German Parliament approved Resolution on GeoTLDs

On January 17th 2008 the German Bundestag (Parliament) approved, with supermajority of
82.7%, a resolution with the title “Advancement of Address Space in the Internet”. The
resolution includes the following excerpt:

II. The German Bundestag calls upon the German Government,

1. within the scope of its participation in ICANN's Governmental Advisory Committee

(GAC), to support the approval of new top-level-domains, particularly those for regional
and urban communities in Germany, such as ".bayern", ".nrw" and ".berlin", provided the
initiatives concerned are supported or backed by the responsible public authorities. The
introduction of new, regional, top-level-domains is a sensible addition to the national
identifier ".de" and is also suited for the stimulation of regional economies and to promote
local identities in the Internet for business, culture, politics and citizens. Particularly the
semantic, i.e. the meaningful character, of top-level-domains using the name of the region,
offers a long-term and economically relevant location-based advantage for the local
authorities affected in the national and global competition for resources, encouraging self-
confidence and a sense of community for each region concerned. Germany has an
opportunity here to participate in a worldwide trend and must not be put at a disadvantage
compared to other regions and metropolitan areas.

2. … Following the usual international practice for the administration of domains, the
German Bundestag has excluded the national administration of the ".de" domain from the
responsibility for the administration of numbers by the Bundesnetzagentur (Federal
Network Authority), leaving it in the responsibility of the privately organised institutions
of self-regulation. This has proven successful, even in the area of reducing bureaucracy,
and could also apply in future as a model for the new regional top-level-domains. At the
same time, the owners of rights to names must be granted an appropriate interest in the
issuing of domains below the top-levels, both as far as the rules for issuing names is
concerned, as well as the reservation of domains at no cost, which are associated with
their function (e.g. "[Link]-pfalz", [Link]").

3. within the framework of their participation in ICANN's Governmental Advisory

Committee (GAC) to promote the introduction of flexibility in character sets for the
domain name systems through so-called Internationalised Domain Names (IDNs =
umlauts and other special characters) in top-level-domains (e.g. ".köln"). Umlaut domains
and umlaut top-level-domains promote the use of the Internet, the German language as
well as business and culture at local and regional level. The successful and positive
implementation of umlaut domains below the ".de" top-level-domain has already
confirmed this (e.g. www.kö[Link]).

The following documents contain a courtesy translation of the rationale for the resolution by
the governing parties from January 17th 2008 and also a translation of the original resolution
filed on March 7th 2007.

This document is prepared by dotBERLIN GmbH & Co. KG (.berlin Top-Level-Domain)

Page 14394 German Bundestag – 16th Legislative Period – 136. Plenary Session. Berlin, Thursday January 17th 2008

Courtesy Translation of the Approval of a German Speeches supplied in writing on the discussions of
Bundestag Resolution concerning GeoTLD, IDNs and the recommendation and the report: The
Whois by dotBERLIN GmbH & Co. KG Development of Address Space in the Internet (point
10 on the agenda)
Source: German Bundestag server
[Link]
Dorothee Bär (CDU/CSU): It is said that the world is
becoming a village due to the Internet. Everyone can
look at many villages from their home. You just have to
“I now call up point 10 on the agenda: Discussion of the find them. The governing coalition put this motion so
recommendation and report from the committee for that the "village" should be reflected and should be
culture and media (22nd committee) on the motion put found in the Internet. It should be possible to find
by the representatives Dorothee Bär, Wolfgang Börnsen regions, cities and villages under their normal, national
(Bönstrup), Peter Albach, other CDU/CSU spelling. We have already reached the stage where, for
representatives and the CDU/CSU faction, as well as instance, the home page for the city of Nürnberg can be
the representatives Jörg Tauss, Martin Dörmann, opened using www.nü[Link], with the name spelled
Christoph Pries, other SPD representatives and the SPD using "ü".
faction.
Now, the part that is missing is the name of your own
The Development of Address Space in the Internet region in the so-called top-level domain, which is
– Printed matter 16/4564, 16/6342 – currently usually the abbreviation of the country
concerned; in Germany usually "de". This is the aim of
Report: our motion: in the worldwide network, people should be
Representatives able to directly find their region. With our motion, a
Dorothee Bär (CDU/CSU – Christ Democrats) top-level domain such as ".bayern" would be possible
Jörg Tauss (SPD – Social Democrats) and would make it easier for Internet users to search for
Hans-Joachim Otto (FDP – Liberals) products and services, companies & cities in the region
Dr. Lukrezia Jochimsen (Die Linke – The Left concerned.
Party, former Post-Communists)
Grietje Bettin (Bündnis 90/Die Grünen - The Green With this motion, we make both globalisation and
Party) regionalisation possible for the Internet. It is, after all,
one of the best achievements of the Internet, that from
It has been agreed that the speeches of the following anywhere in the world, you can do almost everything.
colleagues be provided in writing: Dorothee Bär, Jörg This makes it possible, for instance, that people in rural
Tauss, Christoph Pries, Christoph Waitz, Lothar Bisky areas can benefit from the same products and services
and Grietje Bettin. This means that an oral presentation as people in large cities. To do this, they do not have to
is not necessary. leave their home to go to the next large city. Under
certain circumstances, they can even work from there
We come to the vote. In its recommendation in the and do not have to commute on a daily basis, or even
printed matter 16/6342, the committee for culture and leave their region completely.
media recommends accepting the motion of the
CDU/CSU and SPD factions made in printed matter From their home, they can find information in the
16/4564. Who votes for the recommendation? – Who is Internet about almost everything. They can find
against? – Abstentions? information about things that they would like to buy,
about people that they have got to know and about what
Then the recommendation is accepted, with the their politicians are doing for them. It is often however
votes of the coalition factions and the FDP faction, difficult to filter out the relevant information from the
with votes against by the faction of "Die Linke" and mass that is available. Our motion is meant to help here.
abstention by the faction of the "Bündnis 90/Die The regional top-level domains make it possible to find
Grünen". information more quickly, for example if someone
would like to travel to a certain region of our country.
The opportunity to find information over the Internet is
already a great help for travellers.

It is also a great opportunity for our regions. They can

present themselves and you can get an idea of what they
are like. You might otherwise never have gotten to
know some regions.

Many of our regions' tourist agencies are exploiting this

great opportunity. Through very explicit names e.g.
"unterfranken" they would then be even easier to find.
Page 14394 German Bundestag – 16th Legislative Period – 136. Plenary Session. Berlin, Thursday January 17th 2008

And the matching products and services would then be was the stimulus for the production of numerous web
easier to find. The Internet thus offers ever greater sites in the Catalonian language and with content
opportunities. In recent time, the risks of the Internet related to Catalonia. In the meantime initiatives have
have been discussed far too frequently. been formed around the world to establish stronger
regional characteristics in top-level domains. In future,
However, no one should be "Internet illiterate". No one, ".sco" should represent the Scottish language and
especially older people, should be discouraged from cultural community and ".nyc" should represent New
using the Internet by such negative discussions. They York City in the Internet.
would cut themselves off from part of our life and
would be excluded. Discussions like this are At the last meeting of the organisation in Los Angeles,
reminiscent of discussions about TV in the 1960s. at the end of last year, it was announced that additional
People were happy to make TV the scapegoat, like the applications for the new top-level domains would be
Internet today, for undesirable developments in our accepted in the coming year. The extension of top-level
society. The causes of these developments are however domain names will offer the federal states, regions and
mostly complex and are to be found, then as now, in cities in our country better opportunities to present
other places: in the family, education, society. Putting themselves and their special features worldwide. They
the blame on single things such as the Internet is far too will get opportunities equal to city states, which due to
easy. their status, today already have their own top-level
domain, although their significance, measured by the
Our motion should make the Internet more open and number of registered domains, is very low. Gibraltar,
more regional. This is necessary as today; cities like for instance, with its domain ending ".gi" and about 30
London, New York or Berlin have more domain 000 inhabitants, has much better opportunities to
registrations than in over 150 countries. For certain present itself in the Internet than Berlin, where there are
regions, the Internet is simply crowded. With a already more than 500 000 domains registered under
dedicated top-level domain, more clarity and space can the domain ".de". It is thus not surprising that there are
be created. also efforts in Berlin to establish ".berlin" as a top-level
domain. The need for new options to define names is
Let us use the many opportunities that the Internet shown by the growing irregular use of country domains,
provides and make it possible that it doesn't just open starting with ".by" (the ending for Belarus) used by the
up the world to us, but opens up our own region too. Bavarian tourism company "Bayrische Tourismus und
Marketing GmbH" and going on to the Rumanian
domain "ro". Under [Link] you will find the
Christoph Pries (SPD): Gronau is a town in the district web site for the city administration of the German city
of Borken, which I represent in the German parliament. of Rosenheim. With the coalition motion to be
Gronau is well-known, not just as a significant location approved today, we emphasise our view that the
for the German textile industry or as the birthplace of development of local content in the Internet for
Udo Lindenberg. The town recently gained a certain Germany is of considerable significance. The motion
fame amongst Internet users owing to the registration of aims to support the process of discussion currently
11.111.111 as a .de domain by a local printer. There is taking place at international level. With our motion, we
no other country on Earth that has registered as many ask the German government to support the introduction
country domains as Germany. On the one hand, this of new top-level domains as part of its participation in
reveals the enthusiasm for the Internet shown by our ICANN. In addition to the national identifier ".de", this
population, as well as their knowledge about the will open up new opportunities for the regional
commercial opportunities of the Internet, on the other economies as well as for culture, politics and for the
hand it shows the limits. Owing to the large number of population at large.
domains, it is now scarcely possible to find a suitable
Internet address name for an individual or for a Care should be taken here, that the rights of 3rd parties
company's web site. As access codes for web-sites are not violated by the new domains. In a similar way to
however, domain names have great significance and an the uniqueness of the domain and the person "Peter
appropriate, easy-to-remember name is not just Struck", the same must also apply for the new top-level
important for the success of the web site but is a domains. It is becoming clear that there is a lot of
fundamental characteristic of the overall online potential conflict here. ICANN would thus be well
infrastructure. As the Internet continues to penetrate advised to clarify open questions in good time. The
almost all areas of life, the necessity grows of political task for the German government, as part of
continuing to develop the existing system. This subject their involvement in the Internet Governance Forum, is
has long since occupied the organisation responsible for to strive to ensure that, in future, domains will continue
the administration of the Internet: ICANN, the Internet to be administered autonomously. Efforts should also
Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers. With be made to make the character sets used for the naming
the introduction of ".asia" for Asia, ".eu" for Europe system more flexible and to ensure that personal data,
and ".cat" for Catalonia, ICANN has started with the recorded when a domain is registered, is better
development of the existing system. The approval of the protected from misuse.
".cat" domain for Catalonia in 2005 has shown that this
Page 14394 German Bundestag – 16th Legislative Period – 136. Plenary Session. Berlin, Thursday January 17th 2008

When on considers the extent of the changes that the In this year, ICANN can now look back over the ten
Internet has caused in a few years to commercial years of its existence. The most important question
structures as well as to the social, cultural, scientific and remains whether the US government will actually, as
legal interactions, it will be very interesting to see in promised, completely free ICANN from its control. The
which direction the medium will develop. I believe that current joint project agreement will expire in 2009. At
the extension of the address space in the Internet is a the start of January 2008, ICANN presented an opinion
very promising step to take. where it said that this sort of control is no longer
required and that the joint project agreement (JPA)
needs no further extension. This will also be a subject
Jörg Tauss (SPD): The German parliament today has for the next meeting of the Internet Governance Forum
its final discussion on the motion put by the coalition of the United Nations, IGF, which will meet in Dehli
factions on the "development of the address space in the from 8th to 12th December 2008.
Internet". I applaud the fact that the German parliament
is again considering the legal framework in a The second major topic for this year's ICANN meeting
worldwide information and communications network, will be the development of the address space in the
the Internet, with its technical definition and with fair Internet, which will be of decisive importance from a
access to its infrastructure. These questions are now, German point of view. In Germany, the domain ".de" is
and will be in future, of great social, cultural, legal and by far the most successful top-level domain worldwide
not least of economic significance for Germany and all which is commercially operated at a national level.
other nations. Over 10 million domains have already been registered
under ".de". I refer to some very up-to-date statistics.
The issuing of unique addresses is a fundamental These come from DENIC, the central registration point
characteristic of the Internet as a worldwide data, for all domains below the top-level domain ".de". All
information and communications network, so that users Internet addresses with the ending ".de" are registered
can easily find content worldwide, in a comprehensible and administered there. According to these statistics,
way. The control of the Internet's address space, of this morning there were 11 720 160 domains with the
domains and top-level domains, i.e. the highest level of ending ".de". DENIC only started, by the way, in 1994.
the domain hierarchy, is a decisive part of this If the international development in the registration of
infrastructure. ICANN, the "Internet Corporation for domains is considered, a similarly successful picture
Assigned Names and Numbers" has this control; it is a emerges. Here too, I would like to refer to some
private, non-profit-making organisation under US law, statistics, to ICANN statistics. According to ICANN, at
with its headquarters in Marina del Rey. It makes the end of 2007, worldwide there were about 138 000
decisions about the fundamentals of managing names 000 registered domains.
and addresses in the Internet and about standards for the
technology and procedures. Even if the ICANN cannot Currently a debate is taking place within the ICANN
make binding laws, it does coordinate the technical committees about the introduction of new top-level
aspects of the Internet and its power to set standards domains and this is the reason that the German
effectively has major economic and political parliament is taking a position with this motion. Even if
implications worldwide. ICANN makes decisions about the Internet is globally structured, owing to the great
the fundamentals of administering the so-called top- success of this and of other national addresses, a
level domains and is often called the "world worldwide trend has started to further develop the
government of the Internet". addressing in the area of top-level domains. Apart from
the familiar addresses such as ".com", ".org" and the
And, although the ICANN should long be part of the national addresses such as ".de", the address space is
autonomous self-regulation of the Internet or should be being extended for regional addressing, to encourage
legitimised by increased international cooperation, increased local and regional use and to make
today, it is only connected to the US administration via homogenous markets and areas of application visible
government supervision and a contract. This has long and recognisable through the top-level domains. In the
been the subject of discussion about the future structure past, ICANN has only approved of regional top-level
of the political control of the Internet, most recently at domains for nation states. In the meantime however,
the UN world summit on the information society. One following this trend, the first regional top-level domains
of the core requirements of the coalition motion being have been created with the introduction of ".eu" for
discussed here today is thus that the German Europe, ".asia" for Asia and ".cat" for Catalonia.
government should attentively follow the ICANN
process and the discussion about the future With the motion from the coalition factions to be voted
administration of the Internet, acting in close on today, the German government is asked to make
cooperation with German Internet users as well as with efforts at an international level so that regional and
international partners and, in the medium term, should urban communities in Germany can also be approved as
aim for an internationalisation of the supervision of the new top-level domains. The German government
domain name administration. should use its influence so that the administration of
domains and top-level domains continues to operate
within the autonomous administration of the Internet
Page 14394 German Bundestag – 16th Legislative Period – 136. Plenary Session. Berlin, Thursday January 17th 2008

community, supervised on the basis of an international of children, the penal code, the rights to names and
cooperation, while ensuring that the rights of the trademarks etc. can flow into an internationally
owners of the rights to names are maintained. A further accessible domain space.
requirement is aimed at making the character set used
for the domain name system more flexible. This The coalition factions' motion thus refers to the
concerns the approval of umlauts and special corresponding initiatives, which have been formed for
characters. cities such as London, Paris, Berlin or New York City
and which intend to apply to ICANN to register
As this is a very current discussion about the corresponding top-level city domains. To avoid German
modernisation of the Internet address space, there are of cities, communities and regions being disadvantaged
course some critical comments. There is a concern, for compared to other regions and large cities, with this
instance, that the introduction of new and regional top- motion the German parliament expressly recommends
level domains will put the clarity of the Internet address such initiatives from Germany and at the same time, for
space at risk. This can be countered in that it would the above-mentioned reasons, makes clear that these
apply for any extension at all to the Internet address should be backed or supported by the responsible public
space. One central advantage is however, that the authorities. Maybe one should look at it from a
Internet address space will be significantly expanded by different point of view.
this and that the extension by regional addressing will
promote stronger local and regional use, and will make Yesterday, one could read in ZDF that approximately
homogenous markets and usable spaces more visible 15 000 people from Schleswig-Holstein live on St.
and recognisable at the top level of domains. Helena, at least virtually, as they have registered a
personal web domain with the country code that is
It should be pointed out that there will be problems due attractive for Schleswig-Holstein of ".sh". This is of
to differing spellings and due to the fact that some town course not just a north German phenomenon, as around
names occur more than once. However, that is not an 30 000 Bavarians have a web address which ends in the
insoluble problem. There is also the special aspect in White Russian country abbreviation of ".by". This can
Berlin, that there is a broad initiative of individuals and only be a makeshift approach, but it does make it
companies in favour of ".berlin" as a new top-level obvious that new and regional top-level domains are
domain, but the Berlin Senate views it critically. There necessary.
are fears of conflict with the existing Berlin portal
which is operated under [Link]. It can also not Finally, the motion from the coalition factions, to just
be excluded that the name "Berlin" may be damaged by briefly go into this here, considers the question that is
"problem" domain names. After all, there will not just also discussed at ICANN meetings of whether new
be "[Link]" or "[Link]". rules are required for the "whois" service. The "whois"
service for a domain is a protocol and an information
This argument however overlooks the fact that service based on that, with which personal data can be
especially regional top-level domains open up the requested about the owners of domains, contact persons
opportunity of regionally agreeing rules for the issuing and the responsible technical administrators. To date,
of domain names. It is by just this means that, for the this information is available to everyone, even though it
first time, developments in the Internet that cause includes sensitive personal information such as
problems, which currently cannot be controlled either telephone numbers, email addresses, IP addresses and
nationally or locally, can be dealt with through binding postal addresses, thus far exceeding the amount of
agreements with the operators. This is something that is information available in public telephone directories.
very different to the operation of an Internet portal and With the motion put forward by the coalition factions,
it seems to me to be more politically significant than the the German government is asked, within the framework
question of how many visits there will be in future to of their participation in ICANN, to promote further
the current web calling card for a community. development of the storage and transmission of "whois"
data, so as to better guarantee the protection of personal
For, even if one might regret it, article 87 para. 2 of the data, and particularly to prevent identity theft and to
German constitution, states that the sovereignty for the prevent unwanted advertising (so-called "spam").
issuing of domains lies with the public authorities. The
idea, just because a German community doesn't want I would like to express my thanks for the cooperation
another community in the world with the same name to and the interesting debates in the committees and would
make an application, that they could prevent the like to ask for support for the motion put by the
complete issue of the name, is also not tenable. For a coalition factions, expressly also in the direction of the
new domain like ".berlin", we at least require of German cities and regions, that are so attractive, that a
ICANN that a private initiative, such as for ".berlin", domain of their own in the Internet could be
must consider the concerns of the German bearers of worthwhile.
the name to be able to request support or participation.
In this, I see a great opportunity, for in this way
(independently from the legal constitutional situation)
at least indirectly, German standards for the protection
Courtesy Translation by dotBERLIN GmbH & Co. KG
From [Link]

Deutscher Bundestag Printed matter 16/4564

16th legislative period 07.03.2007

Resolution
made by the following members of the German Bundestag: Dorothee Bär, Wolfgang Börnsen,
Peter Albach, Renate Blank, Gitta Connemann, Reinhard Grindel, Monika Grütters, Dr. Günter
Krings, Hartmut Koschyk, Johann-Henrich Krummacher, Maria Michalk, Philipp Mißfelder, Rita
Pawelski, Ruprecht Polenz, Dr. Norbert Röttgen, Marco Wanderwitz, Volker Kauder, Dr. Peter
Ramsauer and the parliamentary party of the CDU/CSU as well as the following of the German
Bundestag: Jörg Tauss, Martin Dörmann, Christoph Pries, Monika Griefahn, Siegmund
Ehrmann, Kerstin Griese, Fritz-Rudolf Körper, Angelika Krüger-Leißner, Dr. Uwe Küster,
Markus Meckel, Petra Merkel, Steffen Reiche, Michael Roth, Renate Schmidt, Olaf Scholz,
Wolfgang Thierse, Simone Violka, Dr. Peter Struck and the parliamentary party of the SPD.

Advancement of address space in the Internet

The Bundestag wants to pass a resolution:

I. The German Bundestag notes:

The Internet pervades all areas of modern society so that, today, it is hard to imagine economically and
socially significant processes that do not include its use. Answering questions about its legal
framework in a worldwide information and communications network, its technical specifications and
fair access to its infrastructure are thus of great social, cultural, legal and economic significance for
Germany and for all other nations.

The issuing of unique addresses is a fundamental characteristic of the Internet as a worldwide data,
information and communications network, so that users can easily find content worldwide, in a
comprehensible way. Control of the Internet's address space, of domains and top-level-domains
(TLDs), i.e. the highest level of the domain hierarchy, is a decisive part of this infrastructure. ICANN,
the "Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers" has this control; it is a private, non-
profit-making organisation under US law, with its headquarters in Marina del Rey. It makes decisions
about the fundamentals of managing names and addresses in the Internet and about standards for the
technology and procedures.

Even if the ICANN cannot make binding laws, it does coordinate the technical aspects of the Internet
and its power to set standards effectively has major economic and political implications worldwide.
And, although the ICANN should long be part of the autonomous self-regulation of the Internet or
should be legitimised by increased international cooperation, it is today only connected to the US
administration via government supervision and a contract. This has long been the subject of discussion
about the future structure of the political control of the Internet, most recently at the UN world summit
on the information society.
Germany is represented by the German government in the ICANN Governmental Advisory
Committee (GAC) and, together with other governments from around the world, participates in the
decisions taken by this committee. It can thus participate, together with a large number of economic
and scientific institutions, as well as private users, in the further development of the Internet, which
also includes the address space.

The further development of the Internet address space is of particular significance for Germany: In
Germany, the top-level-domain ".de" is by far the most successful top-level-domain worldwide which
is commercially operated at a national level. Over 10 million domains have already been registered
under ".de".

Even if the Internet is globally structured, owing to the great success of this and of other national
addresses, a worldwide trend has started to further develop the addressing in the area of top-level-
domains. Apart from the familiar addresses such as ".com", ".org" and the national addresses such as
".de", the address space is being extended for regional addressing, to encourage increased local and
regional use and to make homogenous markets and usage areas more visible and recognisable already
through the top-level-domains. The usability is also increased by the option of restricting search
enquiries to the local area and by keeping more of the Internet traffic local. In the past, ICANN has
only approved regional top-level-domains for nation states. In the meantime however, following this
trend, the first regional top-level-domains have been created with the introduction of ".eu" for Europe,
".asia" for Asia and ".cat" for Catalonia. At the same time, there is increasing support for the approval
of characters from other languages within the scope of Internet addresses. Since 1st April 2004,
umlauts and accents such as ä, ö, é, etc. can be used in addresses.

For Germany, this development provides good opportunities for the Länder, regions and cities to better
present their special features commercially and culturally, worldwide. For example, in cities such as
London, New York City or Berlin, today there are more domain registrations than in over 150
countries which already have their own top-level-domain.

As, so far, neither metropolitan areas nor comparably large regions have their own top-level-domains,
private initiatives have been formed worldwide, which intend to apply to ICANN for the registration
of top-level-domains for cities such as London, Paris, Berlin and New York City. To avoid German
cities, communities and regions from being put at a disadvantage to other regions and large cities, the
Bundestag expressly supports initiatives like this from Germany, provided they are supported or
backed by the responsible public authorities.

This subject was discussed at the ICANN meeting from 2nd to 8th December 2006, in Sao Paulo,
Brazil and, at the next meeting from 26th to 30th March 2007, in Lisbon, Portugal, the introduction of
such regional top-level-domains will be discussed and procedures and schedules for their introduction
agreed.

ICANN will also use this opportunity to discuss new rules for the "Whois" service. The "Whois"
service for a domain is a protocol and an information service based on that protocol, with which
personal data can be requested about the owners of domains, contact persons and the responsible
technical administrators. To date, this information is available to everyone, even though it includes
sensitive personal information such as telephone numbers, email addresses, IP addresses and postal
addresses, thus far exceeding the amount of information available in public telephone directories.

Modern Whois servers, such as the DENIC registry, which looks after German domains, only permit a
limited number of enquiries. However this does not yet provide effective protection from bulk-
requests for addresses from so-called "spammers" and direct marketing organisations. The protection
of personal information is thus at odds with the necessity of being able to contact the owner of a
domain, presenting an important subject which, in the opinion of the Bundestag, should also be raised
by the German government at the coming ICANN meeting.

II. The German Bundestag calls upon the German Government,

1. within the scope of its participation in ICANN's Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC), to
support the approval of new top-level-domains, particularly those for regional and urban
communities in Germany, such as ".bayern", ".nrw" and ".berlin", provided the initiatives
concerned are supported or backed by the responsible public authorities. The introduction of new,
regional, top-level-domains is a sensible addition to the national identifier ".de" and is also suited
for the stimulation of regional economies and to promote local identities in the Internet for
business, culture, politics and citizens. Particularly the semantic, i.e. the meaningful character, of
top-level-domains using the name of the region, offers a long-term and economically relevant
location-based advantage for the local authorities affected in the national and global competition
for resources, encouraging self-confidence and a sense of community for each region concerned.
Germany has an opportunity here to participate in a worldwide trend and must not be put at a
disadvantage compared to other regions and metropolitan areas.

2. within the scope of its participation in the UN's Internet Governance Forum (IGF) to work towards
the administration of the domains and top-level-domains remaining in the framework of self-
administration by the Internet community, under the supervision of an international cooperation.
At the same time, the protection of the rights of the owners of the rights to the names must be
appropriately guaranteed.
Following the usual international practice for the administration of domains, the German
Bundestag has excluded the national administration of the ".de" domain from the responsibility for
the administration of numbers by the Bundesnetzagentur (Federal Network Authority), leaving it
in the responsibility of the privately organised institutions of self-regulation. This has proven
successful, even in the area of reducing bureaucracy, and could also apply in future as a model for
the new regional top-level-domains. At the same time, the owners of rights to names must be
granted an appropriate interest in the issuing of domains below the top-levels, both as far as the
rules for issuing names is concerned, as well as the reservation of domains at no cost, which are
associated with their function (e.g. "[Link]-pfalz", [Link]").

3. within the framework of their participation in ICANN's Governmental Advisory Committee

(GAC) to promote the introduction of flexibility in character sets for the domain name systems
through so-called Internationalised Domain Names (IDNs = umlauts and other special characters)
in top-level-domains (e.g. ".köln").
Umlaut domains and umlaut top-level-domains promote the use of the Internet, the German
language as well as business and culture at local and regional level. The successful and positive
implementation of umlaut domains below the ".de" top-level-domain has already confirmed this
(e.g. www.kö[Link]).

4. within the framework of their participation in ICANN to promote further development of the
storage and transmission of Whois data, so as to better guarantee the protection of personal data,
and particularly to prevent identity theft and to prevent unwanted advertising (so-called "spam").

Whois data which relates to individuals who have registered a domain, contains a variety of
personal details and thus need particular protection. However, it must also be possible to quickly
identify the corresponding person and contact them. The law enforcement agencies will also be
interested in this. At the moment however, this data is massively abused by "spammers" and
swindlers. A better guarantee than is currently available is thus required so that the stored
information may not be used for anything other than its intended purpose. An exact check is thus
required as to who is to be permitted to have access to the Whois data, for which technical or any
other reasons, and if mechanisms can't be made available which link the calling up of the data with
proof of having a justified interest in the information. The starting point for the considerations
 should be the question as to whether, as a first step, if it wouldn't be sufficient for public access to
the information to go via the technical domain administrators. In addition, it should also be
clarified which other access options are necessary for national authorities on the basis of common
international regulations.

5. to attentively follow the ICANN process, in close cooperation with the German users of the
Internet, as well as European partners and, in the medium term, to pursue the internationalisation
of the supervision of the domain name administration.

Berlin, 8th March 2007

Volker Kauder, Dr. Peter Ramsauer and the parliamentary party

Dr. Peter Struck and the parliamentary party