.Music domains were first announced in 2003. After they were launched, several companies competed for their control, believing that they would be important in promoting music. Since 2019 they are from a Cyprus company called DotMusic, which got them in 2019 after fighting with companies like Google or Amazon for them. its history has followed a long and arduous path.
In 2011, the RIAA sent a letter to ICANN in which it stated that it was very concerned about the use that could be made of .music domains in the world of pircy . However, 10 years later the situation is totally different, and in fact practically the opposite, since the use of these domains for pircy is going to be very complicated.
Detailed control of who accesses these domains
DotMusic has announced, after 10 years of disputes, that it has signed an agreement with ICANN to operate .music domains, ending so many years of discussions. In doing so, they plan to use the domains to create an “international music community with verified addresses that ensure security, authenticity, and a safe haven for streaming music consumption worldwide.
For this, the domains will only be given to legitimate members of the music community. The domains that are delivered are controlled by those large companies, which form the Policy Advisory Board or also called Trusted Senders , with entities such as the IFPI, RIAA, National Music Publishers Association (NMPA) and The American Association of Independent Music (A2IM) , among other.
When a company requests one of these domains, it will have to go through a validation process that requires mobile and email to activate the two-step verification, in addition to communicating the name of the artists or associated brands that will appear in the domain.
If they receive complaints, the domain will be blocked
One of the uses that the RIAA feared most of these domains is that they were used to mirror pirted websites. For this reason, they have implemented a mechanism by which, if the domain receives at least 10,000 claims for copyright infringement , the domain will become blocked and will not be accessible. In addition, not only will the content that violates the claimed URL have to be removed, but the content itself will have to be removed from the entire domain.
To all this is added that any website that allows free access to legal music, directly or indirectly, that is owned by a third party, will have to publish the full name of its operator, telephone number and email address on the web. If they don’t, they will be suspended immediately. Finally, if DotMusic receives a complaint from any member of the Trusted Senders, the domain will be immediately suspended until the dispute is resolved.
Therefore, it seems that DotMusic is going to ensure that pircy is kept far away from these domains, where a domain like ” download.music ” could have caused a lot of damage. Thus, this type of pircy website will have to continue resorting to more traditional domains.