20(e) Provide a description of the applicant's intended registration policies in support of the community-based purpose of the applied-for gTLD

Prototypical answer:

ELIGIBILITY
In order to ensure that all goals set in this document will be achieved after go-live, TaxiPay GmbH will establish a registration policy that determines the conditions a registrant can register a domain. Consecutively, the intended registration policies as well as their proposed outcome are described.

First, an applicant for a .taxi second level domain has to submit proof of his or her affiliation with the taxi industry to the desired registrar. This process does not involve any formalities on the side of TaxiPay GmbH except an official document, such as a taxi license or a commensurate certificate of registration stating the purpose of the company and aligning it with a strong affiliation to the taxi community. This step is absolutely necessary and favors almost all goals directly or indirectly for the following reason. A validation agent on the side of TaxiPay GmbH will, in the event of disputes over registrations, manually check the required proof of affiliation in order to ensure the quality of this process, during which only relevant information is acquired from the registrant and data security is always in compliance with relevant laws and data security regulations. Therefore, outsourcing this activity to a third party would only harm the goal of assuring quality, security and reliability of information, especially as no costs will ever occur for the registrant. This procedure directly supports the goal of maintaining a target group solely consisting of members from directly and indirectly related taxi professions. Each applicant for a new .taxi second level domain will have to provide proof of being an eligible member of the community (please refer to question 18(a) for further details on eligible professions and organizations). Consequently, the TaxiPay GmbH has automatic and in some cases manual verification mechanisms in place (as described above). This supports the community approach providing a platform for safe and secure information addressed to both beneficiary groups, professionals and all internet users. Only the predefined members of the taxi community are eligible to register a domain under the gTLD .taxi at second level. These namely include the core taxi industry with taxi drivers, taxi offices, individual taxi entrepreneurs and other taxi companies, all of which can be clearly identified by their taxi licenses, as well as a certificate of registration, i.e. a trade register excerpt.

Secondly, the taxi community includes the members of the immediate surrounding industry, such as hardware and software suppliers, recruiting and training companies, auto shops, automotive suppliers, insurances and pertinent press all with a very strong if not exclusive focus on the core taxi industry. These can be identified by their certificates of registration, i.e. trade register excerpts.

Thirdly, the community includes superordinate organizations, such as governmental organizations, public authorities and institutions and committees with the purpose of establishing relevant policies for the core taxi industry, as well as non-governmental organizations with the purpose of advocating taxi-related issues towards the public sector, the general public and relevant taxi industry representatives on a municipal, regional, national and international level. This group verifies its affiliation to the taxi community through a written, official and verified statement by its superordinate authority or a certificate of a valid and verified register of associations.

Fourthly, the taxi community also includes affiliated businesses, such as owners of trademarks with a special interest in the products and services of the core taxi industry, such as major places of public interest (i.e. hospitals) or major events of public interest (i.e. Oscar Academy Awards).

SECOND LEVEL STRING SELECTION
The applicants will have to obligate themselves to strictly follow a Code of Conduct (CoC). The CoC will consist of a generic and a taxi-specific part.

The generic part covers topics as following
- Second level domain name registration must not infringe upon the rights of others
- Second level domain name registration must not violate trademark (or any other) rights of others
- Second level domain name registration must not, in any case, violate national and international laws
- Neither second level domain name nor content published under it can contain explicit or implicit pornography, violence glorification, political or religious extremism (including but not necessarily limited to fascism, Islamism, etc.)
- The registrant has a legitimate interest in the domain name
- The registrant does not act in bad faith
- The registrant and all respective activities must abide national and international laws
- The registrant agrees that in dispute cases, the verdict of a third party dispute resolution provider (such as a community audit, and according to ICANN’s dispute resolution processes) is binding
- The registrant agrees that name of the chosen second level domain has to contain major parts, if not the full name of the registrant’s company⁄ organization⁄ affiliate business

In addition, a particular domain name can only be registered if:
- The name has not been registered yet
- The name is not reserved or blocked
- The name fulfills the technical and lexical requirements
- The name demonstrates a clear connection to the name or occupation of the registrant

CONTENT & USE
The taxi-specific part covers topics as following
- The registrant only publishes content relevant for taxi-related issues or indicating a strong connection towards it
- The registrant provides platforms for user-generated content only relevant taxi-related issues or indicating a strong connection towards it
- The registrant verifies all content that is published in his responsibility and thereby ensures quality fulsomeness and correctness in all conscience
- The registrant agrees that in dispute cases, the verdict of a third party dispute resolution provider (in accordance with ICANN’s dispute resolution processes) is binding

The applicant has to agree that a violation against any of the policies of the registration agreement may result in the loss of the registered domain.

ENFORCEMENT
TaxiPay GmbH ensures, based on the Registry Agreement, that its commissioned Registry Service Provider will validate a registrant’s eligibility for a domain at second level under the gTLD .taxi, and will act upon request or complaint on the basis of the above described registration policies. TaxiPay GmbH itself, however, will provide an in-house validation agent in order to be able to react quickly upon possible cases of abuse and⁄or arising disputes. The main responsibility of the just mentioned validation agent is to double-proof a registrant’s eligibility for the respective domain at second level.

TaxiPay GmbH will additionally:
- Develop a trusted method of communication for all correspondence between the TaxiPay GmbH and the TLDʹs registrars, to ensure that all registrant contact information, including WHOIS records, is complete and remains current, and that all requests for registration within the space may be easily verified for authenticity.
- Implement effective mechanisms for addressing abusive practices.
- Establish a point of contact for third-party reporting of abusive practices.
- Ensure accurate WHOIS data by implementing and enforcing a strict registration and validation policy. The Registry-Registrar Agreement will furthermore include the obligation of accredited registrars to validate and verify each registration request.
- Determine and implement a streamlined practice for addressing and removing orphan glue records.
- Publish on its website and include as binding registry policy an Anti-Abuse Policy, described in detail below, which provides applicable definitions of abuse and outlining steps TaxiPay GmbH will take to address any such situations.

Moreover, the answers provided to questions 27 “Registration Lifecycle”, 28 “Abuse Prevention and Mitigation” and 29 “Rights Protection Mechanisms” describe more clearly in which cases TaxiPay GmbH will proactively agitate in means of supporting the goals listed above.

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