.kr

.kr

Introduced	21175
TLD	Country code top-level domain
Status	Active
Registry	Kiravia Online
Sponsor	Kiravian Internet Organisation
Intended use	Entities related to the Kiravian Federacy
Actual use	Popular in Kiravia and for transnational Coscivian web media, showing some decline since the introduction of internationalised TLDs.
Registration restrictions	Varying restrictions for registration under certain second-level domains. Presence requirement liberalised in recent years.
Structure	Registration open at the third level. Public registration petitions at the second level subject to board review.
Dispute policies	None
Website	www.registrar.kr

.kr is the internet top-level domain associated with the Kiravian Federacy. It is administered by the organisation Kiravia Online and is an important fixture of internet use in Kiravia.

In speech, Coscivian-speakers pronounce the domain suffix as dótkaro, ka and ro being the Coscivian names for the Latin letters 'k' and 'r', the latter having been conflated with the Greek rho. Dótkaro is often declined as if it were a third-declension noun (e.g. "the owners of greaterixnay.kr" would be émurya greaterixnay-dótkarosk), but this is considered poor form in written language.

History

The .kr domain was launched in 21175 by the Kiravian Internet Organisation (at that time a government agency under the Signals Executive) to promote a Kiravian presence on the World Wide Web and secure the benefits of internet use for Kiravian economic development. The domain is an acronym of the Federacy's official short-form name in Kiravic, Kiravix Rektārka. The domain enjoyed steady increases in use as the Kiravian information technology sector began to grow and government-driven projects promoted domestic internet use, but the Kirosocialist government's strict regulations and a bureaucratic registration process stymied growth by pushing Kiravian webmasters toward foreign or generic domains.

After the end of Kirosocialism in 21185, the Kiravian Internet Organisation was restructured as a quasi-governmental organisation, and the Kiravia Online registry was privatised as a nonprofit corporation. Simplification of the registration process, coupled with the explosive growth in the Kiravian tech sector and internet use by Kiravians spurred a deluge of new registrations.

With the 21205 introduction of the internationalised ccTLD .⌬⌬ in the Coscivian script, Kiravia Online announced that it would concentrate its efforts on promotion and development of .⌬⌬ and other Coscivian-script domains and gradually contracting most public-facing services for .kr out to private companies.

Registration

Registration of new domains at the third level is accomplished by submission of a request to Registrar.kr, a project of Kiravia Online. Most requests are submitted online, though the organisation receives a handful of requests by mail each year. In order to register a domain directly at the second level, the applicant must submit a written petition to Kiravia Online, where it is subject to review by a Board of Revisions based on several criteria, principally the applicant entity's "capacity for productive long-term occupancy of the domain", its degree of physical presence in Kiravia, and its "forseeable contributions to the advancement of Kiravian networked computing". It is understood that the third criterion is fulfilled by a sizeable donation to Kiravia Online in the applicant's name. Proposals for new categorical second-level domains are submitted by the Kiravian Internet Organisation.

Domains under .kr must consist of Latin letters, Arabic numerals, and basic Latin punctuation. Latin letters and diacritics used in the standard Romanisation of Kiravic (e.g. á, þ, ē, ğ, æ) or in Lusonic or Kiravian Gaelic are included. Ordinary domain names must be between 3 and 29 characters in length, though two-character and 30-33 character names may be granted by special petition.

Restrictions

Under the original registration policy of 21175, .kr domains are available to:

• Citizens and other nationals of the Kiravian Federacy
• Corporations, associations, and other entities incorporated or legally operating in the Federacy

In 21187 this policy was *de facto* extended to include resident foreigners and guest workers, as tax identification numbers became accepted as proof of nationality.

In 21190, the policy was loosened to allow registrations by

• Entities with a bona fide Kiravian focus or interest
• Foreign-nexus organisations and services with a with significant content in Coscivian or Coscivian-script languages.

In 21197, in order to promote use, registration requirements were liberalised to allow for more foreign registrations, with an assurance that the 21190 rules would be reïnstated and foreign registrations capped if they became "sufficiently numerous to dilute the Kiravian ethos of the domain." However, in 21206, Kiravia Online announced that enforcement of all requirements for open-registration domains would be suspended indefinitely as most registration services would now be handled by outside contractors.

Accredited Domains

In 21187 the Industrial & Commercial Executive published a white paper on obstacles to the expansion of commercial activity on the internet that identified low levels of trust among Kiravian consumers in paid online services and digital advertising, linked to concerns about fraud, payment security, and lack of regulation. In response, the Kiravian Internet Organisation recommended the nesting of second-level "accredited domains" under .kr, registration under which would be restricted to entities able to document their offline legitimacy and maintain a good record of regulatory compliance. Based on this recommendation, Kiravia Online introduced several categorical subdomains intended for use by certain business sectors (e.g. financial services, healthcare), licensed professions, and verified non-profit institutions.

According to the KIO, the accredited domain programme was successful in increasing consumer confidence and paving the way for the increased internet use and online commerce. Accredited domains remain desirable and highly sought after. However, a 21199 audit by the federal Consumer Protection Bureau found that although enforcement of registration policies under certain subdomains was sufficiently rigorous, applications under many other domains were subject to inconsistent and often cursory verification. The CPB probe found that many applications lodged with fake documentation were granted, and that in a handful of cases Kiravia Online accepted applications with clearly incomplete or bogus documents (e.g. blank PDFs or scanned grocery coupons instead of dentistry diplomas).

Structure

Accredited Subdomains

• ĀRK.KR - Federal government entities (fr. ārka, "government")
• ÁLD.KR - Attorneys and legal services (fr. álda, "law")
• COOP.KR - Cooperatives
• HÉR.KR - Military use (fr. hérsan, "military")
• IMB.KR - Real estate
• ISK.KR - Non-profit organisations (fr. iskorvin, "organisation")
• IŚN.KR - Urom entities (fr. Iśnabirem)

• .pst.kr - Email services (fr. pistor, "the act of sending")
• .ion.kr - Island-related sites (fr. ion, "island")

Open subdomains

• ML.KR - Commercial entities (fr. malarn, "trade"), preferred by domestic companies.
• CO.KR - Commercial entities, preferred by foreign companies.

Special subdomains

• .acps.kr - For use by the Allied Coalition for Popular Sovereignty and its member states without ccTLDs of their own.
• .ak.kr - Entities located in Great Kirav (fr. Ambrix Kiravia)
• .wiki.kr - Wikis

Federal subjects

Every federal subject of the Kiravian Federacy is granted a three-letter .kr second-level domain identical to its postal abbreviation, (e.g. .kkk.kr for Koskenkorva, .niy.kr for Niyaska). These domains are utilised mostly by government agencies of the federal subjects, municipal governments, and civil society groups with strong local foci.

Domain Hacks

Since the 21197 liberalisation, .kr has enjoyed a great deal of use for domain hacks, such as the scripting community ha.kr, the Islamic forum abuba.kr, and the Hekuvian-based paparazzi outlet stal.kr. The domain motherfu.kr was purchased by Kiravian venture capitalist Varus Ēsorvitan and auctioned for ◊670,000 to benefit an œsophageal cancer research fund.

Significant .kr Websites

• spacebar.kr - The largest social network site in the Coscivian world, serving billions of users annually.
• wiretap.kr - Podcast and webradio hub.
• coscivsquat.kr - A humour site featuring amusing photographs of working-class Kiravian culture, popular across Ixnay.
• kenþrysta.kr - Wiki-based encyclopædia in High Coscivian, considered an information-age successor to the Great Iatic Encyclopædias.
• fidxeûyren.kr - Online competition platform for fidxen and other traditional Coscivian boardgames.
• ardidan.kr - Translated as Placetalk. Originally launched as an aggregator of open-source statistics and news on particular localities for the real estate market, the site's discussion forum took on a life of its own, and is now the third-largest on the Coscivian web by post volume and fifth-largest by usership, covering any and all topics.
• kirośetantra.kr - Leading newssite for Kiravian football, sampakuv, shinty, wife-carrying, beer-pong, and other Kiravian sports.
• é-ēln.kr - Translated as "Is Potato!", a site for sharing photographs of prized potatoes, potato-based recipes, and the rich Kiravian genre of potato-related humour.
• pribdodd.kr - Official website of the Church of Dodd.
• groundcloud.co.kr - English-language online coffee vendor with an Ixnay-wide market.