Date: Aug 31, 2018 Source: The Daily Star Committees agree on a law for ‘.lb’ domain name BEIRUT: The joint parliamentary committees Thursday agreed on a law that would regulate the country’s domain name and introduce a new domain level, during a session held at Parliament. “The law, titled Law 79, would allow an entity to regulate the use of the Lebanese domain name. ... It would also allow Lebanon to gain a top level domain name: ‘.lb,’” caretaker Minister of State for Administrative Development Inaya Ezzeddine told The Daily Star. “The chosen entity” that regulates the domain can either be the government, a private company or an NGO. The committees had agreed upon an electronic transactions and personal data draft law during a session a month prior, but fell short of approving the article that would allow Lebanon to gain an official country domain name. The American University of Beirut currently operates the website where people can register their websites in Lebanon. The law would create a one-stop national registry. There was some debate about what entity would operate the registry, Ezzeddine said. A private company has already accredited the official Lebanese domain name, “so the government doesn’t mind if another private company does the same.” She said that there were two sides to the debate, with some calling on the government to be the sole regulator, while others preferred it in the hands of a private company. In the end, “we decided to grant a private-public company the operation – keeping it mixed so we [the government] are still included and can help with regulation,” Ezzeddine said, comparing the method to the national phone registry. Afterward, the company would gain accreditation from the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers. Websites can currently be registered using one of five domains: “.com.lb,” for commercial entities, “.gov.lb” for government entities, “.edu.lb” for educational institutions, “.org.lb” for organizations and “.net.lb” for internet service providers. If the new law is ratified, and ICANN accreditation obtained, the option for just the two-letter country code “.lb” would be added. Individuals and organizations can apply to register the new domain name instead of subcategory domains, but there are no further specifications yet on requirements or restrictions for doing so.