gTLD	Full Legal Name	E-mail suffix	Detail
.chat	dot Chat Limited	famousfourmedia.com	View

Q18C
What operating rules will you adopt to eliminate or minimize social costs (e.g., time or financial resource costs, as well as various types of consumer vulnerabilities)? What other steps will you take to minimize negative consequences⁄costs imposed upon consumers?

The Applicant fully appreciates the concerns of ICANN, the GAC and other consumer protection authorities about the need to operate new gTLDs in ways that minimize social costs, consumer vulnerabilities as well as other time and financial resource costs. To achieve these goals this gTLD will not only employ the ICANN mandated minimum protections, but will also deploy the following innovative protection measures that will put the gTLD at the forefront of addressing these critical issues:

1) Abuse Prevention and Mitigation Policies and Procedures

The Applicant’s core mission and purpose is to create an environment where individuals and companies can interact and express themselves in ways never before seen on the Internet, in a more targeted, secure and stable environment. To achieve this goal the Applicant will be implementing a range of Abuse Prevention and Mitigation (ʺAPMʺ) policies and procedures.

These Policies and Procedures will include: 1) gTLD APM Plan, 2) Policies and Procedures to Minimize Abusive Registrations ,3) Abuse Point of Contact, 4) Policies for Handling Complaints Regarding the Abuse Policies, 5) Acceptable Use Policy (“AUP”), 6) Proposed Measures for Removal of Orphan Glue Records, 7) Resourcing plans for the initial implementation of, and ongoing maintenance of, the APM initiatives, 8) Registry semi-annual WHOIS verification, 9) Regular monitoring of WHOIS registration data for accuracy and completeness, 10) Registrar WHOIS self-certification, 11) WHOIS data reminder process, 12) Establishing policies and procedures to ensure Registrar compliance, which may include audits, financial incentives, penalties, or other means, 13) Registrar verification of WHOIS, 14) Abuse Response Process, 15) Policies and procedures that define malicious or abusive behaviour, 16) Service Level Requirements for resolution regarding APM issues, 17) Service Level Requirements for Law enforcement requests regarding APM issues, 18) Coordination of APM efforts with sector Groups and Law Enforcement, 19) Rapid takedown and suspension, 20) Controls to Ensure Proper Access to Domain Functions, 21) Enabling two-factor authentication from Registrants to process update, transfers, and deletion requests, 22) Enabling multiple, unique points of contact to request and⁄or approve update, transfer, and deletion requests, 23) Enabling the notification of multiple, unique points of contact when a domain has been updated, transferred, or deleted, 24) Additional Mechanism for Protection of Capital City Names, 25) Additional Mechanisms to Protect and Reserve IGO Names, 26) Governance Council Structure, 27) Efforts to increase Registrant Security Awareness, 28) Registrant Disqualification, 29) Restrictions on Proxy Registration Services, 30) Registry Lock. (Q28 for detail)

2) Rights Protection Mechanisms

The Applicant is firmly committed to the protection of Intellectual Property rights and to implementing all the mandatory Rights Protection Mechanisms (“RPMs”) contained in the Applicant Guidebook and detailed in Specification 7 of the Registry Agreement. Use of domain names that infringe upon the legal rights of others in the gTLD will not be tolerated and preventing abusive registrations is a core objective of the Applicant. The nature of such uses creates security and stability issues for the Registry, Registrars, and Registrants, as well as for users of the Internet in general. The Applicant will minimize time or financial resources costs by preventing abusive registrations and reduce opportunities for behaviours such as phishing or pharming. This will be achieved by implementing comprehensive registration, anti-abuse, and rights protection guidelines as defined in its AUP, as well as innovative additional RPMs such as the Mechanism to Protect IGO Names by blocking second level labels currently present in the .int zone file and the Mechanism for Further Protection of Capital City Names, as described below. In order to identify and address the abusive use of registered names on an ongoing basis, the Applicant will also incorporate and abide by the following RPMs and all other RPMs as specified in Specification 7 of the Registry Agreement and as adopted by the ICANN Board of Directors as ICANN Consensus Policies.

These Rights Protection Mechanisms will among other things include: 1) Trademark Clearinghouse, 2) Applicant’s Sunrise Period, 3) Trademark Claims Service , 4) Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy, 5) Uniform Rapid Suspension System, 6) Trademark Post-Delegation Dispute Resolution Procedure, 7) Mechanism to protect IGO Names, 8) Mechanism for Further Protection of Capital City Names, 9) Efforts to promote WHOIS Accuracy, 10) Thick Searchable WHOIS, 11) Semi Annual Audits to Ensure Accurate WHOIS, 12) Policies Handling Complaints Regarding Abuse and Rights Issues, 13) Registry Acceptable Use Policy (“AUP”), 14) Monitoring for Malicious Activity. (Q29 for detail)

3) Governance Council Structure

The Applicant believes that sector stakeholders should be afforded the opportunity to influence the manner in which the gTLD is governed. Accordingly, the Applicant will establish a Governance Council (the “GC”) comprised of key sector stakeholders that will serve as an advisory body tasked with defining best practice recommendations for the gTLD space. The Applicant believes that the success of the gTLD will be determined largely by the sector’s key stakeholders. Not only will these stakeholders have the primary interest in registering domains in the gTLD, but they will also be motivated to protect the sector from practices that would negatively impact the sector overall. The GC exists to provide guidance on matters related to best practices, intellectual property, authentication, certification, and other matters of importance to the sector and it will elect its own Board of Directors, which will be responsible for self-governance, the recommendation of sector-specific policies, and other best practices related to the gTLD.

4) BITS and Coalition for Online Accountability (“COA”) Recommendations

The Applicant will further structure its policies around the BITS and COA Recommendations where relevant to this gTLD. The Applicant’s goal is to provide a safe and secure experience for consumers. A domain within this gTLD that is owned, operated by or compromised by a malicious party could cause harm to consumers, to the gTLDʹs reputation and to the reputation of the Internet itself. As such, additional controls are in place relating to the validity of registrations, as well as measures to ensure the correct identity of both Registrants and Registrars relating to changes made within the SRS, and to protecting the integrity of the DNS service as a whole.

The Security Standards Working Group (SSWG) formed by BITS drafted a set of policy recommendations that should be applied to financial TLDs. The policy comprises of a set of 31 recommendations that should be adopted by ICANN in evaluating any applicant of a financial gTLD. The recommendations were posted by BITS in the form of a letter to ICANN at [http:⁄⁄www.icann.org⁄en⁄correspondence⁄aba-bits-to-beckstrom-crocker-20dec11-en.pdf].

The Coalition for Online Accountability have drafted a set of policy recommendations, also endorsed by many other international organizations representing the creative industries, that should be applied to entertainment gTLDs - especially those dependent on copyright protection. The policy comprises of a set of 7 recommendations that should be adopted by ICANN in evaluating any applicant for an entertainment-based gTLD. The recommendations were posted by COA in the form of a letter to ICANN at http:⁄⁄bit.ly⁄HuHtmq.

We welcome the recommendations from BITS and the COA and will strongly consider the recommendations relating to the implementation of this gTLD where considered relevant.

5) Registry Operators Startup Plan

The Applicant proposes to implement the following start-up plan so that the new gTLD is introduced in an orderly, transparent and stable manner. This will safeguard competition, fairness, trust and reliability for Registrants, the User Community, ICANN Accredited Registrars, and other Stakeholders.
The Applicant’s startup plan is designed to minimize social costs (e.g., time or financial resources costs, as well as various types of consumer vulnerabilities) by instilling a number of RPMs as well as APMs.
The plan consists of the following multi-phase process that will be executed by the Registry Operator. The timeline for the gTLDs start-up process and associated RPMs in the Applicants gTLD is as follows:

Phase 1 – Sunrise Process:

- Day 1: Sunrise round opens
- Day 60: Sunrise round Closes
- Day 61: Sunrise Allocation Including contention resolution mechanisms opens
- Day 71: Sunrise Allocation contention resolution mechanisms closes

• The following Rights Protection Mechanisms apply:
a. Trademark Clearinghouse (“TMCH”)
b. Sunrise Eligibility Requirements (“SER”)
c. Sunrise Dispute Resolution Policy (“SDRP”)
d. Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (“UDRP”)
e. Uniform Rapid Suspension System (ʺURSʺ)
f. Mechanism for the Protection of IGO Names (“PIN”)
g. Trademark Claims Service (“TCS”) *

Phase 2 – Landrush process:

- Day 72: Landrush opens
- Day 102: Landrush closes
- Day 103: Landrush contention resolution mechanisms opens
- Day 113: Landrush contention resolution mechanisms closes

- The following Rights Protection Mechanisms apply:

a. UDRP
b. URS
c. PIN
d. Mechanism for Further Protection of Capital City Names (“CCC”)
e. TCS *

Phase 3 – General Availability⁄Registrations:

- Day 114: General availability begins

- The following Rights Protection Mechanisms apply:

a. UDRP
b. URS
c. PIN
d. Trademark Post-Delegation Dispute Resolution Procedure (“PDDRP”)
e. TCS for the 90 days after day 114 *

* To ease the concerns of trademark owners and mitigate the impact of infringing registrations, the Applicant will be implementing the TCS in all three phases of launch. It is important to note that during the General Availability Phase, the TCS will be used for 90 days, 30 days longer than the ICANN mandated minimum.

18(C)(i) How will multiple applications for a particular domain name be resolved, for example, by auction or on a first-come⁄first-serve basis?

Sunrise and Landrush periods:

During the gTLDs launch period, multiple applications for a particular domain name will be resolved through a Contention Resolution Mechanism (“CRM”) involving auctions. These CRMs will apply to the Sunrise and Landrush application phases. The CRMs will be conducted by Sedo GMBH, an experienced provider of domain auction services. The mechanisms offered will involve closed auctions where only specific bidders can participate.

During the Applicants Sunrise process, if there are two or more eligible applicants for one domain name string, then the contention will be resolved by auction. Auctions held during the Sunrise phase (“Sunrise Auctions”) will be closed and the only bidders will be eligible applicants according to the gTLDs Sunrise eligibility requirements including the TMCH.

During the Applicants Landrush process, if there are two or more eligible applicants for one domain name string, then the contention will be resolved by auction. Auctions held during the Landrush phase (“Landrush Auctions”) will be closed and the only bidders will be eligible applicants according to the gTLDs Landrush eligibility requirements.

General Availability:

After the two initial startup phases of the Registry the allocation of domain names will occur on a first-come first-serve basis, taking into account the registries APM and RPM mechanisms.

18(c)(ii) Explain any cost benefits for registrants you intend to implement (e.g., advantageous pricing, introductory discounts, bulk registration discounts).

Incentive, Marketing and Outreach Programs

The Applicant will implement a number of incentive, marketing assistance, awareness and PR programs to assist the Registrar channel in providing a sector leading experience to end-users and to provide cost benefits for registrants. The Applicant will work with the global Registrar channel to ensure that the new gTLD offer is clearly visible on registrar sites resulting in an increase in the awareness and in the number of new gTLD registrations. Achieving this visibility requires (1) a clear business case and incentives for registrars to motivate them and (2) mechanisms and assets to make it easy for them to do so.

The Applicant will at the time of launch depending upon market conditions consider incentive programs that will deliver cost benefits to registrants through either the use of advantageous pricing, introductory discounts, bulk registration discounts or other similar methods. The Applicant is aware of Specification 9 – Registry Operator Code of Conduct, and will not directly or indirectly show any preference or provide any special consideration to any Registrar in its marketing efforts.

Example incentive mechanisms the Applicant will provide to the registrars may include:

Marketing Incentives

The Applicant intends to provide expertise, tools and creative assets to the registrars as part of general marketing and co-marketing programs. There is a significant cost saving if the expertise, tools and assets are developed centrally and the costs amortized across the registrar base. Significant cost savings can occur relating to Market Research, Social Customer Relationship Management (“SCRM”), Content Management Systems (“CMS”), Direct Marketing Tools, Marketing Collateral and Analytics Solutions.

The Applicant will employ some or all of the following marketing techniques jointly with registrars globally: (1) Direct Response Print, (2) General Web Marketing, (3) Email campaigns without Incentive, (4) Email with Incentive, (5) Email Marketing - Prospect List, (6) Email Marketing - Sponsored Newsletter, (7) Direct Marketing with Incentive, (8) Web Marketing with Incentive, (9) Viral Marketing (Social, Video, Micro-sites), (10) Develop User Interface Improvement best practices, (11) Develop Search Engine Optimization best practices, (12) Email Marketing - Registrar List
As an example of a marketing initiative, the Applicant will forward leads to the Registrars “buy” pages as an incentive via the means of Pay-Per-Click (“PPC”) search marketing. The Applicant will run multiple PPC campaigns targeting gTLD Registrants and point these to landing pages on the Registrar’s websites. Conversions are directly trackable from all PPC campaigns and keywords with a high Click-Through-Rate (“CTR”) or conversions will also be leveraged for SEO best practice purposes.

PR and Awareness Incentives:

In addition to the core outreach to the Registrar Channel, the Applicant will engage in a wider outreach to build awareness of the new gTLD with customers, end-users and other stakeholders. The Applicant will engage with a number of high profile individuals associated with the gTLD and will seek to reach end consumers through webcasts, podcasts, traditional broadcast TV as well as radio.

Provision of customer retention toolkits to Registrars:

The Applicant will use propensity modelling to build retention marketing programs to minimize churn whilst building renewal sustainability. The Applicant will develop econometric models designed to measure the likelihood of a customer segment to purchase a product or offer bundle, at a certain point in the relationship lifecycle. They are used to predict the best time, and the best combination of products, to offer to customers who match a certain profile. They are especially effective where there are large numbers of customers and reliable data can be gathered. The Applicant expects that registration volume in the gTLD will provide sufficient data for this modelling.

Measure, benchmark and improve the customer experience:

The Applicant will engage in a program to develop best practice policies related to the customer experience at differing levels of the channel. This will include the entire ecosystem from Registry through Registrar to Resellers and finally end-users. One key metric might be, for example, to reduce the number of clicks to make a purchase equivalent to the most customer friendly e-commerce sites in the world.
The Applicant might, for example, provide website performance tracking tools to registrars, which would benchmark current performance and provide insights into customers’ needs and behaviour at the point of purchase.
The Applicant will engage in a Social Customer Relationship Management Program to monitor social media feedback to questions, concerns or other issues. The Applicant will further seek to measure marketing communication expenditure and activity.

Other initiatives that will be considered by the Applicant in its outreach efforts:

(a) Customized Vertical Search App for major mobile platforms.
(b) Designated Twitter channel for the stakeholder community.
(c) Social Media outreach through Facebook and other social media solutions.

Translation into other languages:

At present, the Applicant plans to translate marketing collateral and other content that it considers to have geographically diverse appeal in to the 6 official UN languages, namely Arabic, Chinese (Mandarin), English, French, Russian and Spanish.

18(c)(iii) Note that the Registry Agreement requires that registrars be offered the option to obtain initial domain name registrations for periods of one to ten years at the discretion of the registrar, but no greater than ten years. Additionally, the Registry Agreement requires advance written notice of price increases. Do you intend to make contractual commitments to registrants regarding the magnitude of price escalation? If so, please describe your plans.

The Applicant will follow the lifecycle and business rules found in the majority of gTLDs today. Our back-end operator has in excess of ten years of experience managing numerous gTLDs that utilize standard and unique business rules and lifecycles.

Initial registrations of registered names may be made in the registry in one (1) year increments for up to a maximum of ten (10) years. For the avoidance of doubt, the registration term for registered names may not exceed ten (10) years. Further the renewal of registered names may be made in one (1) year increments for up to a maximum of ten (10) years. For the avoidance of doubt, renewal of registered names may not extend their registration period beyond ten (10) years from the time of the renewal.

The Applicant plans to review domain name registration rates on an annual basis and will make a determination at that time regarding adjustments, depending upon market factors. Thus, at this time, the Applicant does not plan to make specific guarantees regarding pricing increases.

The Applicant will provide ICANN and each ICANN accredited registrar that has executed the registry-registrar agreement for the gTLD advance written notice of any price increase (including as a result of the elimination of any refunds, rebates, discounts, product tying or other programs which had the effect of reducing the price charged to registrars, unless such refunds, rebates, discounts, product tying or other programs are of a limited duration that is clearly and conspicuously disclosed to the registrar when offered) that complies with the requirements as outlined in the New gTLD Registry Agreement.
-end-

gTLD	Full Legal Name	E-mail suffix	Detail
.MUSIC	DotMusic ⁄ CGR E-Commerce Ltd	music.us	View

(i)
In the three initial launch phases – Sunrise, mCMO Landrush and General Landrush – multiple applications will be resolved via auction. During the general availability stage domains will be allocated in a first come-first serve basis. Please refer to question 18b(iv) and 20e for more detail.

(ii)
The .MUSIC registration fee will adopt a moderate, competitive pricing point taking into consideration Community feedback and outreach, the TLD’s premium value proposition, differentiation, security and safety concerns, and other significant factors such as:
1. Most Community members are price sensitive since they operate in a highly competitive, fragmented environment with decreasing average music consumer spending that is aggravated by rampant piracy and competition from other forms of entertainment and substitute products⁄services.
2. As illustrated by the McAfee’s 2011 “Mapping the Mal Web” Report (http:⁄⁄us.mcafee.com⁄en-us⁄local⁄docs⁄MTMW_Report.pdf), pricing is one of the most influential factors considered by registrants aiming to conduct malicious activity and abuse. Low priced domains have a higher likelihood for abuse. Prices in the middle to higher end are enough of a sufficient financial barrier to entry to reduce the number of registrants offering low quality content not useful to most Internet users, such as parking pages. Premium pricing will also help reduce cybersquatting and piracy. Registrants are more likely to register a cheaper domain to conduct illegal activity since it is less financially risky.
3. A benchmark analysis of comparable gTLDs and ccTLDs existing today (Please refer to responses to questions 45-49 for assumptions).
DotMusic will not be low price leader in the domain space because low price leadership will have an adverse effect on DotMusic’s objective to brand .MUSIC as a differentiated, value-added domain. Competing on price alone is not an effective strategy for DotMusic because it usually leads to commoditization and a low-margin business that relies primarily on the core benefit of the TLD: the branded music-themed meaning of a novelty domain extension. Adopting a moderate, competitive pricing strategy will complement DotMusic’s goal to continually invest in the TLD to create innovative services, provide new offerings, opportunities and benefits to registrants beyond a branded TLD and achieve augmented and potential product differentiation. Furthermore, DotMusic’s goal is to align consumer perception of a differentiated TLD with an optimal domain price that communicates the premium nature of .MUSIC, its unique value proposition and benefits.

The .MUSIC price will also include registrant participation in the .MUSIC Premium Channels. DotMusic will offer the Music Community an affordable domain to build a unique and exclusive presence online, ensuring the cost of the domain is optimally priced to prevent malicious behavior and abuse traditionally experienced in lower priced domains and domains that lack enhanced safeguards. Depending on the cost of doing business and other economic factors, DotMusic may from time to time increase or lower the wholesale price in accordance with the provisions of Section 2.10 of the New gTLD Registry Agreement. However, final registration prices to registrants will be determined by accredited registrars. Registrants will have the flexibility to register a domain for a period of 1, 2, 3, 5 or 10 years.
DotMusic might choose to incorporate cost benefits in relation to advantageous pricing, introductory discounts, or bulk discounts to assist in increasing domain sales if needed to meet registry financial and operational needs, especially in the situation where the most likely projected registration volume (see responses to questions #45-50) is not met. In that situation, DotMusic will strongly consider implementing targeted marketing campaigns that include discounted prices.

Otherwise DotMusic does not have specific plans for advantageous pricing, introductory pricing, nor plans for any bulk registration discounts.

(iii)
DotMusic will not offer long term or permanent contracts (beyond that of the maximum term of 10 years) for domains. DotMusic has carefully considered the needs of the Music Community in setting its prices on its services using a value-based pricing strategy as opposed to cost-based pricing methods. Any price escalations or reductions will be reasonably justified and managed in accordance with the provisions of Section 2.10 of the New gTLD Registry Agreement.

PARKING PAGES: DotMusic will prohibit the use of parked pages. .MUSIC sites will be subject to the content and use restrictions described in response to question 18b and question 20e. Parked sites can only be used as temporary pages assigned to a domain at the time of registration and stay in place until the registrant has a website developed and ready to go live in a reasonable time period.


.MUSIC and its Premium Channels offer a robust, cost-effective means for the Community to assert their identities online. DotMusic is committed to launch and manage .MUSIC in a responsible manner for the Community with enhanced safeguards. DotMusic’s substantial activities since 2008 highlight the diligent preparation of this application to serve the Community’s interest. This includes minimizing and eliminating social costs; establishing a better financial income stream for Community members; financially assisting by sponsoring Community causes, non-for profit organizations, events, conferences and educational activities; promoting legal music commerce; and assisting the Community in establishment of new improved innovative services to address their needs.
Steps and plans incorporated by DotMusic to minimize negative costs upon consumers, registrants and Internet users include:

DISCOVERY, SEARCH ENGINE & NETWORK EFFECT BENEFITS
A more indirect minimization of social costs relates to registrants and users having an immediate benefit of easy recognition and discovery via the .MUSIC Premium Channels. Engagement through Premium Channel social networks increases business opportunities and minimizes marketing costs for registrants.

DotMusic’s goal to replace top search rankings of illegal music sites will be tackled by implementing search engine optimization best-practices for Premium Channels that will also complement .MUSIC registrant sites. This will increase general brand awareness and instill trust in .MUSIC sites by creating a safe haven for music consumption and improving international music discovery.

ENHANCED SAFEGUARDS & FIGHTING PIRACY
The .MUSIC Use policy, enhanced safeguards and Premium Channels will benefit registrants, IP rights holders and their music-related content and will help them achieve higher search engine rankings that would replace fraudulent sites that provide free or otherwise illegal music. As a result musicians, creators and other rights holders will enjoy more visibility and an additional income stream that otherwise was provided to illegal sites. This way .MUSIC can reduce the costs and expenses imposed upon the Music Community to fight piracy.


STRATEGIC INNOVATION
- Fostering open innovation by building Premium Channels and developing a Premium Channel global Song Registry to enable easier, faster and simpler way to license music.

PURPOSE, VALUES & LEADERSHIP
- Creating an organizational culture with strong values and high integrity serving the Community and the public interest.
- Developing value-oriented, registrant-driven methods for measuring and recognizing performance while aligning management and leadership, culture and values, and strategy and vision with registrant customer-centricity.

CUSTOMER CENTRICITY
- Maintaining customer stickiness by simplifying and personalizing the TLD value proposition, enhancing Community engagement and complementing the network effect benefits offered by the diverse, targeted and niche Premium Channels.

GLOBAL MINDSET
- Expanding successfully across borders and cultures including launching language-based IDN channels to cater a multilingual growing Internet user base especially in regions with lower legal music penetration and consumption.

COMMUNITY & GOVERNANCE
- Enhancing the Advisory Committee & Policy Board’s role in strategic planning, goal setting, initiating positive change and strengthening governance to ensure accountability, responsibility and ethical business practices in the public interest, while eliminating preventable social costs.
- Creating business and social value by adopting a shared values system of innovation that fosters successful interaction with key stakeholders, governments and non-government associations and promotes social responsibility towards the Community.
- DotMusic understands the difficulties faced by the content industries to cope with changes created by the digital revolution. DotMusic’s neutral multi-stakeholder governance of equal representation of all music constituents is based on gaining stakeholder consensus to enable the development of a domain Industry standard in .MUSIC that serves registrants and Internet users and assures that rightful entities can own and leverage their .MUSIC domain to eliminate cybersquatting and piracy issues, while building trust with consumers to ensure commercial activities are trusted and monies flow to the music community not pirates or unlicensed sites.
- The .MUSIC Community, as established and delineated in Question 20, represents the majority of the overall Community and ensures that its expressions of support cover a balanced, diverse and representative blend of Community stakeholders, including constituents representing over 70 governments culture agencies and⁄or arts councils, over 35 countries’ music information centers, music export offices, country-led music coalitions, digital distributors representing most of the music distributed on the leading legal music stores, music associations and organizations representing the interests of many Community members, and other entities. Refer to 20f for documented support from organizations representing a majority of the overall Community, including process and rationale behind expressions of support.

DOMAIN ALLOCATION, INDUSTRY STANDARDS & CONSUMER TRUST
DotMusic recognizes that many Community members do not own their domain names in .COM or other extensions because they were late to register their preferred domain name, were victims of cybersquatting or could not recover their domain from fans. This issue is prevalent for most popular artists that have a generic term as their name. DotMusic has incorporated enhanced safeguards, such as the Globally Protected Marks List to safeguard popular brands from cyberquatting, registration eligibility and use policies, and a MCMO domain allocation phase to benefit Community registrants. This way the .MUSIC domain will establish a new methodology of assigning domain names to the rightful owners. Consumers can type their favorite artistname.MUSIC directly in the browser bypassing Google and other search engines and ensuring music fans and consumers are accessing the legal, official artist site in the fastest and simplest way possible reducing Internet user search and time costs.


Officially licensed .MUSIC domains can give search engines a unique identifier and a signal of trust and relevancy not available today which can be used to achieve higher search results to help replace the proliferation of illegal rogue sites found in top of search results for music terms. This unique filter will help protect and benefit registrants, Internet users and instill trust in consumers since the DMCA has shown to be ineffective. Google URL takedown requests have more than doubled in less than a year, approaching about 300,000 URL removals a week. 5 out of the top 12 copyright owners requesting URL takedown requests are music entities (www.google.com⁄transparencyreport⁄removals⁄copyright⁄owners⁄?r=last-year). This problem does not only harm the Music Community. It harms other IP-driven communities, such as movies, software, games and books.

Community buy-in is critical to establish these legal standards to facilitate safer, trusted and enhanced commerce on the web while fighting piracy and unlicensed sites. The music-themed domain is built with usage polices that will enable taking down infringing sites, protecting trademarks and help the exploitation of copyrights by providing a safe haven for legal music distribution, consumption and licensing.

The goal is to create a secure Industry standard domain matching Community needs with enhanced safeguards not available in current TLDs. Standards save money and drive productivity. The music-themed TLD will be launched in an intuitive, simple manner to leverage the interoperability, effectiveness and efficiency of the open web and the DNS. By using the same standards communicating data becomes easier and cheaper ensuring more revenue is distributed across the whole digital music supply chain to the rightful entities not rogue sites. The DotMusic Song Registry will also benefit the Community by enabling registrants to legally license their works territorially in a simple, fast and easy way. This way IP can be utilized and commercialized more efficiently to assist the Community to better serve an entire music value chain globally.

INTEROPERABILITY & TLD UNIVERSAL ACCEPTANCE
DotMusic will work with leading browser⁄application⁄software⁄web-related developers and vendors to lift any artificial constraints relating to .MUSIC. Universal acceptance efforts will complement the TLD and its utility to Internet users and help fulfill the continued realization of the Internetʹs potential for communication and commerce. DotMusic will conduct outreach efforts to technology providers to help incorporate new TLD interoperability standards relating to:
- Browsers & DNS tools
- Registrars & RIR systems
- Network infrastructure
- Hosting & email
- Network management & security tools
- Applications
- Databases
- Hardware & devices