.meow

Q4.2-1 - Provide the applying entity’s self-certification document, signed by the CEO, President, CFO and/or equivalent officer of the applying entity. If financial statements are provided by a Qualified Parent Entity (QPE), the CEO, President, CFO, and/or equivalent officer of the QPE must co-sign the certification document. The self-certification document must represent and warrant: SC4.2-1.1 - The applying entity and/or a QPE will fund the startup and long-term operation of all applied-for gTLD strings and (if applicable) currently operated gTLDs of a QPE. SC4.2-1.2 - The applying entity or QPE has at a minimum of US$50,000 plus 25% of the application base fee for each applied-for gTLD string in Cash and Cash Equivalents on the balance sheet of the provided financial statements, up to a maximum of US$300,000, designated to support the startup and operation of all of the applying entity’s applied-for gTLD strings. SC4.2-1.3 - The applying entity and/or its officers are bound by law in its jurisdiction to represent financial statements accurately and the applying entity is in good standing in that jurisdiction.

Réponse fournie sous forme de document. L'ICANN ne publie pas les pièces jointes.

Q5.1-1 - Provide the applying entity’s self-certification document, signed by the CEO, President, CFO and/or equivalent officer of the applying entity. The self-certification document must represent and warrant: SC5.1-1.1 - The applying entity will appropriately protect confidentiality of data and prevent unauthorized access to data and services. SC5.1-1.2 - The applying entity will maintain a mature, appropriately funded and staffed security program, following a recognized, modern security framework based on risk management (such as the ISO27000 series, COBIT, HITRUST CSF, legally required security frameworks, or equivalent). The security program must be in place prior to delegation, and exist through at least the period of the registry agreement. SC5.1-1.3 - The applying entity is aware of and has designed its systems and business to comply with the relevant privacy and security regulations for all countries in which it operates.

Réponse fournie sous forme de document. L'ICANN ne publie pas les pièces jointes.

Q5.2-1 - Provide the applying entity’s self-certification document, signed by the CEO, President, CFO and/or equivalent officer of the applying entity. The self-certification document must represent and warrant: SC5.2-1.1 - The applying entity will, no later than delegation of the Top Level Domain (TLD), establish a dedicated abuse point of contact responsible for addressing matters requiring expedited attention and providing a timely response to abuse complaints concerning any name registered in the TLD. SC5.2-1.2 - The applying entity will, no later than delegation of the TLD, establish, publish, and provide to ICANN the location of a mechanism for members of the public to submit reports of abuse in accordance with the current obligations of the Base RA and any Consensus Policies. SC5.2-1.3 - The applying entity has developed proposed measures for removal of orphan glue records for names removed from the zone when provided with evidence in written form that the glue is present in connection with malicious conduct (see Specification 6). SC5.2-1.4 - The applying entity has or will have at time of delegation, established policies for handling complaints regarding abuse. Such policies are to be maintained and posted publicly so that anyone can review the policies via the Internet and any other means deemed appropriate by the applying entity. The applying entity’s policies at a minimum should contain appropriate confirmation of the receipt of the abuse report, the process of review of the report, and actions that will be taken if the applying entity confirms the report is legitimate. SC5.2-1.5 - The applying entity understands that DNS Abuse is Phishing, Malware, Botnets, Pharming and Spam (when used to deliver other forms of DNS Abuse). The applying entity understands and is prepared to contribute to the mitigation or disruption of DNS Abuse in domains in the TLD zone. SC5.2-1.6 - The applying entity’s abuse response capabilities are resourced appropriately to ensure a timely and adequate investigation and response to reports of DNS Abuse. This includes capabilities to receive and evaluate evidence of DNS Abuse in reports, and to take action to stop or disrupt the DNS Abuse. SC5.2-1.7 - The applying entity is prepared to conduct periodic scans of its zone to identify if domains are being used to perpetrate DNS Abuse, and to maintain statistical reports of the scans, the findings, and actions taken.

Réponse fournie sous forme de document. L'ICANN ne publie pas les pièces jointes.

Script of String

Latin

As per Section 3(d) of Specification 11 of the Base Registry Agreement, a registry operator of a “generic string” may not impose eligibility criteria for registering names in the TLD that limit registrations exclusively to a single person or entity and/or that person’s or entity’s “Affiliates” (as defined in Section 2.9(c) of the Registry Agreement). “Generic String” means a string consisting of a word or term that denominates or describes a general class of goods, services, groups, organizations or things, as opposed to distinguishing a specific brand of goods, services, groups, organizations or things from those of others. Confirm that the applied-for string is not a “generic string” in which the applying entity intends to limit registrations exclusively to a single person or entity.

true

If the applying entity wishes to provide any additional information or supporting materials that the applying entity believes may be of interest to the public or relevant to the application, please include them here.

We want to expand briefly on the "how" behind the mission described in our response to Q133.

We chose to apply as a generic TLD rather than a community TLD deliberately. .meow's mission centres queer communities, but we did not want registration eligibility gatekept by identity criteria nor do we claim to represent the whole of the queer community. The internet has, at its best, been genuinely transformative for queer people, connecting individuals to communities and perspectives they would never have encountered locally, and that transformation happened through openness, not restriction. We want .meow to work the same way: built for and accountable to queer communities, but open to anyone who shares its values which is why we have elected for having no restrictions on registration.

Our pricing structure, premium domain tiers, and naming policies were developed through direct conversations with the people we intend to serve, in hackerspaces, queer community spaces, and through our crowdfunding backers. That backer base turned out to be a useful cross-section in its own right, skewing technically literate given who founded the project, but also including many people who backed the campaign purely for its charitable aim rather than out of any pre-exisitng interest in domain names. That mix has kept us honest about designing for people who are new to domain ownership, not just for the technically fluent.

Registry service provider selection was one place this mission showed up concretely. We selected the CORE Association as our RSP in part because their commitment to universal acceptance aligns with our own values around multilingual and multi-script domain support. IDN support is a priority for us because a meaningful share of the queer community we hope to reach is outside the anglophone, Latin-script internet, and a registry that only works in English and ASCII is not actually open to the people it claims to serve. We see this as a small but concrete way of championing universal acceptance rather than treating it as a checkbox.

We have also paid close attention to the frustration many communitiy members feel toward domain squatting and speculative registration. Our pricing model and naming policies are deliberately structured to make .meow unappealing to scalpers, prioritising availability for genuine registrants over speculative resale value. Privacy and security considerations run through the same thinking: as a registry serving folks for whom online privacy carries real personal risk, we have treated privacy and security as design constraints from the outset and not a checkbox exercise to completed after the fact.

As a non-profit association, dotMeow's structure ties revenue directly to mission delivery rather than shareholder return, and we believe that accountability is itself a resilience mechanism: registrants who understand what their fees support have less reason to churn, and a registry answerable to its community has a durable reason to keep listening to it.

A quieter goal behind .meow is pushing back against the siloing of social platforms, which has narrowed a lot of the cross-community contact that made the earlier internet valuable for queer people specifically. We would like .meow to be a small counterweight to that: a space that encourages people to build things of their own, on infrastructure that is actually theirs, rather than renting attention on someone else's platform. As part of this, we intend to produce accessible public resources on how the DNS and ICANN's processes work, and to encourage broader public engagement with internet governance among people who currently have little visibility into it. Our remit as a registry operator is technical, but we see informed public engagement with the systems that underpin the internet as a natural extension of what we are building here.

By submitting this Application, the applying entity confirms that it is submitting this Application with a good faith (“bona fide”) intent to operate the gTLD for which it has applied, and that the applying entity has read and understands the provisions of Section 5.2.3.1 Prohibited Communications and Activities of the Applicant Guidebook regarding the New gTLD Program rules prohibiting certain communications and activities to prevent parties from privately resolving string contention among themselves.

true

By submitting this Application, the applying entity confirms that it has read and understands the provisions of Section 5.2.3.1 Prohibited Communications and Activities of the Applicant Guidebook regarding the New gTLD Program rules prohibiting certain communications and activities to prevent parties from privately resolving string contention among themselves.

true