The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers - ICANN, private regulator of Internet domain names, had a few months ago, embowed its depleted alphabet to letters with accents to closer to natural language domain names. A jump is crossed. On 13 June, 2012, the ICANN has published the list of the first private applications for the allocation of new generic extensions, does not corresponding to countries (.fr for France) or a typology (edu for Education), but to specific entities, including institutions or companies. The filing cost $ 185,000. 1930 claims have already been filed. Thus, some of the names are closely contested: for example "app", which evokes both "apple" and "application", was immediately requested by several companies.

Le droit des noms de domaine

Domain names are subject to autoregulation. They are shaped by private contractual standards. This very broad and specific work gives all the rules and compares the legal systems. It includes numerous useful appendices, eg the relationship between ICANN and the registries of national top level domain names. The book also provides bibliographic information.

In the same way that internationally, a private association ICANN, operates on Internet domain names, a number of domain names that are more specific to the France (such as "free" or "pm.") are managed by L’Association Française pour le Nommage Internet en Coopération (AFNIC- the French Co-operative Association for Internet Names). This association is composed of individuals but also of representatives of ministries. It has the normative authority of "naming", i.e. the power to allow the use of such or such letter. The alphabet is a convention, a set of standards as one another, also arbitrary and binding than another, also ideological and powerful than another. However, so far, only "low" letters could be used, it is - be a latin alphabet without accent. From May, 3 2012, the accents will be allowed. That is progress, that the association it's justified by the aim at becoming closer its standards of the French language and surnames.