[dns-wg] SLD .gov.* within european countries

Antonio, all,

On Thu, Jun 14, 2018 at 04:03:23PM +0200, Antonio Prado wrote:

> 'the second level domain (SLD) ".gov", when used, identifies only the
> administrations within the EU and the USA (as the first level) central
> government, with the exception of the United Kingdom, and not without
> distinction any central and local public administration including
> educational institutions (for which the SLD ".edu" is used) as is the
> case today in Italy.'

thanks for sharing this background.

Colleagues within CENTR (representing ccTLDs within Europe, but also
beyond as shown below) were kind enough to provide first hand information
for the following list of TLDs:

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BG	In Bulgaria the e-government law says that government agencies should use sub domains of gov.bg
CH	gov.ch is reserved exclusively for Swiss authorities and registered by the Federal Chancellery. However, it is the SLD admin.ch that is used for the websites of Swiss authorities. admin.ch on the other hand is not exclusively reserved for Swiss authorities.
CZ	gov.cz domain is registered for Ministry of the Interior of the Czech Republic and used as the information portal of public administration, as well as the third-level names are created and used by some of public authorities.
DE	has no predefined structure at the second level. gov.de is registered, but unrelated to government.
DK	the registrant of gov.dk is the Danish state, but it does not seem to be in use as such. Most governmental authorities prefer to have their own specific .dk domain name.
EE	The gov.ee is used by Estonian Government but it is not reserved exclusively for them. At .ee we don't reserve any domain names for central government. We have a list of reserved names for the respective local governments - (see regulation here <https://www.internet.ee/domains/special-conditions-for-registering-reserved-domains>).
ES	We have an SLD "gob.es", reserved to Government (central, regional or local) More precisely, art. 10.d of the 2005 National Plan on domain names under ".es" reserves ".gob.es" to "Spanish Public Administrations and the Public Bodies responsible to them, including any branches, agencies and units thereof." See http://www.dominios.es/dominios/sites/dominios/files/normativa_en1.pdf
EU	The "gov.eu" is on the list of reserved name by the EU institutions, and not in use
FI	gov.fi is used by Finnish Government but it is not reserved exclusively for them. At .fi we don't reserve any domain names for central government (or anyone else).
FR	I confirm that .gouv.fr is reserved to the French government. Although it is not clearly established that it is restricted to the "central" government, each registration requires the approval of the Government Information Service.
IE	At .ie, gov.ie is reserved for the Irish Government.  In practice, it appears to be used by 'central' government departments only.
IL	The SLD Gov.il is managed since the 90's by the e-GOV unit at PM office.  Basically, domains under GOV.il are for government bodies only (including parliament, central bank, regulators etc.). Local municipalities can register under muni.il (with 2 exceptions TelAviv.gov.il and Jerusalem.gov. Il for historic reasons).
JP	I hope information about non-EU ccTLD helps a bit: .go.jp is a space strictly for central government.  .lg.jp is a space strictly for local government
LT	gov.lt domain was created in 2004. The use of gov.lt domain is dedicated to the state institutions of the Republic of Lithuania at various levels of central, counties, districts and local authorities administration levels.
LU	gov.lu is registered by the government but is, as far as we can see, not used as to create third-level names
LV	.gov.lv is designated to government and a local government or other public persons established by law. Registrations in this subdomain are handled by the Latvia State Radio and Television Centre (LVRTC) according to Regulation of Cabinet of Ministers "Procedures by which Institutions Place Information on the Internet".
NL	The domain name gov.nl was originally a reserved domain name, but in 2005 we gave our government the opportunity to register the domain name. They did and they seem to use it for a redirect to their main website.  As far as we know, there is no specific applicable law about the use of this domain name and the registrant is contractual free to use the domain name as he pleases.
PL	The .gov.pl is  used by central government and other governmental organisations according to the officially announced list.
PT	In Portugal, domain names under .gov.pt may be registered only by entities which are part of the Government structure of the Portuguese Republic
RO	I confirm that gov.ro and guv.ro are reserved for Romanian government.
SE	Gov.se is registered by the Swedish government and used by them.
SI	gov.si is managed by Ministy for Public Afairs and used by government entities.
SK	gov.sk is managed by Prime Minister's Office and reserved for government institutions with no clear distinction defined anywhere.
UK	The gov.uk is of course used by central government but it is not reserved exclusively for central govt. As you can see Oxford City Council use a gov.uk	<https://www.oxford.gov.uk/>
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Please note that a "gov" SLD (or any equivalent spelling, translation or transliteration)
may or may not be a 'special' SLD as per the policy of the registry and also there is the
orthogonal aspect (usually outside the scope of registry policy) what SLDs are to be
chosen for public/governmental entities.
Clearly, where gov.${cctld} exists, the list provides a variety of rules and practices.
It goes without saying that by explaining their specific situation, nobody is taking any
position regarding the case that initiated this thread.

Regards,
  Peter