.um

Infobox Top level domain
name=.um
background=#f0fff0


introduced=1997
type=Country code top-level domain
status=Changed to unassigned by ICANN action in 2007, deleted from root zone as of 20 April 2008
registry=United States Minor Outlying Islands Registry
sponsor=Was University of Southern California Information Sciences Institute
intendeduse=Entities connected with United States Minor Outlying Islands
actualuse=Was open for experimental use until 20 April 2008
restrictions=Registrations not possible, domain not in root
structure=No longer in root
document=
disputepolicy=
website=Formerly [http://www.nic.um/ WWW .NIC .um] |

.um is the Internet country code top-level domain for the United States Minor Outlying Islands. It was administered by the United States Minor Outlying Islands Registry. Until late 2006 USMIR was housed at the University of Southern California Information Sciences Institute, which was the original administrator of .us prior to NeuStar absorbing that role.

In January 2007, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers reportedly dropped the .um domain from the master list of domain names [ [http://www.icann.org/minutes/minutes-17jan07.htm icann.org minutes] ] in response to the domain's being unused and the desire of the University of Southern California Information Sciences Institute to divest itself of responsibility for the domain. [cite news | first = Anick | last = Jesdanun | title = Unused Domain Name for U.S. Isles Gone | url = http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16788293/ | publisher = MSNBC (reprint from the Associated Press) | date = 2007-01-24 | accessdate = 2007-03-07] . In November 2007 at the registry website of "www.nic.um" a message stated "Registration is CLOSED at this time. We are only accepting Registrar Accounts." Links to a brief description of each of the individual American islands were also given. In December 2007, registration was opened on an experimental basis with an "Annual Account Maintenance" fee of $1,200 and a $30 annual domain registration.

Since the University of Southern California Information Sciences Institute divested itself of this registry, in late 2006, EP.NET hosted USMIR and continued to administer it. According to the www.nic.um site at that time, the TLD was no longer affiliated with the University of Southern California's Information Sciences Institute and had spun off the venture into an independent company, USMIR, which has the same contact information as that of the limited liability company EP.net. Accessing the website without the "www" subdomain returned a copy of the main site for "EP.net".

Some .um websites, like 'hotel.um' and 'co.um' sprung up after the TLD opened, however as of April 20, 2008, the .um domain has been removed from the root zone, thus these domains are inaccessible now. It appears ICANN finally took the action of removing .um from the root since the University of Southern California Information Sciences Institute requested this. Whether USMIR will refund domain owners because of this is not known. According to the [http://www.iana.org/reports/2007/um-report-10jan2007.html revocation report] on the IANA website, the U.S. DOC has approved the removal and has also instructed ICANN not to reassign the domain without prior approval from the U.S. DOC. Hence it appears USMIR was not authorised to manage the domain after USC/ISI disposed of it, and to reinstate this domain USMIR would have to liaise with the U.S. DOC for proper approval.

References

External links

* [http://www.iana.org/root-whois/um.htm IANA .um whois information] (as of April 21st 2008 ICANN has updated this to reflect the removal from the root zone).
* [http://www.iana.org/reports/2007/um-report-10jan2007.html IANA .um Revocation report]