gTLD	Full Legal Name	E-mail suffix	Detail
.madrid	Comunidad de Madrid	madrid.org	View

The .MADRID TLD application is submitted by the Region of Madrid (Comunidad de Madrid), which is the Government of the region of Madrid region; analogous to the States in the Federal States of the USA) on behalf of, and for the Madrid community.

The following clauses (A), (B) and (C) describe the delineation of the Madrid community and corresponding policy principles of the .MADRID TLD.

(A) The Madrid community comprises individuals as citizens and legal entities with presence in the Region of Madrid. This territory comprises the 179 Municipalities, including the city of Madrid and its metropolitan area Madrid is the capital of Spain as established by art. 5 of the Spanish Constitution. A bona fide presence in the Madrid area may be determined by the following:

- residence in the Madrid area, or

- the pursuit of lawful business activities in the Madrid area, or

- the pursuit of cultural leisure, and sport activities in the Madrid area, or

- any other kind of direct or indirect presence that is generally accepted as legitimate for, and conducive to the welfare of, the Madrid area.

(B) Registration of domain names under the .MADRID TLD is restricted to members of the Madrid community and subject to the further requirement that the domain name registrant’s direct or indirect presence in the Madrid area and the registrant’s use of the domain name must be:

(1) of a kind that is generally accepted as legitimate and
(2) conducive to the welfare of the Madrid area and
(3) of commensurate quality to the role and importance of the respective domain name and
(4) based on good faith at the time of registration and thereafter.

(C) The government of the Region of Madrid, in relation to the requested .MADRID TLD, acts as the highest representative body for the Region of Madrid, as well as the representative of this community in dealings with other institutions of the Spanish state and its different administrative bodies, including the city of Madrid as state capital. In light of this, the full support of the Spanish Government has been obtained through the Secretary of State for Telecommunications, as well as for the Information Society and that of the city of Madrid, via its activities in the area of Economic Governance, Employment and Citizen Participation, with the common objective of establishing new channels for relationships based on good faith.



Answers to enumerated question points:

How the community is delineated from Internet users generally. Such descriptions may include, but are not limited to, the following: membership, registration, or licensing processes, operation in a particular industry, use of a language.

The Madrid community relates to the geographic area of the Region (Comunidad) of Madrid or the Madrid area, a described above. The Madrid area comprises the geographic urban areas of the city of Madrid. It is clearly recognizable by urban infrastructure, such as the local transport network in and around the City of Madrid. It also comprises 180 other municipalities of diverse size and character.

The delineation described under (A) above matches the reality of the Madrid community as it has existed since the advent of Madrid as a modern metropolis.

A Madrid community has existed for a long time. For as long as it has existed, those who belonged to it were those who had a bona fide presence in the urban area and its surroundings. With the advancement of civilization, new forms of presence (such as business or culture) have become generally accepted. A bona fide presence in the Madrid area may be direct or indirect, on the basis of domicile, activity, cultural links or any other constructive commitment to the Madrid area. It may be emanating from the area or be directed to the area.

Given the vast scope of a modern metropolitan community, and its surroundings, community membership always depends on context. This is why, for the purpose of domain registrations, the strength and quality of the registrant’s nexus must be commensurate to the role and importance of the domain name to the community.

In other words, a bona fide presence in the Madrid area (and thus community membership) is a necessary condition, NOT in itself a sufficient condition for the right to hold any imaginable .MADRID domain name. As the policy principles under (B) above description show, there are additional requirements specific to the intrinsic role and importance of the domain name in question. They concern in particular the nature of the registrant’s presence in the Madrid area and the registrant’s use of the domain name.

The wish to hold a .MADRID domain name is not in itself a sufficient indication of a bona fide presence in the Madrid area. Furthermore, if a person has been able to register a domain name in .MADRID, this does not in itself entitle that person to register any imaginable other .MADRID domain name.


How the community is structured and organized. For a community consisting of an alliance of groups, details about the constituent parts are required.

As any other modern metropolitan area, the Madrid community is organized to the highest degree. The Madrid area belongs to one single, highly integrated community. Because of if its importance and size, the community’s organization involves a number of public bodies and authorities on several levels (such as the Region, the Municipalities, and for the biggest among them, the Districts), treaties between public bodies, joint investments in public infrastructure companies, public-private partnerships, coordinated policies and legal frameworks that define the duties and prerogatives of each body. The public bodies are established by law and their representatives are democratically elected by universal suffrage. It goes without saying that private companies and cultural or welfare organizations also belong to the organization of the community.


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

The City of Madrid (and therefore the Greater Madrid Area) has existed as an organized community since Middle Age, having grown naturally over time. It has been the Court and then Capital of Spain since 1561.

The activities of the Madrid community are:
- the shared concerns and pursuits of the residents and stakeholders of the Madrid area (along with their organizations or public bodies)
- the shared use of the infrastructure and services of the Madrid area, such as transport, telecommunications, as well as culture, education, welfare and leisure,
- a strong focus for tourism, including leading role in cultural tourism (Madrid is the seat, for instance, of the World Tourism Organization).
- the role of the City of Madrid as capital of Spain.

The Madrid community includes extensive activities in the digital world specific to the Greater Madrid Community, both in the form of e-government services and public authorities’ contributions to the development of information society. The .MADRID TLD is designed to be directly related to the activities of the Madrid community, including fostering the use of electronic administration and promoting political and social participation.


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

The population of the Madrid area is in the order of 7 million inhabitants. The geographic extension of the Madrid Region is at 8.021 square kilometers.

The Madrid Region comprises, beyond the City of Madrid, 179 Municipalities that can be found on www.madrid.org

gTLD	Full Legal Name	E-mail suffix	Detail
.bzh	Association www.bzh	afnic.fr	View

= Provide the name and full description of the community that the applicant is committing to serve. =

The proposed gTLD .bzh refers to the Breton community defined as all the people who feel attached to Brittany, its culture and its languages and who wish to display this attachment by using a specific domain name.
Indeed, the BZH string refers primarily to a geographical area, Brittany, its culture and its languages since BZH derives from the Breton word Breizh which means Brittany.
All those present in this reference territory are legitimate members of the community, for instance individuals with a residence in Brittany, organization with either its headquarters or an office in Brittany.
The abbreviation BZH is also a marker of a cultural and linguistic identity. People who refer to this culture (based on UNESCO’s definition: ʹculture should be regarded as the set of distinctive spiritual, material, intellectual and emotional features of society or a social group, and it encompasses, in addition to art and literature, lifestyles, ways of living together, value systems, traditions and beliefs’) or to the languages of Brittany (Breton, Gallo) are members of the community.

Attachment to Brittany, its culture and its languages (i.e. community membership) can then result from
* A geographical residence (physical address, headquarters or office) in Brittany
* Any expression or reference to the Breton culture according to UNESCO culture’s definition
* Any practice of or reference to the languages of Brittany

Furthermore, registration implies compliance with a fair use that only allows a use harmless to the image of Brittany and the community. Non-compliance will result in suspension or termination of the domain name.
This fair use will be based among other things on notions such as legitimate interest and bona fide for registration (and renewal) of domain names, that the registrant must be able to justify in case of a challenge related to the domain name use.

= How the community is delineated from Internet users generally. =

The Breton community refers to a specific territory, culture and languages (A) that are reflected in particular on the internet (B).

A) The Breton community refers to the territory of Brittany which is historically spread over five French ‘départements’: Côtes d’Armor, Finistère, Loire-Atlantique, Morbihan and Ille-et-Vilaine.

The Breton community has a strong and specific cultural and linguistic identity.
The Breton language (brezhoneg in Breton) is one of the six Celtic languages still spoken in Europe. It is the Celtic language with the third largest number of speakers. The number of active speakers is estimated to be close to 200,000 in Brittany and close to 16,000 in Paris region. The total number of Breton speakers, including occasional speakers and those who understand without speaking, could be around 500,000.
Gallo, the second language of Brittany, is part of the langues d’oil languages - as is French. The French National Institute for Statistics estimated this figure the number of regular speakers at 28,300, whereas other studies (UNESCO) evaluated the number at 200,000.

Brittany develops also a rich and original culture in terms of :
* music. Brittany is the 1st French region for the number of festivals, 2nd region for the production of music records. There is a lively practice of traditional music with bands known as bagadoù and traditional song (kan ha diskan, gwerz, …).
* dance. Traditional fetes called ʺFest-nozʺ involving various folk dances in line or pairs. Amateur dancing in Brittany is structured through confederations (13,000 members of 160 Celtic dance circles).
* architectural heritage. With over 2900 protected monuments, Brittany classes as the French region with the second richest architectural heritage.
* gastronomy. The traditional pancakes ʺcrêpesʺ and ʺgalettesʺ or pastries such as the ‘far Breton’, the ‘kouign amann’ (butter pastry) are part of Brittany’s culinary heritage.

B) The importance of this attachment to Brittany, its culture and its language is reflected in the media, particularly on the Internet. Breton diaspora was largely organized on the web through websites and social networks. Events (Cyber Fest Noz) are held around the world to gather the Breton community online.
Members of the community using internet refer to Brittany in different ways on their website either using terms referring to Brittany in the domain name, using Breton or gallo, using images (landscapes, architecture,...) or specific symbols (Breton flag, ermine ...).
Second largest region in France in IT, Brittany aims to create a gTLD which reflects its culture, its identity and its relationship with the internet.

= How the community is structured and organized. =

The Breton community is defined as all the people who feel attached to Brittany, its culture and its languages and wish to display this attachment by using a domain name.
Britanny area i.e. the Breton language and culture area extends over the region of Brittany and the ‘département’ of Loire Atlantique. These communities are run by elected councils which are related to all the Breton community networks, including Bretons established across the globe.
Breton culture is notably represented by the Cultural Council of Brittany. It is made of representatives of associations and institutions, as well as people working for Breton culture. The Council is in support of suggestions and advice on public cultural policies in Brittany.
The Breton language is notably represented by the Public Office of the Breton language (Ofis Publik ar Brezhoneg). Its general task is to ensure the advancement of the Breton language in public life.
All of those institutions support the .BZH project (see question 20 f).

= When the community was established. =

The Breton community refers first to Brittany which is a territory known since antiquity and politically organized since the Middle-Ages in kingdom (9th century), duchy (10th century) and province (1532). Since the creation of French administrative regions in the 20th century, Brittany extends over the administrative French region of Brittany (80% of historical Brittany) and the ‘département’ of Loire-Atlantique.
Breton community is considering a .BZH gTLD for several years. The idea was launched in 2004 by French deputy Christian Ménard. The project was structured in 2008 around an association, www.bzh, merging all people involved in the .bzh project. This association has developed actions of communication and promotion on the gTLD geared towards the Breton community. All these efforts have raised the community’s awareness of the project. Evidence of genuine popular support, the petition to support online the gTLD has collected more than 20,000 signatures to date.

= The current estimated size of the community. =

The community is comprised of:
* Individuals and organizations located in Brittany, a western region of France (13,136 sq. miles) : the cultural and linguistic area hosts 4,481,000 inhabitants and more than 213,000 companies.
* Individuals and organizations around the world that wish to display their attachment to Brittany, its culture and languages. Figures are high and include in addition to the residents and the 500,000 speakers of the Breton languages:
* The diaspora, i.e. people of Breton descent around the world, estimated at between 4 and 6 million people.
* Tourists. Regular stays in Brittany are also a sign of attachment: Brittany is the 4th French region for tourism (97 million nights a year).