Domain name regulation

01-02-2011

Isik Ozdogan and Ezgi Baklaci

There has been a significant recent development to Turkey’s Internet and domain name legislation.

The Internet Domain Name Regulation—in the making since 1993—was finally accepted and published in the Official Gazette on November 7, 2010. The regulation had been expected and needed for a long time, since there was no legal arrangement for assigning and registering domain names or resolving domain name disputes.

The Internet Domain Name Regulation regulates the procedures and principles of domain name registration with a .tr extension. Under this arrangement, the authorisation of country code top level domain name (ccTLD) registration will be transferred from the Middle East Technical University (METU) to .tr Network Information System, called TRABIS, which will be established within three years.

One of the significant changes brought by the regulation is the ‘first-come, firstserved’ system of assigning domain names. Until now, domain names were assigned on a document-required basis in order to lessen disputes. With this new regulation, ccTLDs (such as com.tr, gen.tr, info.tr, biz.tr) will be assigned on a first-come, first-served basis without any documentation required.


Internet Domain Name Regulation, developments

WIPR