[registrars] .US Name Server Requirement

["Michael D. Palage" <michael@palage.com>]

There have been a number of registrars that have questioned the contractual
requirement that name servers for .US be located within the United States.
Although there has been some heated discussion about the
viability/enforcement of this provision, please note that this was required
in the RFP document prepared by the Department of Commerce. This was in fact
not a negotiable position for Neustar, or any other .US bidder.

Best regards,

Mike

See
http://www.ntia.doc.gov/ntiahome/domainname/usrfp/SB1335-01-Q-0740-0001.doc

9.	B.3.1 states that "country code top level domain intended to serve the
community of Internet users resident or located with a bona fide presence in
the United States . . ." It further states that "in addition to the current
policy set forth in RFC 1480 requiring that usTLD domain name registrations
be hosted on computers located within the United States . . .” What does
that second statement mean?  Does it prohibit a US citizen who travels for
business and has a PC outside the US from having a .us website?  Does it
prohibit a US citizen from having a US website while residing outside the
US?  Would it prohibit a US citizen or company from using a foreign
web-hosting company or registrar?

Answer:   Current policy generally limits usTLD registrations to "computers
located in the United States."  (See http://www.nic.us/overview/who.html).
Since nameservers are the computers that are registered in the domain name
registration process (i.e., the "host" computer), we interpret this to mean
that the nameservers are required to be located in the United States.  We
anticipate that this will also be a subject addressed as part of the
requirements set forth in B.4.5 and B.5.5 and in offerors responses as
required in INSTRUCTIONS FOR SUBMITTING QUOTATIONS  I.3.