Thanks for the feedback and insight about CIRA.

Clearly, I got confused about horizonkempo.com as it has nothing to do with the .ca system. It was the connection (or apparent connection) between CIRA and Domain Registry of Canada that I was focused on.

Mark

There are a couple of different concerns you mention in your post that I will take the opportunity to clarify:

1. What is CIRA? – The Canadian Internet Registration Authority (CIRA) is a not-for profit, member-driven organization that is responsible for administering the Registration of dot-ca domain names and maintaining the network infrastructure to support them (namely the authoritative dot-ca DNS). CIRA’s authority is delegated by the Canadian Government and ICANN.

2. ‘Bureaucracy’ – unlike most other domain names, such as dot-com (.com) or dot-net (.net) that are open to registration by anyone, Canada’s dot-ca domain names can only be registered by legitimate Canadian interests. This ensures that dot-ca domains remain available to, and representative of, Canada’s Internet community. We have established Canadian Presence Requirements (e.g. that you are a Canadian citizen, corporation, or organization) as part of the registration process to enforce this. The presence requirements do make the registration process a little longer and requires a little more contact information, but in return you stand a much better chance of finding a good domain name.

3. Confirmation Emails – Again, in this case, dot-ca domain names operate a little differently. In the dot-com world, as you pointed out, the process of registering a domain name is very quick. The reason for this is that during registration you are merely establishing a business relationship with the Registrar of your choice, e.g. namescheap.com. There is no agreement anywhere that states that you have rights to use that name other than the one between you and the Registrar, in effect making you beholden to them. In the dot-ca model, you as a Registrant have a direct relationship with your domain name and an agreement with CIRA to back it up: if you end up in a dispute with your Registrar you can easily request to transfer your domain name elsewhere; if your Registrar goes belly up your domain is still safe. Consider the limbo that thousands of Registerfly.com dot-com registrants found themselves in after they went bankrupt and decide which model is better for the customer.

4. Domain Registry of Canada (DROC) Letters – I’m a little confused on this issue as the domain you reference, horizonkempo.com, is a dot-com domain name. CIRA has nothing to do with dot-com domain names. In any case, DROC is not a CIRA Certified Registrar and as their questionable solicitation letters do not affect dot-ca Registrants so there is little we can do to prevent their business practices other than to warn registrants to be prudent when presented with such tactics. My suspicion is that DROC harvested contact information that is available publicly in the dot-com WHOIS database – as to why your name appears as the contact for horizonkempo.com I can’t hazard to guess. Note that the dot-ca WHOIS will be changing soon to prevent the publication of this type of information.

We are aware of the fact that registering a dot-ca does require a little more effort than a dot-com, but hopefully I have explained why these additional steps exist and how they ultimately benefit dot-ca domain name holders. We are constantly working to streamline and simplify the process – for example, we recently rewrote the confirmation email so it was clearer and easier to understand. Additional improvements to our processes are also being worked on at this time.

David Hicks
Director of Marketing and Communications
Canadian Internet Registration Authority - (CIRA)

I can prove this, because I use a simple trick to track my mailing addresses — I add an identifier to the third line. So for my WHOIS entry, it says “whois”. For a subscription to Netflix, it might say “ntflx”.

I got spam from DRoC with the tell-tale WHOIS. I emailed CIRA about this, and they were interestd, but unfortunately I moved away from Canada around the same time and never kept up with the case.

Thanks for the info. I’ll enable my privacy ASAP.

cheers, Mark

Those letters are indeed annoying and cause a lot of grief both for people like you and me, and the companies that have to deal with the results of domain owners falling victim to that tactic.

In the case of .ca, there’s not much you can do right now. On .com (and others) you can use WHOIS Privacy to protect yourself. CIRA has been working on WHOIS Privacy implementation for years now, and finally in March of this year it’s supposed to happen.

When it does, make sure your Registrar offers it, and make sure you enable privacy for all your .ca domains.

James.