At 12:19 AM -0300 30/7/09, Carlos Afonso wrote: >Hi Norbert, it seems not to be the worldwide ngo community, but the US >ngo community. Even the concept of "charities" varies widely from >country to country, depending on quite different local laws. This seems >to be a TLD for the 501(c) organizations in the USA and this is it. We, >in the planet outside of those US boundaries, should not bother about >it, I guess. Yeah, that was sort of my concern. An NGO is not the same as a charity in most jurisdictions. A .ngo gTLD 'for charities only' would not only be of no use to most of the NGOs that I am involved in, but would be mildly annoying. (the requirements for 'tax deductible gift recipient' status (ie an official charity) in Australia are much more stringent than those for a US 501 (c), most NGOs are non-profit organisations, but that isn't the same thing as a charity at all) Seems to be a case where a gTLD is being proposed for a US-centric purpose that should really be served by something under the .us ccTLD, partly as a result of laissez-faire management of the appropriate gTLD. FWIW, .org.au is restricted to non-profits and charities. Cheers David