[CIRA] 41,000 previously registered [.ca] domain names will go back into the "available pool!"

[Devon Null]

I wrote about this last year -=- it is an unbelievable, but TRUE story!
What a mess there is going to be. Can you imagine being a sysadmin for a
global international Canadian company having to explain why some
snot-nosed, but savvy adolescent now owns your company's domain name?

I wonder if [ACEN.CA] or [CTG.CA] or [HSBC.CA] or [SKYDOME.CA] or
[ORACLE.CA] or [CA.CA] or [US.CA] or [LINUX.CA] or [UNIX.CA] or
[PRAXAIR.CA] or [IBM.CA] or [INTERNET.CA] or [FUCK.CA] or [SEX.CA] or
[XXX.CA] or [MICROSOFT.CA] or [BEER.CA] or [AUTO.CA] or [ARTBELL.CA] or
[BILLCLINTON.CA] or {BILLGATES.CA] or even [WIC.CA] or [LUC.CA] is available?

*smirk* -=- just let your imagination roam! ;-) You might even be able to
get your own first name, like [FRED.CA] or [BARB.CA] or [RUSH.CA] or even a
city or country, like [TORONTO.CA] or [BUFFALO.CA] or even [CANADA.CA] or
[EURO.CA]! 

This is so surreal! -=- I should see if [DEVNULL.CA] is available!

Best regards.

Devon Null
devnull at butcherfamily.com
________________________________________________
A failure is a man who has blundered but
	is not able to cash in on the experience.
-Elbert Hubbard (1856-1915)
________________________________________________
devnull at buffalo.com  |   NEMO ME IMPUNE LACESSIT


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Thousands of [.ca] Domains Set for February Release:
<www.newsbytes.com/news/01/160987.html>

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The Canadian Internet Registration Authority [CIRA], which oversees
Canada's country code top-level domain [ccTLD], will release thousands of
previously registered [.ca] domain names on February 1. 

When CIRA took over control of [.ca] registrations from a university-based,
non-profit organization in late 2000, registrants of Internet addresses
registered in [.ca] were notified that they would have to re-register their
domains with [CIRA], or lose them. 

Despite a large publicity campaign to draw attention to the re-registration
requirement and an extension of its initial deadline from November 1, 2000
to January 31, 2001, [CIRA] estimates that 41,000 [.ca] domain names that
have not been re-registered will be released into the registry pool.
=====================================


Last Call For Canada's Missing-In-Action Domain Owners

By Steven Bonisteel, Newsbytes
OTTAWA, ONTARIO, CANADA,
24 Jan 2001, 2:06 PM CST

Organizations that once registered some of the 41,000 domain names still
not claimed under a new regime for meting out Canadian Internet addresses
have until Feb. 1 to speak up.

After 12 p.m. on that day, any of the [.ca] addresses not re-registered by
their current holders will be flushed from the databases of the nation's
domain registry, effectively making them available again to anyone who's
interested.

That means Web developers or domain-name speculators who'd like to get
their hands on the quintessentially Canadian domain [Snowbirds.ca], or the
sporty [Hike.ca] may have a chance next week.

The Canadian Internet Registration Authority [CIRA], which became
responsible for Canada's country code top-level domain [ccTLD] registry
last year, said the 41,000 unclaimed Internet addresses were among the
98,000 already-registered monikers it began with in September 2000.

At that time, current [.ca] holders were given a grace period to
re-register their domains before [CIRA] opened up registration in a way
that more closely resembles the processes in place to claim the
more-familiar "[com], [.net] and [.org] domains.

But, despite an extensive publicity campaign, [CIRA] found that nearly half
of existing domains hadn't been reclaimed by an initial deadline of Nov. 1.

Part of the problem was that [CIRA] was unable to contact many domain-name
holders using the information stored in the registry database. Some e-mail
addresses were obsolete, while some companies had gone out of business or
shut down servers. [CIRA] even launched telephone campaign to dig up
domain-name registrants who might still be found at numbers they provided
when registering their addresses.

But a huge share of [.ca] domains remained unclaimed.

Seems e-mail wasn't getting through to [E-mail.ca] and nobody was biting at
[FishWorks.ca].

Perhaps the folks at [BizBankruptcy.ca] were out business. There was no one
in charge at [Leaders.ca] and the meaty concept behind [Beef.ca] may never
have gotten off the ground... like [LearnToFly.ca].

Perhaps the biggest surprise is the shutout at [NHL.ca]. After all,
Canadians still like to think of hockey as their national sport and the
National Hockey League as its most-popular export.

In October, [CIRA] gave potential procrastinators a reprieve, extending the
Nov. 1 deadline to Dec. 1, after which its registry would no longer support
the queries that resolve such names into the Internet protocol [IP]
addresses of actual host machines. That means that any Web or e-mail
servers that may have been running at those domains became unreachable at
those addresses.

However, [CIRA] also said at the time that it would wait until Feb. 1 to
free the names, giving holders one last chance to reclaim them.

"[CIRA] reserved these names to give ... registrants an opportunity to
re-register their domain names in the [CIRA] Registry," said Maureen
Cubberley, head of [CIRA]'s board of governors. "These 41,000 domain names
have been inactive since Dec. 1. We suspect that most are not currently
being used by the registrants. After Feb. 1, those registrants who did not
re-register their '.ca' domain names may find out the names have been
registered by someone else."

Outfits like the National Hockey League may not be too concerned, since
Canada's new approach to its [ccTLD] also brought with it a dispute
resolution process that offers trademark holders significant protection
from would-be cybersquatters.

In the case of Netherlands-based Getronics NV, it may not care that its
purchase of former computer maker Wang Laboratories included a lease on
[Wang.ca] that now expires next week.

Many of the domains among the 41,000 yet to be claimed include regional
identifiers that many organizations were forced to adopt under the former
rules for meting out the [.ca] addresses. Unless an organization was
federally incorporated or doing business in more than one province, it was
usually forced to adopt domains ending in, say, [on.ca] for an Ontario
outfit, or [sk.ca] for a registrant in Saskatchewan.

With new rules that allow anyone to register a top-level [.ca] domain,
registrant Richard Drapeau of Edmundston, New Brunswick, probably prefers
the more-inclusive [SexyFun.ca] domain to the [SexyFun.nb.ca] address that
still languishes in [CIRA]'s unclaimed file.

[CIRA] says that, since the rules for [.ca] registration were opened up -
and new registrations began on a first-come-first-served basis - more than
100,000 new domains have been registered, doubling the number of domains
already in existence.

"Obviously, the relaxation of the rules was long overdue, and Canadians are
anxious to be recognized on the Web," Cubberley said.

[CIRA] can be found at: <http://www.cira.ca/>.

Reported by Newsbytes.com <http://www.newsbytes.com>

14:06 CST

(20010124/Press contact: Annie Boucher, 
for CIRA, 613-230-9009 ext. 286/WIRES TOP,
ONLINE, BUSINESS/DOMAINNAME/PHOTO)
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