Formation | 24 May 1996 [1] |
---|---|
Type | Nonprofit |
Legal status | Company Limited by Guarantee |
Location |
|
Region served | United Kingdom |
Services | ccTLD registry, cyber security |
Membership (2020/21) | 2500 |
Chair | Andy Green |
CEO | Paul Fletcher (effective February 2022) |
Elected Non-Executive Director | Simon Blackler |
Elected Non-Executive Director | Ashley La Bolle |
Subsidiaries | Nominet US Inc. |
Website | www |
Nominet UK is currently delegated by IANA to be the manager of the .uk domain name. [2] Nominet directly manages registrations directly under .uk, and some of the second level domains .co.uk, .org.uk, .sch.uk, .me.uk, .net.uk, .ltd.uk and .plc.uk. [3]
Nominet also manages the .wales and .cymru domains. [4]
As of February 2021, the .uk register held 10,922,477 .uk domain names. [5] This represents a year-on-year downward trend, when compared to February 2020, this is mainly due to the lapsing of the recently launched .uk domain names. [6]
Nominet was founded by Dr. Willie Black and five others on 14 May 1996 when its predecessor, the "Naming Committee" was unable to deal with the volume of registrations then being sought under the .uk domain. [7] Nominet is a not-for-profit company limited by guarantee. It has members who act as shareholders,but without the right to participate in the profits of the company. Anyone can become a member, but most members are internet service providers who are also registrars.
Customers wishing to register a domain can approach Nominet directly but will generally register the domain via a domain registrar – a business entity authorized by Nominet to register and manage .uk domains on behalf of customers. Registrars for .uk domains were formerly known as "tagholders".
Nominet also deals with disputes about registrations of .uk domain names, via its Dispute Resolution Service (DRS) [8] which is similar to the UDRP system used for generic Top Level Domain Names,[ further explanation needed ] but with certain innovations such as a free mediation service.
In 2008 Nominet launched a charitable foundation, the Nominet Trust, and contributed some of its profits to it. [9] In May 2018 Nominet relinquished control over the organisation, [10] which was renamed Social Tech Trust [11] and announced a "strategic partnership with Social Tech Business". [12] By 2020 the income of Social Tech Trust had fallen to £99,000 from £5.6 million in 2018. [13]
In February 2021 over 140 members requested an extraordinary general meeting to vote on removing five board directors, including the chair, and to appoint Michael Lyons, former Chairman of the BBC, and Axel Pawlik, former Managing Director of RIPE NCC. The EGM was held on 22 March 2021 and the five directors were removed. [14] Rob Binns, a former Group Treasurer at HP Inc. and then CFO at The Access Group, was appointed as acting chair. [15] [16]
Most countries have their own top-level domain (TLD). The .uk TLD was first used in 1985. [17] and at that time a voluntary group called the "Naming Committee" managed the registration of .uk domain names. This consisted of members of LINX as full members (the main ISPs in the UK), and their resellers as guest members. By the mid-1990s, Internet Service Providers (ISPs) who registered domains for their customers were joined by a new breed of domain name specialists who had an entrepreneurial attitude to domain names. The Naming Committee operated a ruleset that forced all name registrations to 'exactly' match the name of the registering company and also limited all companies to a single domain name. The growth of the commercial internet soon brought these restrictions into close focus. As demand for domain name registrations grew, it became clear that a voluntary group could no longer cope with the volume of registrations being requested. [18] It also became clear that the existing ruleset was not sustainable and the Naming Committee was going to break down under the pressure of registrations.
When it became clear that a new organization with a new approach was needed to manage the .uk TLD, the Naming Committee mailing list had mutated into a discussion group for domain name issues and many discussions about what type of corporation the Registry should be were held. Meanwhile, at UKERNA, Dr. Willie Black and John Carey were watching the situation and in 1996 John Carey wrote a proposed plan for a new organization to be called Nominet. This was distributed widely, and a meeting to discuss ways forward was held at a hotel at Heathrow Airport on 11 April 1996.
The options to set up as a profit-making company or a charity were rejected, and Nominet was established on 14 May 1996 as a private, not-for-profit membership company, limited by guarantee. [19] Whilst the move was generally popular, there was strong resistance from some parts of the industry. [20] Although formed with a board composed of Dr. Black (who became the first CEO of the new company), John Carey, and the four co-founders drawn from the internet industry, [21] elections were held by the new membership which resulted in the first elected board members to oversee the growth of the UK domain name industry. John Carey resigned before taking up his role following a disagreement over the creation of police.uk
From Nominet's inception on 1 July 1996 until 2002 domains registered pre-Nominet were provided free of charge. [22] In 2002, as had been hinted at its inception in 1996, [23] Nominet began a process over two years of migrating those domains onto Nominet standard terms and conditions and implementing charging. [22] Those domains can be identified within the whois results as having a registration date of before August 1996. [22]
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In 2011 The Independent published an article containing quotes about people trying to demutualize Nominet for their own benefit. [24]
Under the tenure of Russell Haworth, a former mergers and acquisition specialist, Nominet invested heavily into autonomous vehicles, the Internet of things, and white-space spectrum management which did not pan out. Despite these outcomes, board salaries continued to rise. [25]
Nominet's success brought with it several structural concerns. Over time, it built considerable cash reserves. In 1999, candidates stood for the board on a platform similar to 'carpetbagging' attempts with mutual building societies; [26] whilst this was defeated, [27] following a financial report from Alex Bligh, one of the founders, covering the potential conflict between turning a profit to maintaining sufficient financial reserves and its goal of maintaining long-term profit and loss neutrality. [28]
Nominet has consistently increased the salaries of its employees, especially directors. Average salaries have increased from £28,542 in 2002 to £60,276 in 2014. In the same period, the highest-paid director went from £125,000 to £308,000. [29]
Speaking at Nominet's 2020 annual general meeting (AGM), the organization's CEO Russell Haworth shocked members by announcing he was shutting down its internal web forum – the only means of independent communication between members – effective immediately. [30] [31]
Nominet admitted it wrongly calculated election results for its board of directors in 2018 and 2019. [32] [33]
In 2019, customers of 123-Reg and Namesco were invoiced for domain names that were reserved for free by Nominet. [34]
Eagle-eyed .uk registry watchers noticed unexpected changes in ownership of various .uk names, including sunset.uk, waterfall.uk, pad.uk and trending.uk, all of which were sold by Fasthosts to one or more industry insiders in advance of the domains being released by Nominet rather than going through the proper public process. [35] [34]
Nominet introduction of .uk to compete with .co.uk and .org.uk has resulted in increased cost to UK brand owners and caused much confusion amongst registrants. [36] [37]
In July 2020 Nominet announced a new policy consultation for expiring.UK domain names, [38] but it has been mired with controversy as it seems not to be in the public's benefit. [37] [39] [40] [41]
On 29 January 2021, an email request was made to Rory Kelly, the Nominet company secretary to provide a list of members of Nominet.
On 3 February 2021, Rory Kelly, company secretary responded to the request by printing out the Nominet members list on 575 sheets of A4 paper, omitting the contact email addresses of members, and posting the bundle to the registered company address of the original requester. In response, the recipient Krystal Hosting arranged for 575 trees to be planted "to offset Nominet's nonsense". [42]
On 2 February 2021, over 140 members wrote to the board of directors via Rory Kelly the company secretary calling for a general meeting to propose two ordinary resolutions: [43]
Rory Kelly, Company Secretary [46] stated that the number of votes each member was entitled to cast would not be released until the results had been published. [33]
Following the EGM the motion to remove the directors was passed, confirming the removal of the five board directors. Nominet stated that "Eleanor Bradley and Ben Hill remain in their executive posts." [15]
Nominet announced that they would not release the number of votes each member is entitled to cast, including to the members themselves, until after the vote had taken place. [33] The voting rights of the members were subsequently released after the EGM. [47]
In the lead up to the vote at the EGM a number of Nominet members publicly announced their position on the resolution to be tabled at the EGM:
Publicly for:
Publicly against:
Publicly abstained:
The Extraordinary General Meeting (EGM) was held on 22 March 2021. [54] The motion to remove the five directors from the board was carried with 53.5% of the votes for the motion, and 47.26% against. [55] [56]
Five of the original Nominet founders (Richard Almeida, Willie Black, Alex Bligh, Keith Mitchell, and Nigel Titley) pledged their "commitment to support Sir Michael Lyons and Axel Pawlik if they are appointed to the board of Nominet UK, in whatever way we reasonably can with matters relating to the future of Nominet". [57]
By 31 March 2021, Nominet had made four internal appointments: [58]
Appointment of Kelly and Leach to the board had occurred on 22 March 2021, corresponding to the date of the EGM. [59] [60]
On 7 April 2021, Bradley, as interim CEO, stated that Nominet would begin to regularly publish the voting rights of members. [61]
On 12 April 2021 Sir Michael Lyons and Alex Pawlik sent a joint letter to the acting Chair Rob Binns. [62] The remnant board of Nominet subsequently announced: "After much careful consideration, the board has decided not to invite Sir Michael to be acting chair". [63]
By 13 April 2021 Nominet had selected Russell Reynolds Associates to seek a replacement chair of Nominet on an initial three-year term. [64]
By 15 April 2021 survey responses from 200 Nominet members that had supported the earlier EGM, showed 97% support for calling a second EGM, with confidence in the board decreasing to 1.3 out of 10. [65] [66]
On 22 July 2021, Nominet stated that Andy J. Green CBE had been appointed new chair of the board, along with Eva Lindqvist as a new independent director, from 21 July 2021. [67] Priorities would be reduction of costs and executive pay, re-building of trust with the membership, and restoration of Nominet's public benefit purpose and charitable proceeds. [67]
Nominet's Annual General Meeting (AGM) was scheduled for 18 November 2021. Prior to the AGM, elections were held to appoint two new member-elected non-executive directors to the Nominet board. Public Benefit candidates received the highest votes, having Simon Blackler elected immediately with over 50 percent of first-preference votes, followed by Ashley La Bolle of Tucows taking 35% of the vote. [68] Blackler and La Bolle replaced out-going directors James Bladel of GoDaddy (who had not stood for re-election), and David Thornton, who "defended the previous management's actions", had received six percent of the votes. [68] It was announced that BCS CEO Paul Fletcher would takeover as Nominet CEO from February 2022. [69]
Votes held at the 2021 AGM formally appointed Andy Green and Eva Lindqvist, both for three years, with over 94% of votes. Stephen Page (who "was opposed by the Public Benefit campaign") received 51.4% of weighted votes for an extension of one year as a director. [70] [71]
Paul Fletcher was appointed as replacement CEO of Nominet starting in February 2022. In the first days Fletcher joined the board and held a meeting with members. [72]
On 10 March 2022, Nominet announced [73] it would be "not accepting registrations from registrars in Russia – we are suspending the relevant tags" and in doing so became the first previously neutral ccTLD in history to reposition itself as non-neutral.
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Nominet also delivers the National Cyber Security Centre's Protective Domain Name Service (PDNS) [74] since 2016, protecting the UK public sector's internet traffic.
A £4 million investment into registry services was announced in February 2020 [75] alongside the acquisition of US-based cyber security company CyGlass. [76]
Nominet manages the registry of the following top-level domains:
Nominet manages the following second-level domains:
.co.uk
– unrestricted, intended for businesses.org.uk
– unrestricted, intended for non-profit organisations .net.uk
– reserved exclusively for UK internet service providers .ltd.uk
– reserved exclusively for UK limited liability companies; subdomain must correspond to the company's registered name.plc.uk
– reserved exclusively for UK public limited companies; subdomain must correspond to the company's registered name.sch.uk
– reserved exclusively for primary and secondary schools.me.uk
– unrestricted, intended for personal use.mod.uk
– operated by the Ministry of Defence .mil.uk
– operated by the Ministry of DefenceThe following are widely used as second-level domains but are registered with Nominet as top-level domains:
.gov.uk
was used as a second-level domain for UK government agencies until 2012 when gov.uk
started functioning as a Nominet-registered independent domain..ac.uk
is commonly used as a second-level domain for UK education and research establishments, but ac.uk
is actually a Nominet-registered domain held by JANET.The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers is a global multistakeholder group and nonprofit organization headquartered in the United States responsible for coordinating the maintenance and procedures of several databases related to the namespaces and numerical spaces of the Internet, ensuring the Internet's stable and secure operation. ICANN performs the actual technical maintenance work of the Central Internet Address pools and DNS root zone registries pursuant to the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) function contract. The contract regarding the IANA stewardship functions between ICANN and the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) of the United States Department of Commerce ended on October 1, 2016, formally transitioning the functions to the global multistakeholder community.
A domain name registry is a database of all domain names and the associated registrant information in the top level domains of the Domain Name System (DNS) of the Internet that enables third party entities to request administrative control of a domain name. Most registries operate on the top-level and second-level of the DNS.
The Internet Society (ISOC) is an American nonprofit advocacy organization founded in 1992 with local chapters around the world. Its mission is "to promote the open development, evolution, and use of the Internet for the benefit of all people throughout the world". It has offices in Reston, Virginia, U.S., and Geneva, Switzerland.
The domain name .org is a generic top-level domain (gTLD) of the Domain Name System (DNS) used on the Internet. The name is truncated from 'organization'. It was one of the original domains established in 1985, and has been operated by the Public Interest Registry since 2003. The domain was originally "intended as the miscellaneous TLD for organizations that didn't fit anywhere else." It is commonly used by non-profit organizations, open-source projects, and communities, but is an open domain that can be used by anyone. The number of registered domains in .org has increased from fewer than one million in the 1990s, to ten million in 2012, and held steady between ten and eleven million since then.
.eu is the country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for the European Union (EU). Launched on 7 December 2005, the domain is available for any person, company or organization based in the European Union. This was extended to the European Economic Area in 2014, after the regulation was incorporated into the EEA Agreement, and hence is also available for any person, company or organization based in Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway. The TLD is administered by EURid, a consortium originally consisting of the national ccTLD registry operators of Belgium, Sweden, and Italy, joined later by the national registry operator of the Czech Republic. Trademark owners were able to submit registrations through a sunrise period, in an effort to prevent cybersquatting. Full registration started on 7 April 2006.
.xxx is a sponsored top-level domain (sTLD) intended as a voluntary option for pornographic sites on the Internet. The sponsoring organization is the International Foundation for Online Responsibility (IFFOR). The registry is operated by ICM Registry LLC. The ICANN Board voted to approve the sTLD on 18 March 2011. It went into operation on 15 April 2011.
.uk is the Internet country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for the United Kingdom. It was first registered in July 1985, seven months after the original generic top-level domains such as .com and the first country code after .us.
Domain name speculation, popular as domain investing, domain flipping or domaining in professional jargon, is the practice of identifying and registering or acquiring generic Internet domain names as an investment with the intent of selling them later for a profit.
Generic top-level domains (gTLDs) are one of the categories of top-level domains (TLDs) maintained by the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) for use in the Domain Name System of the Internet. A top-level domain is the last level of every fully qualified domain name. They are called generic for historical reasons; initially, they were contrasted with country-specific TLDs in RFC 920.
The Canadian Internet Registration Authority (CIRA) is the organization that manages the .ca country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for Canada. Its offices are located at 979 Bank Street in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. CIRA sets the policies and agendas that support Canada's internet community and Canada's involvement in international internet governance. It is a member-driven organization with membership open to all that hold a .ca domain. As of March 2023, there were more than 3.3 million active .ca domains.
The Internet country code top-level domain (ccTLD) .io is nominally assigned to the British Indian Ocean Territory. The domain is managed by Internet Computer Bureau Ltd, a domain name registry, with registrar services provided by Name.com.
Team Internet Group PLC is a British multinational internet services holding company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. Its subsidiaries provide services categorized in two segments: Online Marketing and Online Presence. The Online Marketing segment offers services and products in digital advertising, domain monetization, traffic commerce and product comparison; the Online Presence segment provide domain name registry and registrar services, in addition to associated products and services, including web hosting, brand management, and domain parking.
.cymru is one of two geographic top level domains (GeoTLD) for Wales. The word Cymru means Wales in Welsh.
.au Domain Administration (auDA) is the policy authority and industry self-regulatory body for the .au domain, which is the country-code top-level domain (ccTLD) for Australia. It was formed in 1999 to manage the .au ccTLD with the endorsement of the Australian Government and the authority of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN). It is a not-for-profit membership organisation that promotes and protects the .au domain space.
Public Interest Registry is a not-for-profit based in Reston, Virginia, created by the Internet Society in 2002 to manage the .ORG top-level domain. It took over operation of .ORG in January 2003 and launched the .NGO and .ONG top-level domains in March 2015.
.club, often stylized as .CLUB and sometimes dot-club, is a top-level domain (TLD). It was proposed in ICANN's new generic top-level domain (gTLD) program, and became available to the general public on May 7, 2014. .Club Domains, LLC is the domain name registry for the string.
.gay is a top-level domain name. It was proposed in ICANN's New generic top-level domain (gTLD) Program, and became available to the general public in September 2020. Top Level Design is the domain name registry for the string.
.google is a brand top-level domain (TLD) used in the Domain Name System (DNS) of the Internet. Created in 2014, it is operated by Alphabet Inc., Google's parent company. It is notable as one of the first gTLDs associated with a specific brand. The company's first usage of the TLD was with com.google, an April Fools' Day joke website that hosted a horizontally mirrored version of Google Search. The domain currently hosts multiple Alphabet Inc. products and services, and plans exist to move other Alphabet properties to .google as well.
The domain names .ngo and .ong are generic top-level domains (gTLD) of the Domain Name System (DNS) used in the Internet, sponsored and managed by the Public Interest Registry. The backend is provided by Afilias. The .ngo domain name is an acronym which stands for "non-governmental organization", reflecting the intended usage of the domain.
Ivan Pope … a founding director of Nominet UK, said: 'My immediate response is that the carpetbaggers are among us. I suppose it's inevitable. It is an issue that has been raised before.' But Pope is against the plan. 'It would be dangerous to do this ...'
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: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link){{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)Senior management also booted off board in extraordinary vote … a single resolution to remove all five passed narrowly [PDF] with 52.7 per cent of the vote on a turnout of 53 per cent of members. The board members 'have left the board with immediate effect,' Nominet said in a statement. Current non-executive director Rob Binns will serve as acting chair.
We, the undersigned, being Founders of Nominet UK, hereby pledge our commitment to support Sir Michael Lyons and Axel Pawlik if they are appointed to the board of Nominet UK, in whatever way we reasonably can with matters relating to the future of Nominet.
we have appointed CIO Adam Leach and Company Secretary Rory Kelly to the Board. ... offered Axel [Pawlik] a role as an advisor to the Board ... Axel has decided to decline this offer ... named Eleanor Bradley to the role of interim CEO for approximately 6 months ... we will draw on reserves for approximately £20 million for major investment in our technical registry infrastructure. ... We are acutely aware that the closure of the member forum was a flashpoint. ... search for a new head of member engagement
Date of Appointment: [2021-03-22]
Date of Appointment: [2021-03-22]
publishing a full list of members and their associated voting rights on a routine basis throughout the year.
'After much careful consideration, the board has decided not to invite Sir Michael to be acting chair,' said Nominet's acting chairman Rob Binns
Nominet has retained Russell Reynolds Associates to advise on this appointment. ... appointment will initially be for a three-year term. ... closing date ... 29 April 2021
Nominet's board achieved a confidence rating of just 1.3 out of 10 in Public Benefit's survey of its supporters, who include nearly 500 Nominet members, 74 per cent of UK top 50 members and 31 per cent of the voting rights.
After Nominet rejected Pawlik, PublicBenefit.uk surveyed its supporters about the possibility of a second EGM, and 88 per cent of them supported it, with the board given a 2.4 out of 10 confidence rating. When Sir Michael was then also rejected, attitudes hardened and 96.62 per cent of them decided it was necessary to remove the rest of the board. ... Nominet has repeatedly failed to even respond to questions from The Register ... as well as appointing a removed board member as interim CEO
'I start my term as Chairman committed to: controlling costs (including executive pay); delivering value to Members; restoring Nominet's reputation for great Public Benefit work at scale and; communicating transparently with members about the future direction of Nominet. Nominet is a public benefit company, and that must be our North Star. The work we do and the way we use the proceeds of that work, must align. Trust must be rebuilt and the next phase of change will address the fundamentals that will shape the company's future.'
Updated to add: The results of five resolutions reappointing Nominet's chair, two directors and auditors are now in. They all passed almost unanimously (94‒99 per cent approval) with the exception of the reappointment of Stephen Page, which was opposed by the Public Benefit campaign. Page squeaked in, with just 51.4 per cent of Nominet members approving his reappointment and 48.6 per cent opposing it.
Resolution 5 [Stephen Page] ... For: [weighted votes:] 1,200,297; [head count votes:] 207; [% of valid votes:] 51.41%. Against: [weighted votes:] 1,134,289; [head count votes:] 307; [% of valid votes:] 48.59%.