gTLD	Full Legal Name	E-mail suffix	Detail
.LLC	Dot Registry LLC	hotmail.com	View

DOT Registry plans to serve the Community of Registered Limited Liability Companies. Members of the community are defined as businesses registered as limited liability companies with the United States or its territories. Limited Liability Companies or (LLC’s) as they are commonly abbreviated, represent one of the most popular business entity structures in the US. LLCʹs commonly participate in acts of commerce, public services, and product creation.

Limited Liability Companies (LLC) are a relatively new business structure for the United States, the first LLC was validated in the state of Wyoming in 1977 and in 1996 the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws adopted the Uniform Limited Liability Company Act; providing for both the definition of an LLC and the governmental standards under which an LLC may be formed. It was through the Uniform Limited Liability Company Act that a standard set of policies were created to define, validate, and monitor the operations of LLC’s, thus creating a unique and accountable business community in the United States.

An LLC is defined as a flexible form of enterprise that blends elements of partnership and corporate structures. It is a legal form of company that provides limited liability to its owners in the vast majority of United States jurisdictions. LLC’s are a unique entity type because they are considered a hybrid, having certain characteristics of both a corporation and a partnership or sole proprietorship. LLC’s are closely related to corporations in the sense that they participate in similar activities and provide limited liability to their partners. Additionally, LLC’s share a key characteristic with partnerships through the availability of pass-through income taxation. LLC’s are a more flexibile entity type than a corporation and are often well suited for businesses owned by a single owner.

Common advantages to forming an LLC include:

1) Flexibility in tax reporting, LLC’s may choose if they would like to be taxed as a sole proprietorship, partnership, S Corporation, or C Corporation. This is the only business entity form in the United States that allows for taxation flexibility.
2) LLC’s have much less administrative paperwork and reporting requirements then corporations.
3) Unless the LLC elects to be taxed as a C Corp, LLC’s enjoy pass through taxation.
4) Limited liability, meaning that owners of an LLC, called “members” are protected from some or all liability acts and debts of the LLC.

LLC’s have become increasingly popular in the United States because their formation provides owners with the protection of a corporation and the flexibility of a partnership.

With the number of registered LLC’s in the United States totaling over five million in 2010 (as reported by the International Association of Commercial Administrators) it is hard for the average consumer to not conduct business with an LLC (popular LLC’s in the United States include: AOL and BMW). Through the creation of DOT Registry’s .LLC string, consumers can quickly validate that they are working with a member of the Community of Registered Limited Liability Companies, providing consumers with brand reassurance and peace of mind. DOT Registry believes that it is essential to identify limited liability companies online in order to expand on their creditability and further highlight their privilege to conduct business in the US. Proper representation of this community would allow consumers to make educated choices in choosing businesses to patronize and support.
LLCʹs can be formed through any jurisdiction of the United States. Therefore members of this community exist in all 50 US states and its territories. LLC formation guidelines are dictated by state law and can vary based on each state’s regulations. Persons form an LLC by filing required documents with the appropriate state authority, usually the Secretary of State. Most states require the filing of Articles of Organization. These are considered public documents and are similar to articles of incorporation, which establish a corporation as a legal entity. At minimum, the articles of organization give a brief description of the intended business purposes, the registered agent, and registered business address.
LLC’s are expected to conduct business in conjunction with the policies of the state in which they are formed, and the Secretary of State periodically evaluates a LLC’s level of good standing based on their commercial interactions with both the state and consumers. DOT Registry or its designated agents would verify membership to the Community of Registered Limited Liability Companies by collecting data on each Registrant and cross-referencing the information with their applicable registration state. In order to maintain the reputation of the “.LLC” string and accurately delineate the member to consumers, Registrants would only be awarded a domain that accurately represents their registered legal business name. Additionally, DOT Registry will not allow blind registrations or registration by proxy, therefore DOT Registry’s WHOIS service will tie directly back to each member’s state registration information and will be publicly available in order to provide complete transparency for consumers.
Entities are required to comply with formation practices in order to receive the right to conduct business in the US. Once formed an LLC must be properly maintained. LLC’s are expected to comply with state regulations, submit annual filings, and pay specific taxes and fees. Should an LLC fail to comply with state statutes it could result in involuntary dissolution by the state in addition to imposed penalties, taxes and fees.
While state statutes vary, the majority of states have adopted the following guidelines in regards to the formation of LLC’s:

(1) The name of each limited liability company must contain the words ʺLimited Liability Companyʺ or the abbreviation ʺL.L.C.ʺ or the designation ʺLLCʺ.

(2) In order to form a limited liability company, one or more authorized persons must execute the Articles of Organization. Which shall contain: the name of the limited liability company; the address of the registered office and the name and address of the registered agent for service of process required to be maintained; and any other matters the members determine to include therein.
(3) A Limited Liability Company may be organized to conduct or promote any lawful business or purposes, except as may otherwise be provided by the Constitution or other law of this State.
All entities bearing the abbreviation LLC in their business name create the assumption that they have been awarded the privileges associated to that title such as: the ability to conduct commerce transactions within US borders or territories, the ability to market products, solicit consumers and provide reputable services in exchange for monetary values, and finally to provide jobs or employment incentives to other citizens.
Membership in the Community of Registered Limited Liability Companies is established through your business entity registration. In order to maintain your membership to this community you must remain an “Active” member of the community. Active” in this context can be defined as any LLC registered with a Secretary of State in the United States and its territories, that is determined to be authorized to conduct business within that State at the time of their registration. Registrant’s “Active” status will be verified on an annual basis as described above in question 18 in order to ensure the reputation and validity of the “.LLC” gTLD.
Since LLC’s are not currently delineated on the Internet, the creation of this string would mark a unique advancement in consumer security and confidence in the United States. Essentially, this will create the first ever, clear delineator for the Community of Registered Limited Liability Companies.

gTLD	Full Legal Name	E-mail suffix	Detail
.gal	Asociación puntoGAL	puntogal.org	View

The .gal TLD will serve the needs of the Galician linguistic and cultural community on the Internet. The community consists of those who use (or commit to use) the Galician language for their online communications, and⁄or promote the different aspects of Galician culture online, and⁄or intend to specifically address their online communications and services to that community.

Registrations under the .gal TLD are restricted to bona-fide members of the Galician linguistic and cultural community, and subject to the further requirement that the registrant’s actions in the the .gal TLD community, as well as the registrant’s use of the registered domain name, must be:

(i)generally accepted as legitimate; and
(i)beneficial to the cause and the values of the Galician linguistic and cultural community; and
(i)commensurate with the role and importance of the registered domain name; and
(iv)in good faith at the time of registration and thereafter.

The Galician language is recognized as the autochthonous language in the area where it originated, and the Galician government has the right and obligation to use and promote it at all levels. Galician is established in all the educational levels. In addition, the administration promotes the language in the areas outside Galicia where people speak Galician and among the diaspora.

According to official data from Observatorio da Lingua Galega (a public body that researches in linguistics), Galician is spoken by more than 98% of the inhabitants of the territories where Galician is official.

Asociación puntoGAL has a clear and strong endorsement from the most relevant Institutions related to the Galician linguistic and cultural community. This also includes relevant business and professional associations, representing interests from every sector. The representativity of these institutions invests PuntoGAL with a clear mandate to serve a linguistic and cultural community of approximately four million people in different territories, and whose size ranks in position 136th among the more than 6,000 languages of the globe.

Many among the biggest Information Technologies companies are aware of the economical significance of Galician for their products. Google is currently available in 118 languages, and Galician is one of them. OS Windows can run in 95 languages, and Galician is available. Facebook only works with 70 languages and among them is Galician. On Twitter, Galician ranks 22nd in the list of languages used and first among languages that are official in only part of a state. Almost everyrelevant free software initiative (Mozzilla, OpenOffice, etc.) has its own Galician translation, completed by an active network of volunteers who work for the normalization of Galician in the software industry.

Volunteers also feed the Galipedia, the Galician Wikipedia. Galipedia ranks 41th in number of entries. Galipedia has more than 39.000 articles.
Besides language, the Galician culture has an ancient legacy with unique characteristics. The Way of St. James one of the oldest pilgrimage routes across Europe that finish in the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela; music which is similar to the musical traditions of Ireland, Scotland and other Atlantic European territories; ancient traditions like Galician carnival, literature medieval Galician lyric poetry had a special cultural role during the Middle Ages in the whole Iberian Peninsula; and cuisine –famous for the quality of its shellfish and seafood are just a few of the most internationally know examples of Galician cultural landmarks.

Answers to enumerated question points:

•How the community is delineated from Internet users generally.

The objective of the .gal TLD being to serve the Galician linguistic and cultural community, and to contribute to the promotion of the Galician information society sphere, the community is defined by those Internet content creators and end users using online communications in Galician or related to the Galician culture. The article 2 of Asociación puntoGAL’s bylaws enshrines this Mandate by establishing that “entities, companies or people that use the Galician language and⁄or promote the Galician culture may register a .gal domain name”

•How the community is structured and organized.

Asociación puntoGAL has been established for the purpose of creating and managing the .gal TLD. To that purpose, it created an structure that represents a wide array of Institutions from every area of the Galician society, and gathered the support of the most relevant Institutions related to the Galician cultural, technologic, media, professional and Civil Society sectors. PuntoGAL therefore, represents a community established centuries ago, with a longstanding existence and consolidated cultural heritage, organized throughout the centuries in many different layers of political, administrative, commercial, cultural and social organizations, that exceed by far the scope of this question.

•When the community was established, including the date(s) of formal organization, if any, as well as a description of community activities to date.

Due its nature, there is no date of formal organization of the community. However, the Galician language belongs to the family of Romance languages -like French or Spanish- and is the result of the evolution of Latin, which was introduced by the Romans in the northwest of the Iberian Peninsula. The Romans named Gallaecia the north-west of the Iberian Peninsula and the first references about the Gallaeci people were written by Latin and Greek authors in chronicles written during the first century AD. From the 9th century onwards, the language spoken in the area of the Kingdom of Galicia (founded around 409) was so different from Latin that the existence of two languages could be considered: Latin and Galician.

There are many areas with a large concentration of Galicians and Galiciansʹ descendants all around the world. These emigrants preserved their language as a communication vehicle -not only in the private field but also in the public field- through periodicals, literary publications or even in radio stations. There are large Galician-speaking communities in plenty of the main cities of Spain (Barcelona, Madrid, etc.), the rest of Europe (Zurich, Lisboa, etc. ) and America (Montevideo, Buenos Aires, etc). One of the main aims of the .gal TLD is to serve as a link between these diaspora communities. In fact, among the more than 100 members of Asociación puntoGAL there are twenty associations of Galician diaspora. There are members form two continents and ten countries.

Researchers of Galician also participate in this community. Currently, there are 43 centers of Galician studies located at several universities in Europe, America and the Australian Continent.

•The current estimated size of the community, both as to membership and geographic extent

Four million people approximately form this community. Almost three million of them live inside Galicia, in the North West of the Iberian Peninsula. The Spanish Constitution states that Galicia is an autonomous community and a historic region. In addition, Galician language and Galician culture have a relevant presence in other autonomous communities of Spain. Galician emigrant populations in France (15,798), United Kingdom (10,358), Germany (13,076), Switzerland (29,772), United States of America (11,549), Mexico (9,100), Cuba (24,546), Argentina (135,741), Brazil (34,700), Uruguay (33,739), Venezuela (36,586) and Australia (841) are relevant. It is important to bear in mind that these data only include people living abroad and who are registered in the official census. The total amount of Galician descendants of different generations and their relatives living abroad multiplies by six or five the number of Galician registered in the official census