.vegas Pre-Register Domain - .vegas Domain Information

Dot Vegas, Inc. (herein referred to as "Dot Vegas", "Dot Vegas, Inc.ʺ, the ʺCompanyʺ or "Applicantʺ), in cooperation with and under the express endorsement and direction of the City of Las Vegas, Nevada (as described below in Question #21), is dedicated to:

1. Providing the residents, businesses, governmental and civic organizations of Las Vegas and its surrounding communities, with a competitive, geo-location based alternative for establishing a meaningful presence on the internet - as described more fully hereafter, through efforts coordinated with the City of Las Vegas and other governmental subdivisions and civic organizations in the surrounding areas, (a) names of significant meaning are being reserved for use by the appropriate governmental division, and (b) a ‘local sunrise' period is being conducted prior to public registration launch to protect the interests of local enterprises and to encourage their adoption and use of .VEGAS domain names within their internet strategies;

2. Creating an ongoing, meaningful new source of funding for the City of Las Vegas and its programs - in these times of budgetary cuts and reduced monetary resources, the revenue produced by the .VEGAS TLD represent a creative, reliable source of financial support that will assist the City in accomplishing its mandate. As explained in more detail elsewhere in this application, in addition to revenues provided to the City, Dot Vegas intends to give more back to the community by using a percentage of revenues generated from TLD operations to establish a ‘community fund' from which financial support can be extended to local civic initiatives;

3. Enhancing the ‘Vegas' brand around the world and in cyber space. To paraphrase an old Vegas axiom, "there are three (3) kinds of people in the world: those that live in or have visited Vegas, those that plan to visit Vegas, and those that want to visit Vegas". As one of the preeminent entertainment and hospitality destinations in the world, Las Vegas spends nearly $300 million annually promoting the City and surrounding areas. The .VEGAS TLD's operations will not only be a very visible reflection on ‘Vegas' but must be operated in a way that adds to and enhances the ‘Vegas' brand worldwide; and

4. Delivering a robust, stable, and secure technical infrastructure that meets the highest standards in the industry, facilitates innovation and creativity by end users and applications providers, promotes trust and integrity for consumers, and increases the competitive landscape for the benefit of consumers. Because of the history of Las Vegas and its reputation for entertainment, gaming and hospitality, particular emphasis is placed on establishing policies and technical procedures which will allow Dot Vegas as registry operator to deter illegal or abusive activities using .VEGAS domain names, and in coordination with the City, law enforcement, and other relevant agencies, to adequately and timely address any such abusive or illegal activity or practices.

As expected the objective of the .Vegas TLD registry is to provide its registrars, customers, registrants, end users with the best possible technical security, stability, robustness and performance available in the industry. Our goal is to provide a technical infrastructure and related tools that will encourage innovation among registrars, registrants and end users in whatever industry they may be operating.

From the perspective of the Las Vegas community, as a City TLD, our goal is to enhance and promote Vegas throughout the world. Because of the world renowned reputation of Vegas as a hospitality, entertainment and gaming mecca, clearly it will be important for the .Vegas registry to do everything it can within legal and regulatory limits while protecting the Vegas brand and reputation from disreputable elements or activities. Additionally, in recent months, the Vegas community has witnessed a rapid expansion of technology related business in the community. Our goal is for those new technology enterprises to tie and identify themselves more closely to the Vegas community through their use of the .Vegas extension in their online presence.

Because Vegas is a worldwide brand and already has a very visible international identity, Dot Vegas has been instructed by the City of Las Vegas to promote and allow registration of .Vegas domains worldwide, without official or documented connections to the Las Vegas community. In many respects, the City of Las Vegas views the establishment of the .Vegas TLD as an additional tool to (a) increase awareness of the area worldwide, (b) expand tourism and the consumption of products and services offered by local enterprises, and (c) promote and attract the creation or relocation of technology enterprises to its expanding technology corridor.

As a result, registration policies will be consistent with those employed in .com, .net, .info and other generic top level domains. One notable difference will be the existence of registration policies and agreements that will allow Dot Vegas, as the .Vegas registry operator, to quickly respond to unlawful activities carried out by .Vegas registrants or others on .Vegas sites or using the .Vegas infrastructure to protect the reputation and interests of the City of Las Vegas and the local community. As a condition to registering a .Vegas domain name, registrants will be required to execute terms and conditions expressly allowing the .Vegas registry to intervene or disrupt the operability of the registrant's .Vegas domain, even without a court order, where the Company has determined that illegal activity is being carried out using the registrant's .Vegas domain or the .Vegas registry's infrastructure which would harm or damage the reputation and interests of the City of Las Vegas, the Vegas brand, and/or the local community.

The Company has already reached out to the Chamber of Commerce, Nevada Development Authority, Las Vegas Visitors and Convention Authority, and several other leading enterprises and individuals in the local community for their support of our .Vegas initiative. Additional and continuing efforts are planned to reach out to the Vegas community at large, to expand awareness of our .Vegas initiative throughout the area, and to engage actively with the community. As part of our organizational structure, an advisory committee will be formed from local governmental, civic and business leadership to enhance and ensure ongoing communications with the community and to direct funds from .Vegas operations earmarked for community purposes.

Registry Policies

The .VEGAS TLD will be an open TLD, generally available to all registrants (except in the Sunrise period). In general, domains will be offered for periods of one to ten years, but no greater than ten years. Initial registrations made in the Sunrise period may have a minimum number of years required. For example, there may be a policy that all Sunrise names must be registered for an initial term of at least five years.

The roll-out of our TLD is anticipated to feature the following phases:

- Reservation of reserved names and premium names, which will be distributed through special mechanisms (detailed below).

- Sunrise — the required period for trademark owners to secure their domains before availability to the general public. This phase will feature applications for domain strings, verification of trademarks via Trademark Clearinghouse and a trademark verification agent, auctions between qualified parties who wish to secure the same string, and a Trademark Claims Service. Additionally, as described more fully hereafter, a ‘local sunrise' will be conducted wherein businesses and enterprises in the community will be able to secure the domains matching their business or enterprise name.

- General Availability period — real-time registrations, made on a first-come first-served basis. Trademark Claims Service will be in use for the first 60 days after General Availability applications open.

The registration of domain names in TLD will follow the standard practices, procedures and policies Afilias currently has in place. This includes the following:

- Domain registration polices (for example, grace periods, transfer policies, etc.) are defined in response #27.

- Abuse prevention tools and policies, for example, measures to promote WHOIS accuracy and efforts to reduce phishing and pharming, are discussed in detail in our response #28.

- Rights protection mechanisms and dispute resolution mechanism policies (for example, UDRP, URS) are detailed in #29.

- Any requisite IDN-related policies required for the operation of this TLD will be introduced as required and in conjunction with other relevant ICANN policies.

Other detailed policies for this domain include policies for reserved names.

Reserved names. There are two categories of reserved names for the .VEGAS TLD: registry reserved and premium names.

Registry Reserved Names

We will reserve the following classes of domain names, which will not be made generally available to registrants via the Sunrise or subsequent periods:

- All of the reserved names required in Specification 5 of the new gTLD Registry Agreement.

- The geographic names required in Specification 5 of the new gTLD Registry Agreement.

- The registry operator's own name and variations thereof, and registry operations names (such as registry.tld, and www.tld), for internal use.

- Names related to ICANN and Internet standards bodies (iana.tld, ietf.tld, w3c.tld, etc.), for delegation of those names to the relevant organizations upon their request.

The list of reserved names will be published publicly before the Sunrise period begins, so that registrars and potential registrants will know which names have been set aside.

Premium Names

The .VEGAS registry will also designate a set of premium domain names, set aside for distribution via special mechanisms. The list of premium names will be published publicly before the Sunrise period begins, so that registrars and potential registrants will know that these names are not available. Premium names may be distributed via mechanisms such as requests for proposals, contests, direct sales, and auctions.

For the auctioning of premium names, the Company intends to contract with an established auction provider that has successfully conducted domain auctions. This will ensure that there is a tested, trustworthy technical platform for the auctions, auditable records, and reliable collection mechanisms. With our chosen auction provider, we will create and post policies and procedures that ensure clear, fair, and ethical auctions. As an example of such a policy, all employees of the .Vegas registry and its contractors will be strictly prohibited from bidding in auctions for domains in the .VEGAS TLD. The auction rules will cover all possible scenarios, such as how domains will be awarded if the winning bidder does not make payment.

Privacy and Confidential Information Protection

As per the New gTLD Registry Agreement, Dot Vegas will make domain contact data (and other fields) freely and publicly available via a Web-based WHOIS server. This default set of fields includes the mandatory publication of registrant data. The Company's Registry-Registrar Agreement will require that registrants consent to this publication.

Dot Vegas will notify each of our registrars regarding the purposes for which data about any identified or identifiable natural person ("Personal Data") submitted to the .Vegas registry by such registrar is collected and used, and the intended recipients (or categories of recipients) of such Personal Data (the data in question is essentially the registrant and contact data required to be published in the WHOIS). The Company will require each registrar to obtain the consent of each registrant in the .VEGAS TLD for the collection and use of such Personal Data. The policies will be posted publicly on the Dot Vegas TLD web site. As the registry operator, Dot Vegas shall not use or authorize the use of Personal Data in any way that is incompatible with the notice provided to registrars.

Our privacy and data use policies are as follows:

- As registry operator, Dot Vegas does not plan on selling bulk WHOIS data. We will not sell contact data in any way and will not allow, enable, or otherwise support the transmission thereof by e-mail, telephone, or facsimile of mass unsolicited, commercial advertising or solicitations;

- Dot Vegas may use registration data in the aggregate for marketing purposes;

- DNS query data will never be sold in a way that is personally identifiable, and;

- Dot Vegas may from time to time use the demographic data collected for statistical analysis, provided that this analysis will not disclose individual Personal Data and provided that such use is compatible with the notice provided to registrars regarding the purpose and procedures for such use.

As the registry operator, Dot Vegas will take significant steps to protect Personal Data collected from registrars from loss, misuse, unauthorized disclosure, alteration, or destruction. In our responses to Question 30 ("Security Policy") and Question 38 ("Escrow") the Company details the security policies and procedures we will use to protect the registry system and the data contained therefrom from unauthorized access and loss.

Please see our response to Question 26 ("WHOIS") regarding "searchable WHOIS" and rate-limiting. That section contains details about how Dot Vegas will limit the mining of WHOIS data by spammers and other parties who abuse access to the WHOIS.

In order to acquire and maintain accreditation for the .VEGAS TLD, the Company will require registrars to adhere to certain information technology policies designed to help protect registrant data. These will include standards for access to the registry system and password management protocols. Our response to Question 30, "Security Policy" provides details of implementation.

Dot Vegas will allow the use of proxy and privacy services, which can protect the personal data of registrants from spammers and other parties that mine zone files and WHOIS data. The Company is aware that there are parties who may use privacy services to protect their free speech rights, or to avoid religious or political persecution.

In discussion with and from assessments received from registrars, resellers, and other experts in the domain name industry, the Company has determined that the market place will most likely view the .VEGAS TLD extension as a ‘specialty' or ‘boutique' type name space, rather than one with generic or mass appeal. Consequently, the Company will need to appropriately balance pricing levels with prospective social costs or interests.

The .VEGAS registry will implement policies and process that minimize and address the concerns of trademark and brand owners by adopting and following UDRP and other ICANN approved policies designed to mitigate costs to those parties. Of course, one of the great advantages of a City TLD versus a generic TLD is that the .VEGAS name itself helps alleviate cybersquatting or defensive registration concerns. Trademark and brand owners that have an interest in identifying with the City of Las Vegas or ‘Vegas' will make the decision to participate and those that do not, will make that decision based on the reduced risk of a cyber squatter expending valuable funds in a domain space with very specific market and identity connotations. Furthermore, because of its boutique or specialty nature, .VEGAS domain name prices will be maintained at higher, premium levels than comparable domain names in .com or other generic TLD alternatives, making the .VEGAS domain space less attractive to cyber squatters.

Registration processes and policies during the launch of .VEGAS will be consistent with those followed by .ASIA and .CO in their successful launches, with (a) a similar Sunrise structure combining both an open registration procedure with an auction feature for multiple applications for identical trademark/brand character strings submitted by qualifying applicants; (b) conducting a ‘Land Rush' phase of public registrations where multiple applications for identical character strings within the thirty (30) day Land Rush period will be determined by an auction between the competing applicants; (c) a premium names auction wherein certain character strings are reserved by the .VEGAS registry and released in through one or more auction processes; and (d) a public registration period which will open at the conclusion of the Land Rush phase and will continue indefinitely, with registrations occurring on a first to register basis.

It should be noted that the .VEGAS registry will also conduct a ‘local sunrise' as part of its Sunrise Phase. In the local sunrise, working in conjunction with the Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce, the City of Las Vegas, the Nevada Development Authority and the Las Vegas Visitors and Convention Authority, businesses, civic organizations and individuals will be offered the opportunity to register the character strings corresponding to the name of their business, enterprise, civic organization, or personal name. This policy and process will ensure that the local community is afforded an initial preference to their domain names before opening to general registration.

Consistent with adopted ICANN policies, registrations will be allowed for 1, 2, 5 or 10 year periods with more favorable pricing offered for 5 and 10 year registration terms. The Company's registration policies will include advance notification requirements for price increases consistent with adopted ICANN policies and the ICANN registry agreement.

Dot Vegas has developed and, working in conjunction with our technical back-end provider Afilias, will implement specific measures for the protection of geographic names at the second and other levels in the .VEGAS TLD. Locally, Dot Vegas has already worked with the City of Las Vegas to identify a full list of those second level domains that are of significance to the City (i.e. mayor.vegas, citycouncil.vegas, fremontstreet.vegas, etc). In accordance with its written agreement with the City, prior to the launch of any domain registrations, Dot Vegas will register at no cost those names identified for use solely by the City, its departments or designees. A similar process is underway in discussions with Clark County, the Nevada Development Authority, and the Las Vegas Visitors and Convention Bureau for identifying and reserving (prior to the launch of Sunrise registration processes) those names of significance to them. As with names reserved for the City, all names reserved for Clark County, the Nevada Development Authority and other local governmental entities will be agreed upon between the applicable governmental entity and Dot Vegas as the registry operator, will be registered at no cost in the name of the applicable local governmental entity, and reserved for their sole use for a period of five (5) years, after which such entities will pay the then existing domain name fees to maintain said registration.

Dot Vegas is aware of the process for geographic name protection used by Afilias relative to country names in its launch of the .INFO TLD. As it relates to country names, working with Afilias, Dot Vegas intends to implement the same methodology for the reservation and release country names included in the ISO 3166-1 standardized list of names as observed by Afilias in its launch of the .INFO TLD. This methodology is outlined in the GAC Circular dated 9 September, 2003. Dot Vegas intends to enter a temporary registration on behalf of each listed country. Temporary registrations will remain in effect for a period of twelve (12) months, during which time countries may request that the registrations be made available for registration by the relevant government. At the end of the temporary registration period, the temporary registrations will expire and all names for which permanent registration requests have not been received will be released and available for registration on a first come, first serve basis.

Dot Vegas has studied and is aware of the GAC Principles Regarding New TLDs published March 28, 2007 and will implement specific mechanisms and procedures to address the GAC's instructions. These mechanisms and procedures include establishing a site wherein governmental authorities can communicate directly to Dot Vegas as the registry for the purpose of identifying names of national or geographic significance and making requests that such names be blocked. This site and mechanism will be reserved exclusively for use by governmental organizations and will also include a mechanism to lodge challenges to abuses of names of national or geographic significance. All requests for blocking names prior to registration or registering challenges of abuse will be handled within the Dot Vegas registry by General Counsel, or in the absence of a General Counsel, Dot Vegas' Chief Operating Officer after consultation with the governmental authority registering a request or complaint. Dot Vegas, as the registry operator, will exercise its discretion regarding temporarily blocking a name from being registered, or suspending the resolution of a registered name which is subject to a governmental challenge of abuse while requesting governmental entity's request or challenge, as the case may be, is resolved.

To avoid confusion with country code and other TLDs, all 2 character names identical to or confusingly similar to country code TLDs, and all character strings represented by ASCII character gTLDs (which have been approved by ICANN prior to the launch of registrations in the .VEGAS TLD) will be blocked from registration. Furthermore, Dot Vegas will comply with provisions of the ICANN-Registry Agreement, Specification 5 relating to the reservation of names.