Domain reform and overview of new domain rules

Goals in changing domain rules

1. Greater opportunities to use .ee domains
2. Quality service and explicit management
3. Security
4. Compatibility with the legal system

Greater opportunities to use .ee domains

The liberalisation of the rules allows one registrant – private and legal entities alike – to register any number of domains.
Foreign people, institutions and organizations can now register a .ee domain provided they can name a representative in Estonia as their administrative contact.
All new domain applications are registered in chronological order of receipt.

Quality service and explicit management

The registration of .ee second-level domain names will be organised as a two-tier system. In the process of transition, the roles of the registrant (the person who wants to register a domain), the registrar (the Internet service provider) and the registry (the Estonian Internet Foundation) will be finalised. From the domain user’s standpoint, this will clarify the system and make it easier to comprehend.
The registrant will choose a registrar and carry out all of the necessary domain operations through the registrar.
The registry (the Estonian Internet Foundation) will ensure the integrity of all domain records and the operations of the primary name-server. Registrars will be in a contractual relationship with the registry and their primary objective will be to offer the registrant all domain-related transactions.
Registrars must comply with the conditions established by the Estonian Internet Foundation to show that they have the required technical capability and are sufficiently reliable to offer registration services.
The rights and obligations of the registrars and registry will be governed by the registry agreement, and the contract between registrars and registrants will be governed by the customer agreement. The Estonian Internet Foundation will establish the conditions for registrars who have the right and obligation to provide registrants with registration services.
In the event of a registrar exchange, the current registrar will be obliged to help the registrant in ensuring a smooth transition. A fee for registrant exchange can only be requested by the new registrar.
The domain registration process itself will be much faster due to the implementation of an automated information exchange system with a standardised protocol between the registry and registrars.
A yearly fee will be implemented for domain registration. The running costs of an up-to-date TLD registry are high, and with the implementation of new and more liberal domain registration rules, the running costs of the system as a whole will be even higher. The fees will be fixed between the registry and registrars. The service charge that the registrar requests from domain registrants will not be fixed, instead depending on the market economy: it may therefore be less, equal to or greater than the registry fee.
Domain use will be able to be terminated. A domain name will be provided for use for one year and will be extended if so requested and if a fee is paid. To date, domain names have been provided in Estonia on an indefinite basis, but since name space is not infinite, measures have had to be taken to accelerate the release of inactive domains.
Based on the global non-profit nature of registries, no profit will be generated and no charges will be subsidised from the registry.

Security

Domain registry security infrastructure and the ability to defend against cyber attacks increases dramatically.
The Estonian Internet Foundation has the right to modify or remove name-servers if they are causing disruptions to the DNS system.

Compatibility with the legal system

Domain rules regulate legal relations between the registry, registrars and registrants, including the exercising of rights and obligations.
Domain rules prevail over any conditions that the registrars impose on registrants and are the basis for registry and customer agreements.
A temporary transition period will be set to allow all current domains to be re-registered by their rightful owners.
After the new domain rules take effect, free domains will be distributed on a ‘first come, first served’ basis, which means that the sender of the application that reaches the registry first will be given the right to use the domain in question.
The Estonian Internet Foundation only handles requests from the registrants; it does not check whether use of the registered domain in any way violates the rights of third parties, including intellectual property rights.
The registrant is obliged, before submitting a domain registration request, to ensure that the legal rights of third parties are not harmed in any way because of this, and if something occurs, they are personally responsible for their actions.
If no agreement is reached through negotiations, the person has the right to dispute the case to the arbitrary court of the Estonian Internet Foundation or in the Estonian court system. All legal disputes between the registry, registrars and registrants will be settled in Harju County Court in Tallinn, Estonia or in the Estonian Internet Foundation's arbitrary court in accordance with the procedural law of Estonia.

All of these topics have been approved by the Council of the Estonian Internet Foundation.