and the availability of the new domain.  Already key adult content providers are spearheading a supportive initiative to work with ICM Registry to garner affiliation throughout the sector.

The target audience for ICM Registry is the adult content webmaster, and registrant trademark holders.  The ICM Registry proposal creates a new TLD, which provides adult entertainment businesses with a domain within which they can organize themselves into a self-managing industry sector.  They can respond professionally and collectively with accountability to challenges from any critics.  Providers will be in a solid position to counter the social and political forces worldwide.  Concerned parties previously demanded that the unmanaged distribution of adult content be addressed.  Any marketing strategy must recognize the controversial nature of that industry, the depth of emotional response it triggers in some audiences and cultures, and the sensitivities involved in balancing an adult’s right to access any material, against a parent’s right to ensure children are not exposed to harmful material.

In reaching that audience however, ICM Registry will ensure that it enhances its own brand reputation as a premier registry operator providing a neutral service that serves a range of public “communities of interest”.

Marketing Plan

ICM Registry’s plan envisages the use of an extensive public relations campaign, direct mail to target audiences, use of promotional strategies, media, and participation in speaking engagements, organization meetings and trade shows.  ICM Registry also recognizes that marketing for both .XXX and .KIDS ultimately depends on its relationship with registrars and the adult content industry as equal partners.  Registrars will be the primary points of contact with potential domain operators on these TLDs, so ICM Registry will utilize the channels already developed with registrars by its partners VeriSign and dotTV.  The adult content industry will work to the service and the value added benefits of using the “.XXX” brand.

Because of the sensitivities surrounding the very different but linked issues which lead to the creation of .XXX and .KIDS, ICM Registry will continually hone it’s solid promotional and public relations strategies to deal with public communities of interest beyond its target business audience.  ICM Registry has secured The Gable Group to develop a North American promotional strategy and assist it to create public awareness for the brands.  As a leader in Internet communications, The Gable Group will enable ICM Registry to establish .XXX in North America, and develop support for the brand internationally through a campaign that respects differences between cultures.  We expect .KIDS to be enthusiastically embraced throughout all sectors as it is profiled by communities of interest, political interests, the adult content providers, and ISP’s who can offer another valuable service to a wide range of customers.  Naturally, children’s organizations will be the primary focus of our attention in our marketing initiatives, be they educational, entertainment or health and welfare oriented groups.

Promotional Strategy

Initially ICM Registry will begin to integrate the registrars and the adult content community through on-line media (banner advertising, website links), as well as traditional media, especially journals and newsletters of the target organizations for .XXX and .KIDS.  This campaign is designed to create awareness of the domain within the North American marketplace in the first two quarters of Year 1, when we will spend $554,000 on public relations, on-line content development, media packages, tradeshows, public speaking and research.

Advertisement Development, Strategy & Relationship with Advertising Firm

ICM Registry will develop co-operative advertising with all ICANN accredited registrars as service ramps for the initial domain name auctions.  Registrars are ICM Registry’s retail channel, and the exclusive distributor of its registration services for the new TLDs.  ICM Registry will establish a cooperative marketing fund with its registrar partners who will contribute $2.00 per registration and 15% per sunrise registration auction to support the drive for registrations on the new TLDs, resulting in an anticipated $1.3 M in 2001 spent on that targeted marketing, along with investments by ICM Registry.

In order to heighten awareness of the upcoming name auctions, ICM Registry will undertake direct mail, print advertising, specialty television channels, and establishing a presence at key trade shows to notify adult content registrants and trademark holders of the auctions, the opportunity they present, and establish how they can participate.

Sensitivity

ICM Registry believes it must establish its brand first in North America prior to extensively marketing internationally.  While significant demand for registration on the new domain exists overseas, introduction must be gradual to reduce the potential for adverse social or political reactions.

The .XXX domain is a distinctive brand and service.  Its existence goes a long way to reducing some of the fears, and answering many of the criticisms leveled at the adult entertainment industry.  Creating this new and unique domain name however, poses significant challenges to ICM Registry, particularly with respect the interrelation of .XXX and .KIDS.  We think we have a good grasp of how they can counterbalance each other, in the public interest, while preserving freedom of expression.

ICM Registry will promote its “non-profit” plans for .KIDS services and the creation of positive brand support for it worldwide.  At the same time, ICM Registry’s position is one of providing a neutral platform for information providers, but in a way that enables those providers to conduct business in a socially responsible way.

Key to ICM Registry’s “branding” of its own role in providing these new services are the following values:

• .XXX provides adult content providers with choice: it is not a mechanism to force the industry to abandon existing domain name marks;
• While adult content should be available to non-minors who choose to access it, ICM Registry believes that the Internet community has a responsibility to protect children and provide a safe and welcoming home for them on the Internet.
• ICM Registry will contribute profits for the creation of the .KIDS Child Online Support Foundation (see details in Volume 3, Sections E 23 and 25), to support the operation of the .KIDS registry, develop research on children’s programming, protect children from exposure to adult-oriented content and provide children with tools to go on-line;
• It is not ICM Registry’s role to address public policy issues, but to respond to policy created by the Public Advisory Boards that will be established for both .XXX and .KIDS.  In doing so, ICM Registry will ensure that these Boards fairly represent the range of relevant stakeholders within the Internet community.

Public Relations Strategy

ICM Registry’s public relations strategy leverages the demand for adult content within the North American marketplace in order to support the protection of children, from that content.

ICM Registry will be most successful by undertaking a dynamic communications strategy with clear and consistent messages to the Internet community.  These will convey the responsiveness of the ICM Registry to the concerns and interests of adult webmasters, as well as the broader Internet community.  Our public relations strategy will target, and balance the many diverse groups who are interested in and seek to influence this unique service.  The Gable Group will co-ordinate these services.

To establish its brand and position in this policy area, ICM Registry will focus on strategic announcements with its partners to build interest in and support for its groundbreaking TLDs.  In Year 1, these will focus on the approval of a .XXX domain, the announcement of joint marketing agreements with the leading adult content players internationally, and the creation of the Policy Advisory Board of leading Internet representatives to start building consensus-drive solutions to the Internet’s adult content issues.

Strategy for Partners

The success of ICM Registry’s marketing efforts depends on the strength of its relationships with partners, and the success of joint marketing efforts with those partners.

To build those partnerships, ICM Registry must establish brand awareness, and develop broader relationships that generate additional goodwill among other stakeholders: These include:

• Internet leaders
• advocacy and industry groups
• regulatory bodies
• adult content trade organizations
• Opinion leaders and analysts.

ICM Registry will measure the success of its marketing initiatives, and the participation of registrars in them.  ICM Registry will set registration targets and co-operatively work with registrars to achieve them.  ICM Registry will monitor and evaluate levels of marketing activity in both electronic and traditional media, and awareness levels this media was able to generate across the registrar website

The Policy Advisory Board

The Public Advisory Boards are a mechanism for balancing interests and building consensus to resolve long-standing problems.  To succeed they must constitute a fair representation of the stakeholders in the adult content management arena, motivated to identify consensus-driven solutions.

Public Policy Involvement

ICM Registry will provide a forum to facilitate a dialogue for Internet users to participate in the development of policy and procedure for services related to both .XXX and .KIDS.  In particularly, ICM Registry will:

• distribute regular communications (policy and general)
• invite registrants to communicate their concerns

Establishing Brand Credibility

ICM Registry will:

• establish its presence at all the major adult content shows to assist in branding .XXX, educate, and facilitate the building of consensus on .XXX within the industry;
• secure speaking engagements and presence in media which establishes visibility, trust and credibility on the issue;
• protect trademark holders through notification related to name auctions on the new TLDs;
• Target adult content providers with information about the service and the benefits of participating in a self-identified, self-regulated .XXX site.

Use of Registrars and other Marketing Channels

Entering the 21^st century, the Internet is poised to become the primary tool for acquiring information and conducting business. Over the past three years, all predictions of growth in Internet usage have been dwarfed by the actual results. That trend will continue, and the estimated 220 million people currently accessing the Internet world-wide is expected to exceed 500 million by 2004. Business conducted on the Internet is predicted to reach $1.3 trillion by 2003.

Management estimates that there are greater than 800,000 adult-oriented registrations world-wide, accounting for less than 3 per cent of all web addresses.  These sites are estimated to account for 34 per cent of all North American Internet traffic (MediaMetrix).  Analysts estimate that the online adult website market is a $2B industry capturing almost 20% of the total pornography industry, which is expected to be more than $10 B per year in revenues this year.  This represents from 5-10% of total consumer purchases on-line at the present time.

A new .XXX domain will appeal to those adult sites wishing to be instantly recognized as such, and those interested in accessing new addresses that are currently restricted or unavailable on existing TLDs.  The new .XXX domain offers an opportunity for enhanced product branding in the adult entertainment industry for those who want it.  Initial discussions with operators of adult content sites indicates that more than 50 per cent would be interested in converting to the new domain in its first year of operation.

With respect to the proposed .KIDS domain, the availability of a new TLD exclusively devoted to providing content appropriate to children under 12 will appeal to a wide range of existing providers of website services.  The ICM Registry proposal to set up Public Advisory Boards and a mechanism for the voluntary rating and listing of content means that parents can be confident that sites on .KIDS enjoy “a seal of approval,” a significant value added to those potential registrants addressing that audience.  ICM Registry anticipates that demand for addresses on the new .KIDS domain will mirror general growth rates for the Internet.

Overall, demand for registration on the two new TLDs is expected to be 3 per cent of the total demand for new TLDs, with .XXX accounting for the majority of registrations in the initial years of operation but greater growth in registrations for .KIDS in subsequent years.  ICM Registry projects that the market for registrations on these new TLDs would reach 170,000 in the first year, climbing to 419,000 in 2003.

Product Strategy

In the initial years of operation, the creation of new TLDs places focus primarily on registration, and the growth of services tied directly to it such as name auctions.  The ICM Registry plan envisages the development of new, value-added features as the new TLDs mature.  While registration and auctions will remain a key element of ICM Registry’s business, they will be supplemented by an increasing focus on the provision of a complete range of services to enable its customer users to grow their e-commerce.  These include:

• filtering, through the identification of particular words or character strings in the TLD system, to identify desirable materials or to block unwanted content
• Enhanced protection of trademark and other intellectual-property rights by extending the processes of checking domain naming to include a broader range of cases.  These would include, for example, cases where a proposed name potentially constitutes illegal use of a mark, derogates from the mark, or constitutes a “substring” containing the registered mark
• the generation of statistical data for legitimate requests from the new WHOIS data bases
• tools for account management
• digital certificates to ensure that under-age users are denied access to specific categories of Internet content
• enhanced search engine and listing services
• advanced tracking and monitoring tools for customers

The majority of these services would be offered through ICM Registry’s strategic partnerships with registrars.

Partnerships

As domain registration growth is anticipated to be greater internationally than in North America, ICM Registry is actively working to secure international partnerships.  As the majority of these customers are sensitive to price, ICM Registry is well positioned to capture significant market share as the lowest cost provider.  In addition, we are working to enable a multi-currency, multi-language web-site that will be flexible to at least seven languages including French, Spanish, Japanese, Chinese, Hebrew, and Korean.

Once ICM Registry wins the right to provide registry services for the .XXX (and hopefully a .KIDS TLD), it will begin a heavy public relations campaign in cooperatively with it’s partners to induce all current adult content web-sites to convert to the .XXX domain.  Its main vehicle for this will be the registrars around the world, and also through advertising in trade publications promoting their services.  Industry trade shows will also be a major marketing effort.  There will also be a well-managed program of targeted mail and e-mail messages to current and potential owners of adult content sites, some fax broadcasting to interested parties, along with some lobbying and work with trademark holders.  Finally, there will be a joint marketing campaign with international scope with ICM Registry’s investors and sponsors.

Summary

The launch of this specialized domain will be a significant, worldwide media event.  ICM Registry’s public relations campaign will generate interest and reactions from hundreds of thousands of Internet users worldwide.

Success in launching these services hinges on providing all media with a clear and consistent message.  To this end we will engage senior political, social and business leaders in building consensus and endorsing the solutions available through the new TLDs.  We are committed to at all time performing in a culturally sensitive way, with integrity founded on our core values, to ultimately build the new TLDs as truly international services. 

Success in positioning these new services, and attracting public interest in these unique new domains will ultimately heighten awareness and drive demand for and use of the .XXX and .KIDS TLDs.

D13.2.5  Estimated Demand for registry services in the new TLD

The following table represents the anticipated volume of domain name registrations in the chartered .XXX TLD:

Level of Confidence Definitions:

• 90% Confidence Level: Optimistic registration volume scenario
• 50% Confidence Level: Anticipated registration volume scenario
• 10% Confidence Level: Pessimistic registration volume scenario

Registration Volume As a  % Total Registrations Year 1:

These projections assume that 20% percentage of registrations will not renew their annual registrations.  Expiring domains enter into a 30-day auction period where they can be bid upon by interested registrants.  In the event no registrant expresses interest, the domain name expires and is available to be registered at ICM Registry’s $28 registration rate.   ICM Registry anticipates that registration volume will significantly reduce as the supply of alternative TLD registry services is expanded to better satisfy current demand.

As for other registry services, the Company plans to offer:  WHOIS database and related services; banner advertising; intellectual property protection services; and proprietary domain name filtering services which will significantly enhance our current registry service offering (please contact us for additional information).  The majority of these services will be offered through it’s strategic relationship with the adult content industry and with the ICANN accredited registrars. 

Demand for .XXX domains could be materially be influenced under the following situations:

• The lack of acceptance of the brand by adult webmasters as a result of: poor marketing and promotional efforts; fear of being adult designated; imposing policies or processes that are too restrictive or too complicated.
• New technologies could provide alternative content designation solutions
• Country code registry and new gTLD registry competition could dilute demand for .XXX registrations
• An event where ICANN were to accredit more than one adult content chartered TLD designation would significantly dilute the .XXX registration service and brand

D13.2.6  Resources required to meet demand.

ICM Registry will leverage the strength of its industry leading partnerships, investors and alliances to fulfill its financial, technical and human resources needs.

Financial

At this time, ICM Registry has secured the necessary capital in order to meet any immediate or long-term requirements (see section D13.2.13).  Chestermere Investments Limited has provided the company with $2.5 M US in equity financing.  In addition, upon accreditation by ICANN, the company has an additional $2.5 M US line of credit arrangement with The .TV Corporation International.  The company continues to negotiate strategic equity relationships with industry leading adult content providers and investors.  ICM Registry is confident that it will secure additional capital and other forms of investments in the coming weeks with the intent of creating a diversity of partnerships best suited to meet the distinctive policy requirements this new TLD envisions. 

Technical

All technical requirements are addressed in our agreements with our Registry Partners (annex 2).

Human Resources

ICM REGISTRY will initially require 4 senior managers. These resources are being provided through an agreement with DMR Consulting (see Annex 2). DMR Consulting has also agreed to provide supplemental staff as required.

D13.2.7  Plans for acquiring necessary systems and facilities.

Provide details as to the scope, costs, and vendor for any significant planned outsourcing.

ICM Registry does not foresee any differences in its acquisition plan based on the estimated demand levels.  ICM Registry is outsourcing from the beginning all necessary systems and facilities to two existing registry operators.  This will guarantee a high level of service from the start.  The following tables define the contribution of each vendor:

• The first table defines the role of each participant and their costs; and
• The second table lists the services that each company will provide.

D13.2.8  Staff size/expansion capability.

Recruitment Strategy & Staffing Model 

ICM Registry will ensure scalability in its operations, as customer demand will fluctuate throughout the start up and mature states of the business.  Our staffing model will be composed of:

• a core staff of permanent full time employees,
• a “flying squad” of trained and ready part-time employees; and
• the personnel available through our strategic partners.

Capacity for Expansion

Through the use of contracts and third party resources which is common practice in the high technology sectors, and recruitment,  ICM Registry has the capacity to expand significantly over the coming 4 years. Hiring policy and space for additional staff  are described in section D13.1.7.

Employee Training

We consider Employee Training & Development a critical success factor in this endeavor.  Our employee training and development strategy will be based on the following principals:

• Intrinsic Motivation: The first priority will be to design jobs that provide the intrinsic motivators that need to exist if employees are to be committed to giving their best efforts, including their creativity and passion when that is what it takes to delight customers.  Most employers design jobs that grossly under-utilise the talents of their people.  ICM Registry won’t make that mistake.
• Competency Modelling: Once jobs are properly designed, we will use the competency modelling process to ensure that we have a clear sense of what skills and attributes we are recruiting for and training to.
• ICM Registry are exploring engaging INTELLINEX, an e-learning venture of Ernst & Young International, to undertake the design and delivery of our training programs.  INTELLINEX would employ its electronic delivery ‘LEAP’ platform for the design and delivery of our curriculum. Training would be available to our employees anywhere at any time, delivered over their computer.
• All of our suppliers of hardware and software will be asked to partner with us to design and deliver employee training.  Partnering with us and INTELLINEX to develop our curriculum, will ensure that all of our people have an indepth understanding of the technologies they will be working with.
• To be certified to take up a position in ICM Registry each employee will be tested to ensure they can demonstrate the knowledge and skills set out in the relevant competency model.
• Any change to operating systems or processes will not be implemented until employee retaining and re-certification have occurred.
• Those who hold leadership positi6ons in ICM Registry or our partner organizations will be required to complete a comprehensive Leadership Strategies Program.  As a consequence they will demonstrate a consistent and effective leadership style throughout the organizaition. This highly acclaimed program will enhance the employees relationships – on teams, and in all dimensions of their work, creating highest quality service and products to strengthen customer satisfaction.  It will be delivered by D.R. Simmonds & Associates Inc. recognized for their abilities to turn managers into leaders, and an affiliate of the Ernst and Young, Global Leadership Institute (Harvard).

Competency Modelling

In preceding section we stated our commitment to competency modelling.  It is a key to overall employee recruitment, development & retention strategies.

Competencies in technical, leadership and customer relations skills will dominate the training requirements.  Competencies for upgrading technical skills will be benchmarked against competitive technology applications firms, while competencies for leadership and customer relations skills will be benchmarked against leading edge service firms.

Staffing levels needed for provision of expanded technical, support escrow and registry services

Expansion of technical, support, escrow and registry services will happen.  However, initial demand for “dot XXX” and “dotKIDS” domain names will be very high within the initial months of operation so we expect to launch with a robust staff level to ensure high quality service without interruption.  The demand for new “dot XXX” names will be managed through a competitive on-line auction process that will require payment authentication from a service provider, who will also be accountable for bringing the appropriate staff to the partnership with ICM Registry for services.

Retention Strategy

We have developed a retention strategy that has three key elements, which are described next:

1)  A Leadership Culture That Breeds Competence & Commitment

We know that employers can no longer manage the types of employees ICM Registry needs to be a success, in the way we might have once managed.  In fact, the men and women we need to ensure we achieve the needed results, will be looking more for leadership than management.  Therefore, we intend to develop an organisation culture that is

• values-based, and
• relationship driven.

We will go against the conventional wisdom in business today, and put the employee first!  We are convinced that by doing so the customer will consistently receive the highest quality service.  It has always been a myth that you could not, at one and the same time, give full attention to both your employees and your customers.  Our “employee first" approach will be our best guarantee of being able to attract and retain the best and the brightest, when that is what the job requires.

Key characteristics of our organisational culture will include:

• empowerment matched by accountability, a two way street;
• a collaborative and synergistic working environment; and
• all participants being valued for their technical, interpersonal relationship and communications skills.

2)  Innovative Employee Reward & Recognition Programs

Turnover costs are staggering, and the high technology companies are suffering for it.  ICM Registry will not only meet or exceed competitive industry standards in compensation, we will develop innovative compensation arrangements customised to each employee group’s situation.  We will not have a one-size-fits-all model.

For example, we expect we will want to attract students to fill permanent part time positions.  Many of them will not intend to stay with us for years and years, but will be aiming to continue with their post secondary education.  For them we will offer an incentive program modeled after Canadian Tire’s IGNITION Program.  This program sees the employee receive a cash payment at the time they resign to attend school, with that bonus payment being applied directly to their tuition.

3)  Competency-Based Recruitment, Selection & Training Protocols

As described previously, our recruitment & selection protocols will be underpinned by our competency modeling approach. Research has shown that a competency modeling approach ensures “best fit” between employee’s qualifications and the work to be done.  As a consequence, employees are likely to be successful and satisfied in their work. It follows that employee retention will be high.

To conclude, we believe that, in combination, the organisational environment we provide, our approach to leadership, and our innovative reward, recognition, selection and training protocols will provide employees with such a satisfying quality of work life that they will not only stay, but also recruit additional qualified people for us. Sharing the benefits of our success is part of our philosophy, so that we create winners in every aspect of our business.

D13.2.9  Availability of additional management personnel.

Additional management personnel will be hired to meet demands of growth based on quarterly milestone assessment points.  Leadership qualities and their ability to sustain and grow the values-based culture at ICM Registry.  The company will offer a quality of work life and organizational culture that make it highly competitive as a desirable work environment, with an attractive compensation package.  ICM Registry is determined to create a new approach to doing business:

• one that is inclusive, and
• collaborative in creating a spirit of working with valued colleagues.

Strong leaders are not easy to recruit at any time, but ICM Registry will use the executive search capabilities of D.R. Simmonds & Associates which, has been successfully filling select leadership positions in executive ranks, boards of directors and public and private sector leadership roles for 25 years.

D13.2.10  Term of registry agreement

ICM Registry is requesting that the initial term of the registry agreement be for four years. 

ICM Registry also requests that ICANN accept the premise that the proposed restricted TLDs that we wish to operate pose unique challenges and greater difficulties than would be expected in generic TLDs or other restricted TLDs.  We expect greater difficulties in launching the intended service, to foster the emergence of a vibrant and supportive set of sponsors (there cannot be a single organization that acts as sponsor) and to deal with the somewhat controversial nature of the proposed TLD assignments.

ICM Registry is basing its marketing and business plan and financial analysis on the assumption that it will receive an initial accreditation for a four year period as a minimum. 

In order to encourage private sector, stable and sustainable registry services a reasonable period of time must be respected whereby the registry operator is permitted some resource latitude in ensuring that the service is well planned and where extra costs can be incurred to put in place systems which are both technically and administratively more robust than might otherwise be possible where heavy competition exists.

The following areas of concern all require a strong commitment by both ICANN and ICM Registry to the registry operation:

Technical stability and system redundancy:

Greater resources, both human and IT systems, are required to ensure that the IT registration system works as intended.  The design and implementation, as described in Section III. Technical Capabilities and Plan, will require a lot of effort on building in stability into the architecture, that comprehensive and multi-level back ups are supported, both in hardware redundancy and data redundancy.  Design specifications will be set very high. All these precautions require a much higher resource investment in design, implementation, infrastructure and operations.    

Security:

Both system security and physical security will need to be ensured.  Firewalls and the highest levels of virus protection will be implemented.  Physical security will demand 24 hour security personnel, reinforced wall and door systems, security cameras, redundant backup power supplies and redundant access to telecommunications networks.

Operational Rigor:

High quality and highly responsible staff will be retained to ensure operational rigor and minimization of errors and system failure because of human error.  Thorough training and testing will be necessary to ensure sufficient competency to minimize service failures.  Worst case scenario preparation, training and testing will be necessary to also ensure that staff can cope with emergencies and rapidly determine the nature of problems and resolve them.

Rapid Response to technical difficulties or system outages:

As we have done with our existing registrar service, we will develop specific and comprehensive rapid response and worst case plans to recover from system failures including emergency data recovery and data backup.

Innovative and untested nature of the proposed registry model:

In this proposal ICM Registry is proposing a unique, innovative and complex registry operation that requires very rigorous attention to the details of the operation.  This will involve a greater investment than the standard registry service.

Applying screening criteria to the pair of TLDs proposed, .XXX and .KIDS.:

Operation of the .XXX and .KIDS TLDs has the additional complexity of dealing with screening applicants against criteria set up by their respective Policy Advisory Boards.

Orderly and reliable assignment of domain names during the initial period of TLD operation:

It is expected that when the pair of .XXX and .KIDS domains are initially opened to registrants, there will be massive demand for names.  ICM Registry must be prepared for the onslaught of demand where registrations may be higher in the first year than in the second year.  We cannot afford the luxury of starting the service slowly and develop our capabilities through experience.

Resource and budget allocation:

In meeting this multiplicity of requirements expected by ICANN, ICM Registry will need to dedicate a much higher level of resources from Day One where incremental financing (pay as you go) will not work in providing the service.  Furthermore, initially simpler but safer solutions will need to be developed to ensure stability.  Later, especially after the end of the initial flood of registrations over the first 18 months to two years, ICM Registry design and administration staff would then incrementally introduce improvements, features and efficiencies into the system (both technically and operationally).  This is essential so as to reduce costs and increase margins, which would otherwise be under threat as the number of registrations decrease after the best had been taken.

Investment community backing:

The investment community will regard the expectations of the quality of service as an inflexible and much higher risk proposition for the profitable running of the firm.  Less latitude will be available for cost cutting should margins be less than expected. 

Investors would be naturally concerned that non-renewal of the TLD accreditation by ICANN because of possible failure to meet the stringent stability and reliability criteria would leave the potential long-term revenues in jeopardy.

From ICM Registry’s experience in discussion with potential investors not only is a four year term essential from their point of view, but an almost automatic renewal for a further four year period would be expected (barring unacceptable performance).

They have suggested that if there are problems in meeting the full criteria imposed by ICANN, then ICANN should agree to short term extensions of say one year at a time to permit ICM Registry to rectify outstanding issues and regain their full accreditation.

Financial stability:

In spite of the level of financial commitment our investment partners have provided, the firm will take additional steps to protect the registry system in the event of insolvency or bankruptcy.  We will plan advance procedures should the firm fail including procedures for transferring domain names and services rapidly to an escrow agent and ICANN representatives.

Competitive Forces:

At the end of the first four-year period we would welcome the accreditation of further registry operators.  This will bring immediate benefits in that in anticipation of possible competition ICM Registry will be pressed to focus on designing and deploying a high quality, reliable, efficient and user friendly service well before the end of the first four year term.

D13.2.11  Expected costs associated with the operation of the proposed registry.

Generally, ICM Registry’s cost of sales will vary with the level of registration demand, while operating expenses are not as flexible as there are a number of fixed and long-term expenses that the company must provide in order to facilitate registry services. 

As a result of the dynamic outsourcing agreements ICM Registry has developed with The .TV Corporation International and Verisign Global Registry Services, the company expects with a 90% confidence level that it’s costs of sales will represent 36.7% of our gross registration revenue in Year 1 and 47.3% of gross registration revenue Year 2. Circumstances that could effect this variable from remaining constant include:

• An event where policy or legal expenses were to significantly exceed ICM Registry expectations.
• ICANN were to recommend material changes to the ICM Registry submission. These changes could force significant restructuring of the teaming agreements established between ICM Registry and The .TV International Corporation and Verisign Global Registry Services.

The following are the best estimates of operating costs at different confidence levels for the first 4 years. Generally, the operating expenses are not so variable as there are a number of fixed and long-term variable expenses.  The following are the best estimates of costs for the first 4 years:

As the majority of ICM registry’s costs depend on registration transaction volume, in the event registrations were significantly lower than projected, the company is confident that it could within 2 fiscal quarters take proactive measures to proportionately reduce operating costs without effecting the operation of the service.  In the event project revenue were to significantly exceed revenue expectations, there would be minimal additional operating costs to support this type of increase as the company anticipates benefiting from the many economies of scale offered by a shared registry system.

D13.2.12  Expected revenue associated with the operation of the proposed registry.

The following is the expected revenue at various demand levels, in $000 US:

ICM Registry projects with a 50% confidence level that revenues from registrations during the first year will be $4,760.

Additional revenue sources includes: banner ad revenues; proprietary domain name service; intellectual property protection services and WHOIS database and statistics services.  In light of the significant risk associated with developing new services and technology, ICM Registry expectations at the 90% confidence level are significantly lower than our 50% confidence level.

ICM Registry has provided detailed financials at the 50% confidence levels in Section D13.3 Pro-forma financial projections section which clearly identify the revenue expectations and costs associated with operating the .XXX registry for the four years of the ICANN accreditation.  ICM Registry can make available detailed sensitivity analysis upon request.

D13.2.13  Capital requirements.

Amount:

An equity investment of $2.5 million has been lined up from Chestermere Investments Ltd. that will be contributed upon startup.  This will more than adequately meet the requirements of the Corporation.  In addition, dotTV who will initially run our registry will also provide a $2.5 M US line of debt credit to be drawn upon only when needed.

As a result, it is projected that with $5 M US in financing the Company will have adequate startup funding to meet the initial cash demands, and will accumulate after that sufficient funds to meet all requirements for at least the four year term of the accreditation.  ICM Registry continues to negotiate equity financing relationships with more than five industry leading adult content providers and four Internet companies.  ICM Registry appreciates that while the company currently has adequate capital to support the business independently, due to the nature of the chartered top level domain name being proposing management believes that the company should represent the diversity of companies, advocacy groups and organisations that could be influenced by this submission. 

Source:                                                                                    

See Above

Cost:

Any equity financing given to the Company by the consortium will be for the purchase of treasury shares of the Company by the contributors.  The line of credit will be at prime plus 4% interest on any amounts drawn down.  Projections show that the line of credit is not expected to be needed as the Company expects to generate sufficient working capital beginning in Q3 and Q4 of the first year to meet its needs for the next few years.  Therefore there should be no cost of financing.

D13.2.14  Business risks and opportunities

The following are potential upside opportunities:

Successful Auction:

Demand for adult registrations could drive the rates per auctioned registration during the sunrise period to a higher level than the our current 10% confidence level.   However, management believes that it is the only fair process to distribute these services. The company continues to take extraordinary measures to ensure that the auction systems will be capable of supporting this increase in demand and to ensure that the auction process is operated by a third party and is open and transparent.

Excessive Demand for Registrations:

Demand for adult registrations could also exceed our current 10% confidence level.   ICM Registry systems and business architecture ensure that we are scaleable to meet demand even at levels significantly higher than even our current 10% confidence level.

The following are any notable risks, and management’s best assessment of the risk:

Regulatory:

To date, government regulations in most jurisdictions have not materially restricted the use of the Internet.  The legal and regulatory environment pertaining to the Internet, however, is uncertain and may change.  Both new and existing laws may be applied to the Internet by regional, federal or foreign governments, covering issues that may include: sales and other taxes; user privacy; pricing controls; characteristics and quality of products and services; consumer protection; and cross-border commerce.  Regulatory changes may have a material impact on our business.  Management believes that the risk of this happening is low, but the impact would be medium.

Financing

We currently believe that the initial capital inflow, together with cash from operations and balance management, will be sufficient to fund our working capital and capital expenditure requirements for at least the next 36 months.  In the event that we have underestimated our cash needs, our business may be adversely effected, depending on the balance of the line of credit at the particular time.  Management believes that the risk of this happening is low-medium, but the impact would be medium to high.

Potential Competitors

Although we are competitively positioned in a unique market niche, our potential competitors in the wholesale domain name registration industry may include companies with strong brand recognition and Internet industry experience, such as major telecommunications firms, cable companies. 

Domain name litigation

As a registrar of domain names, we may be subject to various claims, including claims from third parties, asserting that their rights have been infringed by certain domain names that have been registered or websites hosted on behalf of other parties.  ICM Registry is setting aside a portion of revenues as a legal contingency fund to defray any costs of litigation.  With the relationship of the Company with the trademark industry and its offer to help protect any infringements, management believes that litigation is not very likely to take place, but its impact could be medium depending on the amount and validity of the claim.

Key Employees

The success of the Company is dependent upon the ability of Mr. Palage and Mr. Hendeles to formulate business plans to negotiate service contracts with affiliates, and maintain ICM Registry’s position as a potential owner of key domain name extensions.  Initially, should Mr. Palage and Mr. Hendeles’ talents not be available, the impact on the Company would be high.  However, as time progresses, the organization will be adding competent high-level staff who would be able to assume the senior position in the Company and move it forward successfully, although possibly at a slower pace.  Succession planning will have some priority in the Company.

Accreditation

Our ability to provide domain name registry services depends upon regulatory approval every four years by ICANN.  We believe that ICM Registry’s technology exceeds the technical standards expected, that the services provided will be regarded by customers and competitors as being superior, and that the Company’s neutrality and its setting up of an advisory board will result in meeting or exceeding all requirements for license renewal.  Therefore, management regards this to be of minimal risk.

Technological Change

Significant technological changes could render the Company's existing technology or other products and services obsolete.  However, it is planned that upgrades to any products and services will be ongoing, thus minimising any large risk of obsolescence.  Management intends to hire highly competent and knowledge-current technical staff.

Systems

Our customers, advertisers and strategic alliances may be dissatisfied with our products and services due to interruptions in service.  We intend to mitigate this exposure with software solutions, firewalls, regular backups, distributed processing, and industry relationships that would help us out during interruption periods.  We believe that we will be no worse off than other registries offering similar services.

Growth of Internet Advertising

The Internet advertising market cannot yet be compared with traditional advertising media to gauge its effectiveness.  As a result, demand for and market acceptance of Internet advertising solutions are uncertain. Our future success depends, in part, on an increase in the use of the Internet as an advertising and marketing medium.  Management believes that Internet advertising will continue to grow, and develop new methods of reaching Internet users.  Therefore we consider the likelihood of a drop-off of demand through the Internet as being low.

D13.2.15  Registry failure provisions

Software – Hardware Failure Provisions

• Back-up systems will be in place for all the REGISTRUCTURE operations
• Back-ups will be separated in location to ensure security of venue, and options for recovery.
• We consider these to be non-trivial operating systems for which high degree of security and failsafe contingencies must be in place.

• All Registry transactions and data bases will be backed up regularly and backups disks will be stored in a separate secure location

• Recovery software will be designed to recapture any data not already stored on disk

More details on software and hardware failure provisions are found in section III technical capabilities and plan.

Organizational Failure Provisions

• IMCR’s Strategic Partnerships are with well established service providers with strong and stable business histories
• ICM REGISTRY has made tacit arrangements with escrow service providers which will be formalized when the ICANN negotiations give the go-ahead for operating the “.XXX” and “.KIDS” TLDs
• The escrow service providers will adopt the TLDs operations in the unlikely event of ICM REGISTRY’s failure, until such time as ICANN wished to reassign the management of these TLDs

Pro-forma Financial projections (D13.3)

D13.3 Pro-forma financial projections

Pro-forma financial statement – Income Statement, Balance Sheet, Cash Flow Statement are found on the following pages.

Supporting Documentation (D13.4)

D13.4.1  Registry Operator’s organizational documents

ICM Registry’s incorporation document is attached.

D13.4.2  References

References are attached.  Additional references can be made upon request.

D13.4.3  Annual Report

Since ICM Registry was recently formed to respond to the ICANN request for proposals, no annual report is available.

D13.4.4  Proof of Capital

ICANN to provide edited information

D13.4.5  Proof of insurance

Required insurance will be procured upon ICANN award.

Sub Volume 2.2:  Technical Capabilities and Plan

D.14 Proposed Technical Solution Overview

ICM 

Registry Conceptual Architecture Components

Auction Service

For the first six months of operation (and for expiring domain names) a ‘highest bid’ auction service will be in effect.  During the auction itself, the Auction Service will ‘reserve’ the domain name in the Reserved Names Database.  This will allow registrants attempting to reserve the name to be redirected to the auction site.  The Auction Service will notify the registrant directly and pass the domain name to the identified Registrar.

Registrar Services

Name Validation Engine

The Name Validation Engine will intercept RRP requests to supply necessary information about the registered domain names.  A Registrar API will also allow for names to be shown in conflict with a trademark, reserved but not registered or, reserved because it is in the auction process.  Finally the Name Validation Engine will send expired domain names to the Auction Service.

Registration & Billing System

The billing system will allow for collection of the necessary fees from the Registrars.  Registrars will be responsible for collecting monies from the Registrants.  The Registration system will provide for entering not only the essential registry data, but also the optional content rating data.

Help Desk and Support

For registrar support requirements that cannot be handled on-line, a central Help Desk will be provided to handle those requests.  Providing 7x24x365 support in multiple languages, this help desk will follow call through to successful resolution.  Response times will vary depending on the severity of the incident being logged.

Registry Database

The Registry Database holds all of the data required to service WHOIS requests and to create the zone files for distribution to the name servers.  The Registry database will support both thin and thick registrars.  A Thin registrar sends only the WHOIS and DNS necessary data and any content ratings.  They will be responsible for their own data back-up and escrow services.  Thick registrars will send all of Registrant information for storage in the database.

Data Back-up & Escrow

The Data Back-up facility will manage the data required for both disaster recovery plans and escrow requirements for the ICM Registry.  For Think Registrars these services will be extended to them as well.

DNS Services

The DNS Services will be as geographically distributed as possible to provide redundancy and scalability.  This will also ensure the system is as highly available as possible.  The ICM Registry DNS servers will be updated from the main Registry Database using zone files on a minimum bi-daily basis. 

Content Audit Service

The content audit service will audit the registrants using automated software and by reviewing complaints logged by Internet users.  This service will update the Content Rating Database in real time.

Trademark Validation Service

The trademark validation service will accept application from mark holders to be submitted to the Reserved Names database.  It will also notify registered mark holders of a potential conflict so it can be resolved before being registered.

Content Rating Database

The Content Rating database will be fed from both the Registrants themselves and the Content Auditing Services.  From this database, Content Filter Providers will be able to subscribe for a fee to a daily report.

Reserved Names Database

The Reserved Name Database will hold the domain names being protected against trademark violation, domain names being auctioned and finally the initial names reserved based on traffic criteria that currently exist in the .com gTLD.  The Reserved Names Database will support the Registrar Services database in servicing RRP requests.

Web Services

The Web Services will provide an entry point for the public, content providers and, trademark holders into the ICM Registry.  The public will be able to view site ratings and submit content violations.  Content Filter Providers will be able to subscribe to a daily content report.  Trademark holder will be able to submit their marks for consideration to be entered into the Reserved Names Database.

Security Services

Security is and will be a major concern for any gTLD Registry.  This architecture has been designed to ensure that all of the databases are isolated from the Internet as much as possible.  The services feeding these databases will use a combination of firewalls and two-factor security validation schemes and manual process to ensure the integrity of the data.  The level of security will depend on which service is being utilized. 

Our highest level of security will be on the DMS Services as they are the most public, with the lowest security on the public access to the Web Services.

D15.1 Detailed Description of the Registry operator’s technical capabilities.

This information below forms Annex 10 dotTV technical proposal:

ICM REGISTRY will outsource to dotTV all technical functions with regard to the .xxx registry, drawing upon dotTV’s existing technical capabilities. 

The technical personnel within dotTV responsible for oversight of the outsourced services will comprise a core group of experienced and skilled staff.  In addition to this base of seasoned personnel, new staff would be engaged as required to meet increased demands resulting from the operation of .xxx. 

dotTV’s current core personnel includes a highly experienced staff of business,  marketing and technical experts.  dotTV’s Vice President of Technology has 15+ years experience in enterprise-wide academic computing, covering all aspect of computer service for two world-class institutions, the University of California, Berkeley and University of Southern California.  The three technology directors have noteworthy experience in e-commerce activity as well as Internet data center development and deployment.  Two of dotTV’s technical directors developed and implemented the infrastructure for the online retailer, eToys.

Other technical staff brings with them extensive database management and design experience, programming skills in modern web languages of PERL and JAVA, and top of class enterprise network design and management skills.

Further information regarding the qualifications and experience of dotTV’s technical personnel is contained in Exhibit M.

To review the proposed non-profit .KIDS Technical Capabilities and Plan Annex 11 Verisign Technical Proposal go to:

D15.2 Technical plan for the proposed registry operations

This information below forms Annex 10 dotTV Technical Proposal:

Under its outsourcing arrangement with dotTV, ICM REGISTRY will utilize dotTV’s existing deployed infrastructure for the .tv ccTLD as described below.

dotTV’s facilities include two vault enclosed data centers for the main web servers, DNS servers and database servers located in Exodus Communication collocation facilities in Santa Clara, CA and Sterling, VA.  Each operates independently yet can provide fail over disaster recovery for each other.

In addition, there are three other locations for DNS servers, two in Exodus Communication cage spaces in Tokyo and London, and the third in ISI/USC collocation space in Los Angeles.

There are two additional locations under lease.  One is with Global Center Communications and the other with Abovenet.  The locations for these two additional DNS centers are still pending but it is anticipated that they will be in Australia and New York City.

dotTV utilizes the services of UltraDNS, which has a worldwide net of 13+ DNS centers and provides a different DNS technology than the conventional BIND technology used at all of the other locations.  This new technology layers DNS resolution on top of enterprise size Oracle databases and uses some very efficient and innovative BGP routing procedures to allow the advertising of only two DNS name server names and addresses while the BGP routing insures that the requestor will be serviced by the closest UltraDNS server, independent of where the requestor is geographically located.

See Exhibit N  for a map identifying the locations detailed and a description of the hardware deployed at the locations.  In brief, there is a diversity of collocation spaces, networking equipment, and operating systems to insure that in the event of a denial of service attack focused on one OS or brand of networking hardware, some set of DNS and data centers would not be directly impacted by the DOS attack.

Exodus Communication was chosen as the main collocation provider because they were able to offer us a fully enclosed vault space within their data center space.  Thus we benefit from the extreme lengths that a world class collocation service goes to insure availability of clean power and two levels of backup power (batteries and generators), redundant HVAC systems, multiple network paths, and physical security for center access and building integrity to best manage any disaster.

Foundy Networks and Extreme Networks are the networking vendors, both are high quality vendors and young enough to still be cutting edge with regard to new technologies.  VA Linux servers are used for web server clusters as well as for DNS server clusters.  The clusters are composed of ten servers for each function, ten web servers for that function and ten for the DNS function.  These are configured in two stacks with different network feeds to each stack.

Lastly, each center has a pair of management servers to monitor and report status to a central Network Operations Center.  There is also serial console management node which allows routine and emergency management of all servers at the center from a central office location.

See Exhibit M. containing diagrams of dotTV’s current and proposed data center architecture.

To review the proposed non-profit .KIDS Technical Capabilities and Plan Annex 11 Verisign Technical Proposal go to:

Annex 11 VeriSign Global Registry Services Technical Proposal

D15.2.1 General description of proposed facilities and systems

This information below forms Annex 10 dotTV technical proposal:

Under its outsourcing arrangement with dotTV, ICM REGISTRY will utilize dotTV’s existing deployed infrastructure for the .tv ccTLD as described below.

dotTV’s facilities include two vault enclosed data centers for the main web servers, DNS servers and database servers located in Exodus Communication collocation facilities in Santa Clara, CA and Sterling, VA.  Each operates independently yet can provide fail over disaster recovery for each other.

In addition, there are three other locations for DNS servers, two in Exodus Communication cage spaces in Tokyo and London, and the third in ISI/USC collocation space in Los Angeles.

There are two additional locations under lease.  One is with Global Center Communications and the other with Abovenet.  The locations for these two additional DNS centers are still pending but it is anticipated that they will be in Australia and New York City.

dotTV utilizes the services of UltraDNS, which has a worldwide net of 13+ DNS centers and provides a different DNS technology than the conventional BIND technology used at all of the other locations.  This new technology layers DNS resolution on top of enterprise size Oracle databases and uses some very efficient and innovative BGP routing procedures to allow the advertising of only two DNS name server names and addresses while the BGP routing insures that the requestor will be serviced by the closest UltraDNS server, independent of where the requestor is geographically located.

See Exhibit N for a map identifying the locations detailed and a description of the hardware deployed at the locations.  In brief, there is a diversity of collocation spaces, networking equipment, and operating systems to insure that in the event of a denial of service attack focused on one OS or brand of networking hardware, some set of DNS and data centers would not be directly impacted by the DOS attack.

Exodus Communication was chosen as the main collocation provider because they were able to offer us a fully enclosed vault space within their data center space.  Thus we benefit from the extreme lengths that a world class collocation service goes to insure availability of clean power and two levels of backup power (batteries and generators), redundant HVAC systems, multiple network paths, and physical security for center access and building integrity to best manage any disaster.

Foundy Networks and Extreme Networks are the networking vendors, both are high quality vendors and young enough to still be cutting edge with regard to new technologies.  VA Linux servers are used for web server clusters as well as for DNS server clusters.  The clusters are composed of ten servers for each function, ten web servers for that function and ten for the DNS function.  These are configured in two stacks with different network feeds to each stack.

Lastly, each center has a pair of management servers to monitor and report status to a central Network Operations Center.  There is also serial console management node which allows routine and emergency management of all servers at the center from a central office location.

See Exhibit N containing diagrams of dotTV’s current and proposed data center architecture.

To review the proposed non-profit .KIDS Technical Capabilities and Plan Annex 11 Verisign Technical Proposal go to:

D15.2.2 Registry-registrar model and protocol

This information below forms Annex 10 dotTV technical proposal:

Under its outsourcing arrangement with dotTV, ICM REGISTRY will utilize dotTV’s current registry-registrar model and protocol as described below.  The .xxx registry will operate under dotTV’s current SRS model.  This protocol has been extended to include significant security enhancements to prevent domain hijacking and is more capable of handling increased volume than the current SRS model.  The document that is distributed to dotTV’s potential distributors is included for further clarification as Exhibit [O].

To review the proposed non-profit .KIDS Technical Capabilities and Plan Annex 11 Verisign Technical Proposal go to:

D15.2.3 Database capabilities