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General Registration Rules for .CA Domain Names

 

REGISTRATION OF DOMAIN NAMES

The requirements for an Applicant wishing to register a Domain Name Registration are as follows:

Canadian Presence Requirements. Each Applicant must meet the requirements of CIRA’s Canadian Presence Requirements for Registrants, which is located on CIRA’s website at www.cira.ca/assets/Documents/Legal/Registrants/CPR.pdf.
The above link can be deleted and the info from the link inserted below and rewritten:

Canadian Presence Requirements For Registrants

Existing Registrants under the UBC system will not have to meet these Canadian presence requirements when they apply to re-register with CIRA a domain name that is the subject of an existing registration.

Canadian Presence Requirements.
(here our free Local Proxy Service can be mentioned)
On and after November 8, 2000 only the following individuals and entities will be permitted to apply to CIRA (through a CIRA certified registrar) for the registration of, and to hold and maintain the registration of, a .ca domain name:

  • Canadian citizen. A Canadian citizen of the age of majority under the laws of the province or territory in Canada in which he or she resides or last resided;
  • Permanent resident. A permanent resident as defined in the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, (Canada) S.C. 2001, c. 27, as amended from time to time, who is ordinarily resident in Canada (as defined below) and of the age of majority under the laws of the province or territory in Canada in which he or she resides or last resided;(amended June 5, 2003)
  • Legal representative. An executor, administrator or other legal representative of a Person listed in paragraph (a) and (b) above;
  • Corporation. A corporation under the laws of Canada or any province or territory of Canada;
  • Trust. A trust established and subsisting under the laws of a province or territory of Canada, more than 66.6% of whose trustees meet one of the conditions set out in paragraphs (a) to (d) above;
  • Partnership. A partnership, more than 66.6% of whose partners meet one of the conditions set out in paragraphs (a) to (e) above, which is registered as a partnership under the laws of any province or territory of Canada;
  • Association. An unincorporated organization, association or club:
  • at least 80% of whose members: (A) are ordinarily resident in Canada (if such members are individuals); or (B) meet one of the conditions set out in paragraphs (a) to (f) above (if such members are not individuals); and (ii) at least 80% of whose directors, officers, employees, managers, administrators or other representatives are ordinarily resident in Canada;
  • Trade union. A trade union which is recognized by a labour board under the laws of Canada or any province or territory of Canada and which has its head office in Canada;
  • Political party. A political party registered under a relevant electoral law of Canada or any province or territory of Canada;
  • Educational institution. Any of the following:
    • a university or college which is located in Canada and which is authorized or recognized as a university or college under an Act of the legislature of a province or territory of Canada; or
    • a college, post-secondary school, vocational school, secondary school, pre-school or other school or educational institution which is located in Canada and which is recognized by the educational authorities of a province or territory of Canada or licensed under or maintained by an Act of Parliament of Canada or of the legislature of a province or territory of Canada;
  • Library, Archive or Museum. An institution, whether or not incorporated, that:
    • is located in Canada; and
    • is not established or conducted for profit or does not form part of, or is not administered or directly or indirectly controlled by, a body that is established or conducted for profit, in which is held and maintained a collection of documents and other materials that is open to the public or to researchers;
  • Hospital. A hospital which is located in Canada and which is licensed, authorized or approved to operate as a hospital under an Act of the legislature of a province or territory of Canada;
  • Her Majesty the Queen. Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth the Second and her successors;
  • Indian band. Any Indian band as defined in the Indian Act, R.S.C. 1985, c. I-5, as amended from time to time, and any group of Indian bands;
  • Aboriginal Peoples. Any Inuit, First Nation, Metis or other people indigenous to Canada, any individual belonging to any Inuit, First Nation, Metis or other people indigenous to Canada and any collectivity of such Aboriginal peoples;
  • Government. Her Majesty the Queen in right of Canada, a province or a territory; an agent of Her Majesty the Queen in right of Canada, of a province or of a territory; a federal, provincial or territorial Crown corporation, government agency or government entity; or a regional, municipal or local area government;
  • Trade-mark registered in Canada. A Person which does not meet any of the foregoing conditions, but which is the owner of a trade-mark which is the subject of a registration under the Trade-marks Act (Canada) R.S.C. 1985, c.T-13 as amended from time to time, but in this case such permission is limited to an application to register a .ca domain name consisting of or including the exact word component of that registered trade-mark; or
  • Official marks. A Person which does not meet any of the foregoing conditions, but which is a Person intended to be protected by Subsection 9(1) of the Trade-Marks Act (Canada) at whose request the Registrar of Trade-marks has published notice of adoption of any badge, crest, emblem, official mark or other mark pursuant to Subsection 9(1), but in this case such permission is limited to an application to register a .ca domain name consisting of or including the exact word component of such badge, crest, emblem, official mark or other mark in respect of which such Person requested publications.

For the purposes of this policy:

  • “ordinarily resident in Canada” means an individual who resides in Canada for more than 183 days in the twelve month period immediately preceding the date of the applicable application for registration of the .ca domain name or sub-domain name and in each twelve month period thereafter for the duration of the domain name registration; and
  • “Person” includes an individual, a corporation, a partnership, a trust, an unincorporated organization, association or club, the government of a country or any political subdivision thereof, or any agency or department of any such government, and the executors, administrators or other legal representatives of an individual in such capacity, a “person” as defined in the Trade-marks Act (Canada) and a Person intended to be protected by Subsection 9(1) of the Trademarks Act (Canada).

Notwithstanding paragraph 1 above, each registrant of a .ca domain name or subdomain name registration which is registered in the .ca registry operated by UBC prior to November 8, 2000 shall be deemed to satisfy the Canadian presence requirements described in paragraph 1 above with respect only to an application by such registrant to CIRA to register such .ca domain name or sub-domain name.

Registration Period.

An Applicant may select a registration period of 1 to 10 years for the registration of the Domain Name that is the subject of the Registration Request

Responsibility for Selected Domain Name.

It is the Applicant’s responsibility to ensure that the Applicant has the right to use the Domain Name which is the subject of the Registration Request and that the registration of the Domain Name and the manner in which the Applicant intends to use, or uses, such Domain Name does not, directly or indirectly: (a) infringe or otherwise violate the
copyright, trade-mark, patent or other intellectual property or other rights of any person; (b) defame any person or unlawfully discriminate against any person; or (c) breach any Applicable Laws.

Submission of Registration Request

All such information must be true, complete, accurate, and not misleading.

Validation and Approval Procedures

Registration Requests will be processed on a first come, first served basis; (not sure if it is that important)

ADMISSIBLE DOMAIN NAMES

All Registration Requests will be subject to the following rules regarding Admissible Domain Names:

Acceptable Characters. No characters other than a combination of the following characters may be included in a Domain Name Registration:

  • Letters a through z, and the following accented characters: é, ë, ê, è, â, à, æ, ô, oe, ù, û, ü, ç, î, ï, and ÿ. Note that Domain Names are not case sensitive. This means there will be no distinction made between upper case letters and lower case letters (A = a);
  • The numbers 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 and/or 9; and
  • The hyphen character (although it cannot be used to start or end a Domain Name).

Administrative Bundles. Domain names with accented characters which share the same base are considered variants of each other and form an administrative bundle. All variants of an administrative bundle are reserved for the same Registrant. Once a domain name or a variant of the domain name is registered by a Registrant, the entire administrative bundle is reserved for that particular Registrant. Domain names in an administrative bundle must be registered by the
same Registrar of Record under the same Registrant contact ID.

Length. Domain names must be not less than two (2) and not greater than sixty-three (63) characters long (our website says 50 characters is the max). Domain names with accented characters are represented in the Registry with the four character special marker “xn--” at the beginning of the domain name. The limit to the length of domain names includes the four character special marker “xn--” associated with the beginning of domain names with accented characters.

Reserved/Restricted Names. CIRA will maintain a list of reserved names and a list of restricted names that are not available for registration in the CIRA Registry. These lists will include, but not be limited to:

  • the Canadian top level country code .ca and certain generic top level domain three letter names (including but not limited to .com.ca, .org.ca, .net.ca, .edu.ca, .gov.ca, .int.ca, and .mil.ca);
  • the following names: village.ca, hamlet.ca, town.ca, city.ca and ville.ca;
  • the names, and all abbreviations of names, of Canada and Canadian provinces and territories.
  • municipal names listed in the following classes in the applicable version of the Canadian Geographical Names Data Base (CGNDB): city, ville, town, village, hamlet, hameau, other municipal/district area – major agglomeration, autre zone municipale /de district – agglomerations majeure, other municipal/district area- miscellaneous and autre zone municipale/de district – divers.
  • such other Domain Names as CIRA may determine in its sole discretion.

Conflicting Names. A Domain Name will not be registered if, at the time the Registration Request is made to CIRA, the Domain Name is an exact match in all respects to a Domain Name which is registered in the name of another Registrant in the CIRA Registry at any level, whether second, third or fourth. For example, if xyz.on.ca (third level) is already registered, another Registrant cannot obtain a Registration for xyz.ca (second level). With the exception of fourth level municipal domain names, CIRA does not allow the registration of new third or fourth level domain names, but will continue to support existing third and fourth level domain names which were registered prior to October 12, 2010.

Rejection, Refusal to Register, Suspension and Deletion by CIRA. CIRA, in its sole discretion, has the right to (i) reject and refuse any Registration Request for any reason whatsoever, to (ii) delete or suspend a Domain Name Registration within 30 days of the Registration Date and/or to (iii) delete or suspend a Domain Name Registration pursuant to the provisions of the Registrant Agreement, located at www.cira.ca/assets/Documents/Legal/Registrants/registrantagreement.pdf. (not sure if this is relevant)

Deletion of New Domain Name Registration by Registrar. A Domain Name Registration may be deleted upon the request of the Registrant’s Registrar for any reason, with or without the Registrant’s consent, within 5 days of the Registration Date (the “Add Grace Period”). A Registrar can only delete up to 5% of the total number of daily new Domain Name Registrations made by the Registrar in the last 30 days. Notwithstanding the foregoing, CIRA, in its sole and absolute discretion, shall determine whether the Request to delete the Domain Name Registration by the Registrar shall be completed.(not sure if this is relevant)

PROCESSING OF TRANSACTION REQUESTS (registration, renewal, transfer, modification or deletion)

To summarise all that is below we could have something like:
Any transaction requests referring to registration, renewal, transfer, modification or deletion of a registered .ca domain name must be approved by the Canadian Domain Authority and the domain name in question must not be suspended.

Registrant’s Responsibility. It is the Registrant’s obligation and responsibility to ensure that all Registration Information is at all times up-to-date, complete and accurate.

Additional info from Registrant Agreement (3.4) may be added here:

Periodically, a .ca domain name applicant may be asked to verify the accuracy and completeness of the information provided in the application for the sake of compliance with all applicable rules and provisions.

As well as Certain Registrant Obligations (4):
Throughout the Term of this Agreement, the Registrant shall comply with and abide by all provisions of this Agreement and the Registry PRP. Furthermore, the Registrant shall, in accordance with this Agreement and the Registry PRP:

  • submit Registration Information to CIRA upon request, and ensure at all times that the Registration Information is true, complete and accurate;
  • promptly give notice to the Registrar of Record (for communication to CIRA), of any change to any Registration Information;
  • comply with and observe all Applicable Laws;
  • immediately give notice to CIRA of any pending or threatened claim, demand, action, cause of action, proceeding, lawsuit, investigation or application (collectively a “Claim”) in relation to any Domain Name Registration (or any judicial requests or orders to produce documents or information obtained from or supplied to the Registry) that became known to the Registrant;
  • not engage in any direct or indirect activity which, in CIRA’s reasonable opinion, is designed to bring, or may bring, the Registry into disrepute, is designed to interfere, or may interfere, with CIRA’s operations or is designed to expose, or may expose, CIRA to prosecution or to legal action by the Registrant or a third party; (not sure if this should be rewritten without CIRA or omitted)
  • act in good faith towards CIRA;
  • not allow any third party to use or operate any Domain Name Registration registered in the name of the Registrant and not register any Domain Name as agent for, or on behalf of, any third party in any manner whatsoever, including without limiting the generality of the foregoing, for the purposes of lending, leasing, licensing or otherwise granting rights in such Domain Name Registration to any third party for monetary or nonmonetary consideration
  • be wholly responsible for the use and operation of any third, fourth, or further sub-level domain to any second level Domain Name Registration in the Registrant’s name and the Registrant shall ensure that the use and operation of any such sublevel domain is conducted in compliance with this Agreement and the Registry PRP;
  • not use any trade-mark, trade-name or symbol of CIRA or any trade-mark, trade-name or symbol likely to be confused therewith; and (not sure if this should be mentioned)
  • be wholly responsible for taking, or ensuring that the Registrar of Record deletes a Domain Name Registration during the Auto-Renew Grace Period, as such term is defined in the General Registration Rules, if the Registrant does not wish that the Domain Name Registration be renewed.

RENEWAL AND DELETION OF DOMAIN NAME REGISTRATIONS

Registration Renewal. In order to maintain a Domain Name Registration, the Registration Period must be renewed prior to its expiry. If a Domain Name Registration is part of an administrative bundle, a separate renewal request must be made for each of the domain names in the administrative bundle.

Auto-Renewal. Subject to Sections 7.4 through 7.7, upon the expiry of its Registration Period, each Domain Name Registration is automatically renewed by CIRA for one year (regardless of the original Registration Period), and CIRA will debit the Registrar’s balance in their CIRA Deposit Account for the applicable Fee plus any applicable taxes for such additional year. (not sure if it is relevant)

CHANGE OF REGISTRANT ASSOCIATED WITH A DOMAIN NAME REGISTRATION

Change. Although a Domain Name Registration is not the property of the Registrant, a Registrant may, at any time through its Registrar of Record, change the Registrant associated with a Domain Name Registration so that the Domain Name
Registration is in the name of another Person.

Limitations. Notwithstanding Section 8.1a), no changes to a Registrant for a Domain Name Registration may occur within 60 days following: (a) the Registration Date; (b) a change of Registrant; or (c) a change of Registrar, for that Domain Name Registration.

Requirements. The prospective Registrant of the Domain Name Registration must be an existing CIRA Registrant and meet all the requirements of the Registry PRP, including without limitation CIRA’s Canadian Presence Requirements for Registrants, located at www.cira.ca/assets/Documents/Legal/Registrants/CPR.pdf, and expressly agree to the Registrant Agreement, as provided herein.

If the Domain Name Registration is part of an administrative bundle with other registered domain names, the Registrant must initiate a separate update request for each of the domain names in the administrative bundle. Once an update request
for a Domain Name Registration has been initiated, the other domain names in the administrative bundle will have the “pendingUpdate” status, and the Registrant will have five calendar days to initiate update requests for all the domain names in the administrative bundle. If the Registrant fails to do so within five calendar days, the entire update request will be cancelled. Once a successful Registrant update request has been initiated for all the domain names in the administrative bundle, each of the domain names will have their Registration Information amended, as set out above. (not sure if it is relevant – maybe instead there should be reference to support team for details concerning domain name administrative bundles?)

SUSPENSION OF REGISTRATION

Info from Registrant Agreement could be inserted here instead:

Suspension and/or Deletion of Domain Name Registrations.
CIRA may, in its sole discretion and at its sole option, upon notice to the Registrant suspend and/or delete a Domain Name Registration within 30 days of the registration of the Domain Name for
any reason whatsoever. (not sure if it should be mentioned) CIRA may also, in its sole discretion and at its sole option, upon notice to the Registrant suspend and/or delete a Domain Name Registration in the event that:

  • the Registration Information concerning such Domain Name Registration contains false, misleading, incomplete, and/or inaccurate information;
  • the Registrant breaches any term of this Agreement or any of the Registry PRP;
  • the Registrant at any time fails to meet all of the requirements of this Agreement and/or the Registry PRP
  • the Registrant engages in any direct or indirect activity which in CIRA’s reasonable opinion: (1) brings, or may bring, the Registry into disrepute; (2) interferes, or may interfere, with the Registry and/or CIRA’s operations; and/or (3) exposes, or may expose, CIRA to prosecution or to legal action by the Registrant or a third party;
  • maintaining the Domain Name Registration would put CIRA in conflict with requirements of Applicable Laws, or any applicable federal, provincial or territorial human rights legislation or the Criminal Code (Canada), or the terms of an order, ruling, decision or judgment of a court, tribunal, board, administrative body, commission or arbitrator;
  • the deletion, transfer or suspension of a Domain Name Registration is required by an order or decision under CIRA’s Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy or an order, ruling, decision or judgment of a court, tribunal, board, administrative body, commission or arbitrator; or

DELETION OR SUSPENSION OF REGISTRATION BY CIRA

Deletion or Suspension by CIRA. CIRA may at its sole discretion delete and/or suspend any Domain Name Registration that it deems necessary to: (1) protect the integrity and stability of the Registry; (2) comply with any Applicable Laws, government rules or requirements, requests of law enforcement agencies, Registry PRP or any dispute resolution process; (3) avoid any liability, civil or criminal, on the part of CIRA, as well as its officers, directors, and employees; or (4) correct
mistakes made by CIRA or any Registrar in connection with a Domain Name Registration. (not sure if it needs to be mentioned )

Activities. CIRA may also delete and/or suspend any Domain Name Registration which directly or indirectly, intentionally or unintentionally, is or may become involved in any of the following activities:
(a) Illegal or fraudulent actions;
(b) Spam: The use of electronic messaging systems to send unsolicited bulk messages. The term applies to e-mail spam and similar abuses such as instant messaging spam, mobile messaging spam, and the spamming of Web sites and Internet forums. An example, for purposes of illustration, would be the use of email in denial-of-service attacks;
(c) Phishing: The use of counterfeit Web pages that are designed to trick recipients into divulging sensitive data such as usernames, passwords, or financial data;
(d) Pharming: The redirecting of unknowing users to fraudulent sites or services, typically through DNS hijacking or poisoning;
(e) Distribution of malware: The dissemination of software designed to infiltrate or damage a computer system without the owner’s informed consent.
Examples include, without limitation, computer viruses, worms, keyloggers, and trojan horses;
(f) Fast flux hosting: Use of fast- flux techniques to disguise the location of Web sites or other Internet services, or to avoid detection and mitigation efforts, or to host illegal activities. Fast-flux techniques use DNS to frequently change the location on the Internet to which the domain name of an Internet host or name server resolves. Fast flux hosting may be used only with prior permission of CIRA;
(g) Botnet command and control: Services run on a domain name that are used to control a collection of compromised computers or “zombies,” or to direct denial of service attacks (DDoS attacks);
(h) Distribution of child pornography; or
(i) Illegal Access to Other Computers or Networks: Illegally accessing computers, accounts, or networks belonging to another party, or attempting to penetrate security measures of another individual’s system (often known as “hacking”). Also, any activity that might be used as a precursor to an attempted system penetration (e.g., port scan, stealth scan, or other information gathering activity).

Need more information?

If you would like more information about the Local Presence / Trustee Service in Canada, have other questions about the Canadian domain registration or domains transfer, please don't hesitate to contact us at relations@web-solutions.eu or via phone: +44 (0) 20 4571 1971