Dear CWG members - Please find below a message from Afghanistan on three-character strings in response to our request. Many thanks and best wishes, Lars From: Aimal Marjan <aimal.marjan@mcit.gov.af> Date: Saturday, 10 October 2015 08:41 To: Lars HOFFMANN <lars.hoffmann@icann.org> Cc: Zmarialai Wafa <zmarialai.wafa@mcit.gov.af> Subject: Use of Country and Territory Names as top-level domains - Afghanistan feedback Hello, Following is the feedback from Afghanistan. Questions by the CWG-UCTN on 3-character codes with regard to the use of country and territory names as top-level domains? ? 1. In future, should all three-character top-level domains be reserved as ccTLDs only and be ineligible for use as gTLDs? What would be the advantage or disadvantage of such a policy? It only creates confusion between users for ccTLDs and gTLDs. ccTLD is driven by local law where the gTLD is driven by thr global law, this itself is a big confusion for users. If in the future there were any plan then it would be feasible to have 3 letters strings only for use in ccTLDs. A good example in our case is AFG which is the abbreviation for Afghanistan but there are various companies like American Financial Group in USA, Australian Financial Group in Australia, Al Futtaim Group in UAE, Advent Film Group that use the same abbreviation for their brand names, this would create serious issues between the government and private sector. Advantage is that there will be more sells for gTLDs and some brands might get their 3 letters TLD. Disadvantage is that it creates confusion for users 2. In future, should all three-character top-level domains be eligible for use as gTLDs as long as they are not in conflict with the existing alpha-3 codes from the ISO 3166-1 list; i.e. the three-character version of the same ISO list that is the basis for current ccTLD allocation? What would be the advantage or disadvantage of such a policy?? No, the use of 3 characters strings as gTLDs must receive no objection letter from the governments and other public authorities first. Advantage is: they will have open hand to register any string for their brads no matter it is in conflict with the ccTLD. Disadvantage is that governments and other public authorities will have no knowledge of the strings being registered for their businesses. 3. In future, should three-character strings be eligible for use as gTLDs if they are not in conflict with existing alpha-3 codes form the ISO 3166-1 list and they have received documentation of support or non-objection from the relevant government or public authority? What would be the advantage or disadvantage of such a policy?? As long as it is not in conflict with existing alpha 3 codes from ISO 3166-1 list, they are good to proceed. The only advantage is that there will be consultation and no objection letter needed from the government that gives the government and other public authority to closely review the string Disadvantage would be the same (Confusion for users) 4. In future, should there be unrestricted use of three-character strings as gTLDs if they are not conflicting with any applicable string similarity rules? What would be the advantage or disadvantage of such a policy?? No, the use of 3 characters strings as gTLDs must receive no objection letter from the governments and other public authorities first. Advantage is: they will have open hand to register any string for their brads no matter it is in conflict with the ccTLD. Disadvantage is that governments and other public authorities will have no knowledge of the strings being registered for their businesses. 5. In future, should all IDN three-character strings be reserved exclusively as ccTLDs and be ineligible as IDN gTLDs? What would be the advantage or disadvantage of such a policy?? It should be reserved only for ccTLDs. Advantage is Multilingual presence of the ccTLD Disadvantage would a little bit of confusion for users, though it creates more business opportunities for companies to have 3 characters strings for their brands. 6. In future, should there be unrestricted use of IDN three-character strings if they are not in conflict with existing TLDs or any applicable string similarity rules? What would be the advantage or disadvantage of such a policy?? As long as it is not in conflict with existing alpha 3 codes from ISO 3166-1 list, they are good to proceed. The only advantage is that there will be more business opportunities for brands to register their brand names, but it should go through no objection process from the governments and other authorities. Disadvantage would be the same (Confusion for users) 7. Do you have any additional comments that may help the CWG-UCTN in its discussion on three-character strings as top-level domains? No comments, thanks. Regards, GAC Afghanistan _____________________________________________________________________ Muhammad Aimal Marjan Deputy Minister IT Ministry of Communications and IT || Islamic Republic of Afghanistan ( c ) +93-700-283338 || ( o ) +93-20-2103883 || ( w ) www.mcit.gov.af