| Introduced | 1987 |
|---|---|
| TLD type | Country code top-level domain |
| Status | Active |
| Registry | NZ Registry Services |
| Sponsor | InternetNZ |
| Intended use | Entities connected with New Zealand |
| Actual use | Popular in New Zealand |
| Registration restrictions | No restrictions under most second-level names; a few are "moderated" meaning that eligibility is checked before registration is granted |
| Structure | Names are registered at third level within generic second-level categories |
| Dispute policies | Dispute and Complaint Process |
| Website | NZ Registry Services Domain Name Commission |
.nz is the Internet country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for New Zealand. It is administered by InternetNZ through its subsidiary, NZ Registry Services, with oversight and dispute resolution handled by the Domain Name Commission Ltd. Registrations are processed via authorised registrars. As of March 2011 there were 433,183 registered .nz domains.[1]
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As with many long-standing domain registries the registry was maintained informally for some time. The first formally recognised administrative organisation was the University of Waikato until the responsibility was delegated to InternetNZ when it was formed in 1995.[2]
Prior to the current structure, the registry operator of .nz was Domainz. Historically, Domainz was a subsidiary of InternetNZ which also operated as a registrar and vendor of other add-on services such as DNS. This combination of a natural monopoly (the registry activities) and vertical integration (the registrar and other services) was seen by some as restricting competition[2] so InternetNZ moved to separate the provision of registry services into a separate organisation with strong oversight. The final part of this transition process was the sale of Domainz to Melbourne IT[3] in August 2003.
From 1 April 2008 the "Office of the Domain Name Commissioner" (several employees of InternetNZ, including the Domain Name Commissioner herself) became the "Domain Name Commission Limited", a subsidiary company of InternetNZ. [4]
As is the case with most other English-speaking countries apart from the USA, Canada and Ireland, there are a number of second-level domains that identify whether the user is a company, a non-commercial organisation, government body or other classification.
Unlike many other English-speaking countries, New Zealand uses 'govt' instead of 'gov' for government bodies, hence the second-level domain 'govt.nz'. There are also sub-level domains unique to New Zealand, such as 'iwi.nz' and the broader 'maori.nz', for Māori iwi and other organisations respectively, and 'geek.nz' for 'geeks' .
The following second-level domains are in use with their official descriptions.
The Domain archie.nz also existed for an Archie search engine Server operated by the University of Waikato until the mid 1990s.
Since only some of the domains are moderated, it is possible to register outside of the area intended.
The .nz registry uses open source software, which is periodically published on SourceForge. The protocol used by this software has non-repudiation built in to it using PGP, and unlike ".com" there is no concept of "locking" domains - transferring a domain requires only knowledge of a secret called a UDAI key which business rules dictate is sent to registrants during registration (and must be re-issued on demand at no cost). This prevents Domain hijacking. The protocol was contemporary with EPP, and due to these extra design features is now being ratified as an internet RFC.[5]
On 22 July 2010, the Domain Name Commission announced that .nz domain names with macron vowels (ā, ē, ī, ō and ū) would be available from the following week to allow Māori language words to be correctly represented in domain names.[6]