General

The Public Root FCFS (First Come First Served) TLD (Top Level Domain) Guidelines ensure that all TLD labels listed in the INS (Inclusive Name Space) and Public Root are processed in a fair and non-discriminatory fashion and that all TLD holders, owners or operators are treated equally.

FCFS is a general service policy of the Public Root where by TLDs are recognized as authoritative based on the order that they are created, without other biases or preferences. The TLD label that is created first is recognized as the recommended version for publication in the Public Root and INS. The principle of a queue processing technique for TLD labels eliminates conflicting demands and duplication of labels in the Public Root and INS.

Under FCFS Guidelines the same rules apply to all. The Public Root shall not apply standards, policies, procedures or practices arbitrarily, unjustifiably, or inequitably and shall not single out TLD holders, owners or operators for disparate treatment unless justified by substantial and reasonable cause.

A TLD label must not infringe the existing legal rights of others that are recognized or enforceable under generally accepted and internationally recognized principles of law.

All new and existing TLDs shall be approved for inclusion in all participating FCFS Root Zones. Exceptions to this rule are the inclusion of TLDs that might cause technical, legal, practical, or any other conflict. A TLD label must not cause any technical instability in the INS or Public Root DNS (Domain Name System).

First Come First Served (FCFS) TLD label delegations ensure the universal resolvability of all TLD data elements in the Public Root and INS. Universal resolvability means a user will get the same answer to the same query from any computer or device on the global Internet that subscribes to the INS, FCFS or Public Root Internet.

These guidelines are designed so that delegations eliminate TLD conflicts, duplication or collissions. The TapRoot Guidelines of the Top Level Domain Association (TLDA) are used by FCFS to resolve any conflicts in the delegation process.

The FCFS specifications and rules on the construction of a TLD label attempt to be as general as possible. All TLD delegations shall adhere to the guidelines found in RFC 1591 at the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF). TLD labels shall follow the ARPAnet rules for constructing a host name as amended by Section 2.1 of RFC 1123.

A TLD shall be constructed as a combination of alphanumeric characters, including the "-" hyphen symbol. TLD labels shall start and end with a letter or digit, and have as interior characters only letters, digits, and hyphens. At this time it is recommended that TLD labels be 28 characters or less.

While upper and lower case letters are allowed in TLDs no significance is attached to the case. Two labels with the same spelling but different case shall be treated as being identical or equal.

Two-character TLDs shall not be delegated. Two letter labels are reserved as country code identifiers under ISO 3166. The FCFS guidelines shall adopt the ccTLD delegations of IANA.

The FCFS system can allow for exemptions. These exemptions shall be delegated as experimental TLDs. The experimental TLD MUST first be tested before it is delegated. The experiment MUST be terminated if the continued inclusion of the experimental TLD in the root causes any technical failure.

The FCFS system shall allow for the delegation of experimental numeric TLDs of one character and up to the maximum character length allowed for listings. These TLDs are issued with the understanding that they are experimental and may not work on all operating systems or applications.

Numeric TLDs should behave in accordance with the "gethostbyname () function Syntax Rules for processing an IPv4 Address or Host Name" as published by the Public-Root DNS Operations Working Group.

On the delegation of a TLD the Registrant is recognized as the designated authority and trustee of the TLD. The FCFS system provides for the registration of your authority with the Public Root.

Root Services and Registration Facilities

The Public Root publishes the public root zone file, herein called the ROOT. The ROOT shall be published and made available to Internet subscribers via http, the Hypertext Transfer Protocol, and the DNS (Domain Name System) protocol using AXFR (file transfer). To subscribe to the ROOT please contact info@publicroot.org.