FAQ

The dotDK Society was conceived as an innovative way to make sure that Danish Internet users have a voice in .dk. The Society will ensure greater transparency in the operations of .dk and public access to hearings, which will enable the Danish internet community and users to make their opinion heard and contribute with input on important legal, privacy, security and administrative processes.

The dotDK Society will be a Danish Association with representation from the entire Danish Internet community. The dotDK Society will elect a 13 member board with representation from every major segment in the Danish Internet Community: professionals, providers, the private sector, .dk domain name owners (registrants) and the founders of dotDK.

This Community-selected board of the dotDK Society will control its 100% owned subsidiary, dotDK ApS, a Danish company which will run the .dk domain name registry and will have an ironclad contract for the technical operation of registry services with the European global registry company Afilias Limited.

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The dotDK Society, and dotDK ApS will be fully Danish companies, governed under the laws of Denmark.

The dotDK Society has 5 founders (1) Kim Viborg Andersen, professor and head of Informatik Ph.D. Skolen at Copenhagen Business School and expert on e-government; 2) Mads Thimmer, CEO, co-founder of Innovation Lab in Aarhus and contributor to the Encyclopedia of the Future; 3) Nikolaj Nyholm, CEO, Polar Rose and well-known Danish IT entrepreneur and open source exponent; 4) Tor Bloch, former director with Merck and Co., well known supercomputer expert and member of CERN, NATO and EU computing activities; and 5) Afilias Limited, the Irish company that is a global domain name registry leader.

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The dotDK Society is open to all. We believe that ALL community voices should be sought and heard, and consistently. We believe in openness, transparency and have pledged to openly show performance of the registry, and provide direct input for the community in the management of .dk.

The dotDK Society seeks membership from the entire Danish Internet community. We plan to host many activities that will educate the public on current Internet issues relevant for the .dk domain including online security, identity protection, protection against online crime, and provide new ways to participate in the growth of the Danish internet both online and face-to-face.

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No. The.dk top level domain is owned by Denmark and the Danish citizens - .dk can never be owned by anyone else.
The dotDK Society is a 100% Danish organization, selected by the National IT and Telecom Agency, which will support .dk in Denmark with and on behalf of the Danes under Danish law. Through the dotDK Society, the Danish Internet Community will directly own and control the management and operation of .dk.
dotDK will also provide greater transparency and more representation for ordinary Danes than ever before. For example, of the 13 Board seats, 5 are specifically reserved for representatives of private individuals and domain name owners (registrants). We have promised that .dk domain name policies and procedures will always be posted on the .dk website, so customers always know what is happening at their registry. Democratic methods to provide input to policies and procedures are also part of our promise, including holding town hall meetings throughout Denmark, creating Web site forums, and other open and inclusive means.
dotDK will also provide state of the art technology that provides reliable, secure and efficient service for .dk through its contract with Afilias. Denmark will finally get globally tested and proven technology that already supports 15 top level domains and over 13 million registrations (including .ORG and .INFO), without taking over the control of the domain. This unique and innovative approach will finally allow .dk to become a technically strong system, reduce costs for operations, and free up critical resources to provide community education and outreach.

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No. dotDK Society has pledged in its bid to IT and Telestyrelsen that it will not increase the price of .dk from the current 45 DKK. Later we have announced a price reduction to 40 DKK (11%). This is made possible due to dramatic improvements in operational efficiencies from automation and the new technology that dotDK will deploy.
In addition, dotDK Society will remove nameserver activation fees, which have been in effect for all .dk domain name users for the last 10 years. dotDK Society will also invite any qualified organisation to become a registrar at no cost, and will eliminate the costly annual accreditation tax that the current registry operator charges. dotDK society will also remove the arbitrary minimum account balance requirement that is imposed on registrars today.
We will build the services on superior technology that will eliminate current manual processes, improve efficiency and reduce operating costs and eliminate some of the fees now being charged.

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dotDK ApS (a Danish company) will be a wholly owned subsidiary of the dotDK Society (a Danish association run by Danes) and will oversee all management of the registry, including directing Afilias. Afilias’ long-term contract with dotDK ApS is governed by the license terms approved by the IT and Tele agency.
Afilias is an Irish company. It is one of the world’s largest domain name registry service provider, with a strong reputation for openness, sincerity, commitment to public good and neutrality.
Afilias will bring its world-renowned technology to Denmark that will deliver registry services in support of the .dk domain, under contract to dotDK ApS.

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No. Registrants are not in danger of losing their domains. dotDK has extra safeguards built into the system to preclude the inadvertent cancellation of domain names. Specifically:

• A Registration security code—every registration will have a unique “authorization code”. This code puts the registrant in charge of their domain, and enables them to transfer the name to a different registrar, should they become dissatisfied with the current provider.
• Redemption Grace Period—Should the registrar delete the name, the registry will keep the name on file (and not allow someone else to register it) for an additional 30 days. Upon deletion, the name will be removed from the zone file, and the site, email etc will cease working-providing an effective alert to the registrant who may not have kept their contact data current at their registrar. The registrant can then “redeem” the name from the deletion pool before it is actually released for re-registration. This is an additional measure of protection.

These additional security services are part of the upgrade planned by dotDK.

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We do not expect any major disruption during the transition to dotDK’s systems. We will in cooperation with the IT and Telestyrelsen preparing a carefully thought out transition plan that ensures that internet users are not affected by any of the changes in the back end. The .dk domain will continue to function normally. Our technical provider – Afilias – has solid and convincing experience to successfully migrate large TLDs of this size - including 2.7 million domain names in the .ORG domain in 2003.

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Yes. Our proposal makes a real difference to ordinary registrants. One example is the renewal process, where dotDK eliminates the confusion of who to approach (the registrar or the registry) by empowering the registrar to handle the entire relationship with the registrant, just as registrars do now with virtually all the other domains they support.

A further change that is less visible is upgraded technology which is built to address tomorrow’s security environment. It is no secret that the Internet is suffering an increasing number of attacks. .dk can no longer be isolated from the world in its design thinking—it MUST have the learning that only a global technical provider can bring to Denmark in order to ensure the best possible protection.

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Yes. The registrations take place in the advanced registry system and central database hosted in Denmark, administered by the dotDK Foreningen through dotDK ApS, and serviced by Afilias.
To ensure that global redundancy in hardware, software, and geography exists to protect .dk from cyber attacks, natural disasters or terrorist attacks, we plan to create redundant systems for .dk.

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Support for registrants will be in the language of choice for the Registrant. This is because, in the dotDK model, the registrant chooses their registrar, and only has to deal with their registrar. In an increasingly competitive market, registrants can choose the registrar who they feel they can trust and who provides support in the language of their choice. dotDK is expected to provide information in both Danish and English going forward.

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The registry system is subject to Danish law and will fully comply with rules set out in Danish legislation. We will cooperate with a network of professional, dk- approved registrars who have passed stringent technical tests and who are specifically contracted to dotDK. These registrars will transfer registration data to the central domain data base in Denmark. The transfer takes place on the basis of data processing agreements with the registry, which are well within the data processing legislation and has been proved as a global standard for virtually all major TLDs registration (e.g.: .com, .org, .info) and is securely escrowed and archived.

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In the dotDK model, all registrars are required to undergo an accreditation procedure that provides assurance to the registry that they are a bona fide organization and technically capable. No registrar is allowed to access registry systems without completing the accreditation process. Security is further enhanced by requiring registrars to access the system via a multi-tiered model, including pre-authenticated IP addresses. dotDK’s registry model, which requires that all registrant information be stored centrally at the registry, provides protection for registrants against the risk of their registrar going out of business. In this case domains can easily be transferred to another accredited registrar with registration information in tact. Registrants who are unsatisfied with their current provider can also readily initiate a transfer to a new registrar

Speedy propagation of DNS changes is essential to keep organizations up and running in case, for example, a fire in a data center takes a site offline, and the organization must switch queries to a back up site. If the DNS cannot be updated quickly to direct queries to the backup center, the site will literally go dark—at great cost to the organization. Further, speedy DNS changes have long been the global standard, and it is time for Denmark to receive the same service that is available in most other domains.

Regarding false names, registrars will be required by contract to collect accurate data regarding registrant identities. False data is grounds for deleting a registration. Abusive registrations (including phishing and spam) will be investigated promptly and dealt with effectively.

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No. In the dotDK model, key registrant data is held by both the registry and the registrar. In the unlikely event of a registrar failure (we are unaware of any failures of .dk registrars in the past) a registrant’s names can be transferred to a new registrar easily, with no interruption of service.

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dotDK will maintain the current process as long as it works in a satisfying way for the community.

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dotDK will leverage Afilias’ proven and battle-tested technology and extensive experience and will support .dk with secure and stable operations. Registry availability will be 99.9% or greater; name server (DNS) availability will be guaranteed at 100%. Advanced security features will provide for greater mitigation against cyber crime in .dk.

Further, dotDK will establish close relationships with international security experts such as Computer Emergency Response Team (CERTs), the ICANN Security and Stability Advisory Committee (SSAC), the global Anti-Phishing Working Group (APWG) and more.

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Your Danish domains will continue to work in the way they do today, but in a more efficient and secure way.

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Yes. dotDK will support IPv6 immediately from date of transfer. Ipv6 is the successor to Ipv4 that is the first and still the most common protocol on the internet.

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We are ready to implement DNSSEC, if the community decides it is desirable for the .dk domain. DNSSEC is a security function that will protect the name server further.

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Yes. dotDK will establish a modern system in Denmark that will be backed-up with appropriate redundancy that will enable it to continue operating even in the event of a fire at a data center. Afilias’ existing redundancy is in place for over 13 million domains worldwide will ensure the highest level of uptime available for registries worldwide.

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