DENIC registered dw.de, e.de, f.de, g.de, hr.de, sr.de, x.de, y.de and z.de

On 12 January, the last nine remaining short domains were entered in the DENIC domain register. The domains dw.de, e.de, f.de, g.de, hr.de, sr.de, x.de, y.de and z.de had previously been blocked for regis-tration due to temporary injunctions. The object of the legal disputes was privileged registration. DENIC'S "first come, first served" registration standard has, however, been confirmed by several court rulings. To ensure equal opportunities for all applicants also for the much-sought after short domains, the registration procedure was automated to a large extent. But today's technology provides possibilities for dialling a fax number very quickly and very often. To grant equal opportunities also in this respect, DENIC took measures such as very short activation periods of the fax lines and fax configurations that permitted no more than one page to be received per transmission. The first fax applying for any of the domains that met all formal requirements triggered registration of the respective domain. The nine short domains were registered in the names of seven applicants. "We are very pleased with the result. 'First come, first served' has been established as the registration standard and the chosen procedure worked perfectly," DENIC's CEO, Sabine Dolderer. Since DENIC considerably relaxed its terms and conditions for registration in October 2009, the Cooperative has registered about 2,200 one- and two-character or so-called short domains and nearly 33,000 domains with names composed of numerals only. If you want to know who are the holders of the new domains, go to the DENIC website and find out via DENIC's information service whois.

Legal context

The aforementioned domains were excluded from registration when DENIC launched one- and two-character domains in October 2009 because temporary injunctions had been imposed on DENIC which prohibited registration of said domains for the time being. These temporary injunctions are no longer effective. As regards the dw.de domain, the applicant withdrew her motion for a temporary injunction. The applicant of the domains e.de, f.de, g.de, x.de, y.de and z.de waived his rights resulting from the temporary injunction after the Frankfurt Court of Appeals had ruled in favour of DENIC in the main pro-ceedings of the x.de domain. The temporary injunctions relating to the hr.de and the sr.de domains were recently lifted by the Frankfurt Court of Appeals. In its ruling, the Frankfurt Court of Appeals confirms permissibility of the registration standard of DENIC, which provides for the option to carry out registra-tions, including first registrations of domains at a specific point in time set by DENIC, applying the "first come, first served" principle. Similar reasons had been given by the Court of Appeals when it confirmed the ruling issued by the Regional Court of Frankfurt am Main in October 2009, which rejected to issue a temporary injunction that would have compelled DENIC to also block registration of the tv.de domain at that time. Thus, all attempts of individual applicants to evade the "first come, first served" principle with regard to the release of short domains or to be granted privileges have failed. You can view all the rulings on our website.

The Registration Procedure

Registration was made applying DENIC's standard "first come, first served" principle. Since the number of available domains was extremely limited, DENIC used a special procedure: Applicants had to submit requests by fax to fax numbers established for this particular purpose. That was the only permitted submission channel. There was a separate fax number for each domain, which was active for a period of 30 minutes. The first period started on 12 January 2011 at 10:00 (CET). DENIC accepted only registration requests which were submitted on a specific request form designed for that purpose. It was available for download on the DENIC website. There was a separate form for each domain. The fax server was configured to receive no more than one page per fax transmission and automatically terminated the connection after one page. Thus, interested parties had to ensure that their fax machine did not include a cover sheet for the transmission or spread the text over two pages. The above mentioned fax numbers were activated one day before the official launch of the registration period, so that senders could test their own fax configurations.
The application form had to be completed accurately, fully and legibly, and be signed before it was sent to DENIC. The domain was assigned to the applicant whose complete, correctly filled in and signed fax application was received first by DENIC after opening of the registration period of the respective domain – synchronized with the time server of DENIC (ntp1.denic.de). Factual registration was effected imme-diately afterwards, the domain simultaneously being recorded in the DENIC database. After that, the domain could ad hoc be queried via the DENIC information services (whois etc.).

As a matter of principle, interested parties have to ensure that the registration and intended use of the domain does not infringe anybody else’s rights nor break any general law.

The holders of the successfully registered domains will be informed by DENIC in writing and must com-municate by 26 January 2011 (date of receipt of letter or fax by DENIC) the member of the DENIC Co-operative who is going to administer the domain in the future. Otherwise, the domain will be adminis-tered by DENICdirect.

About DENIC eG

As the central registry, DENIC administers the now more than 14 million domains under the Top Level Domain .de and thus provides a crucial resource for users of the Internet. It sees its role as that of a competent, impartial provider of services for all domain holders and Internet users. With more than 120 employees, DENIC creates the foundation through its work for German Internet pages and e-mail ad-dresses to be accessible throughout the world. The about 270 members of the Cooperative are IT or telecommunications businesses based in Germany and elsewhere. Working in cooperation with them and other partners, DENIC is committed to guarantee the secure operation of the Internet and its further worldwide development as a not-for-profit organization.

It operates the automatic electronic registration system for its members, runs the domain database for the Top Level Domain .de and the German ENUM domain (.9.4.e164.arpa), manages the name server services for the .de zone at currently 15 locations distributed throughout the world, and renders a con-siderable contribution to the further organizational and technical development of the Internet in coopera-tion with international bodies (e.g. ICANN, CENTR, IETF).

For further information please contact:

DENIC eG
Public Relations
Fon: +49 69 27235-274
E-Mail: mailto:presse@denic.de