# Discuss CIRA Restricted Domains



## MapleDots__ (Jan 9, 2021)

Was looking up the word ideal.ca because it technically has a double meaning

*1.* Ideal

*2.* iDeal

Found out the domain does not resolve and is restricted by CIRA
https://www.webnames.ca/whois?domain=ideal.ca#?currentDomain=ideal.ca


Anyone know why this domain would be restricted?


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## MapleDots__ (Jan 9, 2021)

Another one is joy.ca which was briefly owned by yours truly until CIRA took it away.

I still have joyy.ca but there is a world of difference between those two domains.

Some of the restricted domains just don't make sense.


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## rlm__ (Jan 9, 2021)

yes, because ideal.qc.ca exists.


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## jaydub__ (Jan 9, 2021)

*THUMBSUP* 
I have a .on.ca that I bought on tbr a few years ago that allowed me to reg the .ca


			
				rlm said:
			
		

> yes, because ideal.qc.ca exists.


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## DomainRecap (Jan 9, 2021)

Exactly, it's not restricted like some Geo domains are, the domain just exists in an alternate form. Thought it is weird as ideal.qc.ca seems to be the only one, which would allow the company to register the .CA - or maybe they like the .qc.ca. 

You also need to keep an eye on these, as the CIRA doesn't automatically put them back in the pot if the last one expires. That happened to me with Tanda, and I needed to contact the CIRA to get them to release it to TBR.


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## DomainRecap (Jan 9, 2021)

jaydub said:
			
		

> I have a .on.ca that I bought on tbr a few years ago that allowed me to reg the .ca



I think they stopped doing that around 2010, so you're losing track of time.


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## rlm__ (Jan 9, 2021)

By far the majority of restricted domains are due to one or more provincial extensions still existing.

Some are due to reserved words, CIRA has a bunch of them they hold back for a variety of reasons. Everything from cuss words like F*CK and C*NT to domains like COM, INTERNET, etc, and some LL's that were country codes like MX that CIRA reserved to try and prevent confusion.  There are also some obscure 4th level domains like county.brant.on.ca causing conflicts, preventing registration of county.ca as well.


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## Spex (Jan 9, 2021)

DomainRecap said:
			
		

> Exactly, it's not restricted like some Geo domains are, the domain just exists in an alternate form. Thought it is weird as ideal.qc.ca seems to be the only one, which would allow the company to register the .CA - or maybe they like the .qc.ca.
> 
> You also need to keep an eye on these, as the CIRA doesn't automatically put them back in the pot if the last one expires. That happened to me with Tanda, and I needed to contact the CIRA to get them to release it to TBR.



There's a store in Ottawa that still operates on the third level... https://audioshop.on.ca/

Weird seeing that url on the TV commercials, it's like a direct link to prehistoric times


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## jaydub__ (Jan 9, 2021)

Was 2009 I got it I think...still have them



			
				DomainRecap said:
			
		

> I think they stopped doing that around 2010, so you're losing track of time.


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## Esdiel (Jan 9, 2021)

I actually did some research on this in early 2019 and saved some of what I discovered. 

All of the LLL domains below are restricted. The only one that is no longer restricted (or at least now resolves) is the very last one on the list (iti.ca), but that's the result of iti.qc.ca deciding to switch over to iti.ca... which they just registered in July 2020 (as per whois). Must be nice to be able to wait 20+ years before deciding to register a domain like iti.ca at regular cost:







*ABC.ca* and *THC.ca* are also restricted, due to ABC.nb.ca and THC.on.ca.

Another interesting thing I noticed is that if you whois search any <name>.gc.ca, whether it's tomcruise.gc.ca, porno.gc.ca, z6zx1rz.gc.ca, the whois result will always be the same:


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## Nafti (Jan 9, 2021)

ABC.ca use to be registered but I have no idea what happened to it. I don’t recall it ever being in a TBR. I have an email from 2016 where I inquired about it but I didn’t hear back from them.


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## MapleDots__ (Jan 9, 2021)

Would still like to know why they took joy.ca from me.


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## theinvestor__ (Jan 9, 2021)

MapleDots said:
			
		

> Would still like to know why they took joy.ca from me.



When did you own it? 

Joy.on.ca has been registered since 2000.


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## Esdiel (Jan 9, 2021)

Nafti said:
			
		

> ABC.ca use to be registered but I have no idea what happened to it. I don’t recall it ever being in a TBR. I have an email from 2016 where I inquired about it but I didn’t hear back from them.



They probably let it expire by mistake, or because they decided not to use it. There’s really no point in paying for renewal fees when you’re the only person/entity allowed to register/own it (i.e. it’s restricted).


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## MapleDots__ (Jan 9, 2021)

theinvestor said:
			
		

> When did you own it?



I got it during that boondoggle where they allowed registrations to go through, I got a bunch of others like county etc and I understood why they took them back I just could not figure out why joy.ca.

I guess the joy.on.ca explains it


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## Nafti (Jan 10, 2021)

Esdiel said:
			
		

> They probably let it expire by mistake, or because they decided not to use it.


 Yes, that could be the case but if it is the case, why wasn’t it in the TBR? Or is it because there is already a provincial ABC so CIRA just grabs it?


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## rlm__ (Jan 10, 2021)

Nafti said:
			
		

> ABC.ca use to be registered but I have no idea what happened to it. I don’t recall it ever being in a TBR. I have an email from 2016 where I inquired about it but I didn’t hear back from them.



If abc was registered and then expired, it wouldn't go to TBR because any existing provincial extension would be a conflicting domain.  First rights pass on to the conflicting domain owners rather than it going to TBR.  And if multiple conflicts exist, it can only be registered if all parties agree to allow it.


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## Esdiel (Jan 10, 2021)

MapleDots said:
			
		

> I got it during that boondoggle where they allowed registrations to go through, I got a bunch of others like county etc and I understood why they took them back I just could not figure out why joy.ca.
> 
> I guess the joy.on.ca explains it



I remember when that boondoggle happened lol. I just happened to notice by chance and "bought" the LL domains below... until CIRA clawed them back... lol. And honestly i don't think they were ever in my GD account, as per the second screenshot below, but I did pay for them and had to be refunded:




------




I guess we can add the above LLs to our list of restricted domains. I haven't dug into why they're restricted, but it's obvious for some of them:


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## Esdiel (Mar 14, 2021)

I saw Badger.com sold 300K USD the other day, so I decided to check the whois info for Badger.ca and saw it was a restricted domain: 





I'm trying to figure out why, since "Badger" doesn't seem be registered on any third level (provincial) domain, and there seems to be 0 history of this domain ever being used before.

I did see that Badgers.bc.ca was in use, but that's the plural version and I can't find any policy or regulations that says a plural restricts the singular. 

My best guess at this point is that it's reserved for the town/municipality of Badger in Newfoundland, but they are currently using TownOfBadger.ca, which they registered in 2010. 

Is it possible that Badger in Newfoundland is entitled to Badger.ca and they don't even know it?

The rules pertaining to admissible/restricted domains fall under section 3 of CIRA's "General Registration Rules", for those who are interested: https://www.cira.ca/policy/rules-and-procedures/general-registration-rules


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## rlm__ (Mar 14, 2021)

Esdiel said:
			
		

> Is it possible that Badger in Newfoundland is entitled to Badger.ca and they don't even know it?



Yes, that is most definitely the reason.  Many good names locked up due to the fact that some small municipality has it reserved for them but they aren't using it.

A very interesting one is Cadillac.ca.  For many years it was unreg'd due to being reserved.  Apparently someone at Cadillac eventually figured out why it was reserved, then contacted that town, convinced them to register it, and is probably leasing it from them.

Cadillac, Sask. population 92.
Official website: https://www.saskatchewan-businessdirectory.com/c-village-of-cadillac_47362

LOL

Hopefully they negotiated a good deal for themselves!  You figure the mayor drives around a Caddy??


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## Esdiel (Mar 14, 2021)

Lol...that's hilarious. The whole town probably has a Cadillac given so few people live there. lol.

Does a municipality have the option to give up complete ownership of their restricted domain, if they want? I see it's still in their name... so they must be leasing it like you said:







I'm surprised CIRA wouldn't give municipalities a nudge of some sort (every so often) to let them know it's theirs. Maybe [notify]Nafti[/notify] should get in touch with the town of Badger and become their domain hero.


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## Esdiel (Mar 14, 2021)

Esdiel said:
			
		

> Does a municipality have the option to give up complete ownership of their restricted domain, if they want?




I guess it's an option, with CIRA's consent:



> Municipal Domain Names cannot be transferred to any other party without CIRA’s prior, written consent;




So this means the village of Cadillac is most certainly leasing it, considering they could have sold it if they wanted.


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## Esdiel (Mar 27, 2021)

Jurisprudence.ca, Jugement.ca and Jugements.ca are restricted domains, due to them being taken in the .qc.ca since 2000-2001. 

They're all owned by the same organization and use the domain soquij.qc.ca as their main website, which they've also owned since year 2000. They in fact own many domains (30+) if you look into them, most of which (if not all) are French law-related words. I also came across some other restricted domains because of them, but only mentioned the more interesting ones.

Can't say I'm a fan of their current domain, but they seem to understand domains considering they own so many (for decades now).






....





....


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## domains (Mar 28, 2021)

I think CIRA was doing some tech changes and I bought a couple names that were available, and then taken back.  forget what they were but might have been California towns.


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## FM__ (Apr 1, 2021)

Esdiel said:
			
		

> They're all owned by the same organization and use the domain soquij.qc.ca as their main website



Yep, they are part of the ministry of justice in Quebec.


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## Bob Hawkes__ (Apr 5, 2021)

So as  I understand it there is this rule about place names being restricted from registration (e.g. names of towns, cities etc. in Canada).

What if I register a name EXAMPLE.ca and then some town renames itself to EXAMPLE long after I have registered it, do they take it away?

Bob


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## rlm__ (Apr 5, 2021)

Nope.  I own a few places myself.

In fact myself and another member here knew of a new city that was being incorporated and we weren't sure what exactly the new name was going to be (because it was going to be voted on) so we tried to register and buy up several variations before the vote happened.


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## Esdiel (Aug 14, 2021)

My friend told me how he was in a place called "Tatamagouche" in Nova Scotia the other day. 

Tatamagouche.ca is restricted with no history of ever being registered, and the village has been using villageoftatamagouche.com since 2014. Ain't that a mouthful of a domain? That's 21 letters, and 21 chances of making a typo. Just spelling Tatamagouche alone is tricky enough.. lol

This is most certainly another example where they're entitled to the best domain possible and are completely unaware of it.


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## Eby__ (Aug 15, 2021)

Esdiel said:
			
		

> This is most certainly another example where they're entitled to the best domain possible and are completely unaware of it.



Or is it that they want the .Com and not .CA?? Too bad they didn't want to use tatamagouche.com even after registering it. They also opted not to register villageoftatamagouche.ca.

There seems to be a real dislike for a .Ca by a village in Canada.


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## Esdiel (Aug 16, 2021)

Eby said:
			
		

> Or is it that they want the .Com and not .CA?? Too bad they didn't want to use tatamagouche.com even after registering it. They also opted not to register villageoftatamagouche.ca.
> 
> There seems to be a real dislike for a .Ca by a village in Canada.



Well you're right that they seem to be leaning towards the .com since that's what their running with already, and they did previously own/use tatamagouche.com for a long time but seem to have let that drop sometime in 2010-2011. 

So yep, definitely leaning towards the .com but I imagine they at least looked up tatamagouche.ca on a registrar like GoDaddy when they wanted to rebuild, saw it was "taken"/unavailable because it's restricted, and then moved on to another domain since they didn't know it was theirs to claim. 

Would be crazy not to at least check for it (before choosing to go with their current domain), and even if they did check I would bet they'd have no idea it's reserved for them since there isn't any sort of indication it is... unless they knew to check the whois, read the info carefully, and then dig even further into it.


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## Esdiel (Oct 24, 2021)

I wonder if these guys know the value of their domain yet: http://meta.bc.ca


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## MapleDots__ (Oct 24, 2021)

Can you explain why that domain has value?


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## rlm__ (Oct 24, 2021)

no, don't do it


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## silentg__ (Oct 25, 2021)

MapleDots said:
			
		

> Can you explain why that domain has value?


There's a rumour about Facebook going to rebrand their name to Meta. Meta.com and .org is owned by Facebook. Meta.ca is restricted.


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## MapleDots__ (Oct 25, 2021)

Yes I understand all that, I am just trying to figure out why meta.bc.ca  would have any value.

Technically if you look at it then any short subdomain like meta.dn.ca would have value.

The BC part of the domain makes it worthless to anyone outside of BC.

Again I was just trying to figure out why Esdiel thought the domain had value in case I missed something. I was not trying to instigate anything, it was a sincere question.


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## GeorgeK__ (Oct 25, 2021)

MapleDots said:
			
		

> The BC part of the domain makes it worthless to anyone outside of BC.



Aren't they allowed to upgrade to .ca from .bc.ca?


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## Esdiel (Oct 25, 2021)

GeorgeK said:
			
		

> Aren't they allowed to upgrade to .ca from .bc.ca?



Bingo.


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## MapleDots__ (Oct 25, 2021)

That is assuming they are the only one using it?


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## Esdiel (Oct 25, 2021)

MapleDots said:
			
		

> That is assuming they are the only one using it?



Excellent point.

I had already checked most, but I just double checked all of them (using whois) to be certain and it seems to be the case.


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## MapleDots__ (Oct 25, 2021)

Hehe, if that is the case it might just be a little gold mine.

Looking at the site (and the fact they are still using this type of domain) the webmaster is probably clueless.


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## Esdiel (Oct 25, 2021)

silentg said:
			
		

> Meta.ca is restricted.



This is why I made the comment here under this topic, in case some people are still scratching their head. It's restricted because of meta.bc.ca, and it's theirs to claim if they want it.


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## silentg__ (Oct 28, 2021)

Facebook is now officially known as Meta.


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## Esdiel (Oct 28, 2021)

silentg said:
			
		

> Facebook is now officially known as Meta.



Haven't watched the whole thing... but Zuckerburg published this an hour ago on FB. 

It's an hour and 20 mins long:

[https://www.facebook.com/zuck/video...1635440482473029&notif_t=live_video&ref=notif]


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## silentg__ (Oct 28, 2021)

He touched on Virtual Work rooms, class rooms, parties, meetings....


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## Esdiel (Nov 5, 2021)

I figured it was restricted because it was already registered at a second level, but turns out it's because of the municipality of Alliance in Alberta. They had a population of 154 people in 2016, and are using _*VillageOfAlliance.ca.*_

Although they call themselves a "village" they actually have municipal status too (in case you're wondering). I found this list of municipalities in Alberta to confirm it was indeed a municipality: Population and Dwelling Count Highlight Tables, 2016 Census – Census subdivisions

This is most certainly another example of a municipality having the exclusive right to a great domain and they don't even know it, and if you were to check the other municipalities in that link above you'll find more (although some are top on it).

Alix.ca would another example I came across right away. Restricted because of the municipality of Alix in Alberta, and they are using *VillageOfAlix.ca*:


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## Esdiel (Nov 5, 2021)

There are too many to go through, but this one also caught my eye. They are using *AndrewAB.com* ...


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## Nafti (Nov 5, 2021)

I always find some of these city name restrictions very odd. In one instance you have a town of 154 being restricted but then you have Bolton (Ontario) which was in a TBR and Chatham (Ontario) which was sold here on DN last month.

What could be the reasoning as to why some are restricted and some are not? Is buying a city .ca name risky?


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## Develop__ (Nov 5, 2021)

Nafti said:
			
		

> I always find some of these city name restrictions very odd. In one instance you have a town of 154 being restricted but then you have Bolton (Ontario) which was in a TBR and Chatham (Ontario) which was sold here on DN last month.
> 
> What could be the reasoning as to why some are restricted and some are not?



Amalgamation of municipalities is the primary reason most come available.

Chatham became a part of the municipality of Chatham-Kent.


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## Esdiel (Nov 5, 2021)

Nafti said:
			
		

> I always find some of these city name restrictions very odd. In one instance you have a town of 154 being restricted but then you have Bolton (Ontario) which was in a TBR and Chatham (Ontario) which was sold here on DN last month.
> 
> What could be the reasoning as to why some are restricted and some are not? Is buying a city .ca name risky?



In addition to what [notify]Develop[/notify] said, it all boils down to whether the name/domain in question is officially classified as a municipality or not (by our government). 

A municipality covers a certain geographical area, which usually has a village/town/city with a matching name, but the municipality itself often (or always?) encompasses several villages/towns/cities. So a municipality includes many different places, but only the municipality's name is what get's restricted. That's how I look at it.

I looked up whether Bolton was a municipality and it’s not. Bolton is a part of the Municipality of Peel. So are Brampton and Mississauga.

See screenshot below. Oddly enough, neither peel.ca or peel.on.ca seem to resolve (and it looks like they dropped peel.on.ca, probably after switching to peel.ca):


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## Esdiel (Nov 5, 2021)

> *3.4 Reserved/Restricted Names.*
> CIRA will maintain a list of reserved names and a list of restricted names that are not available for registration in the CIRA Registry. These lists will include, but not be limited to:
> 
> * the Canadian top level country code .ca and certain generic top level domain three letter names (including but not limited to .com.ca, .org.ca, .net.ca, .edu.ca, .gov.ca, .int.ca, and .mil.ca);
> ...


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## Esdiel (Nov 6, 2021)

Esdiel said:
			
		

> *3.4 Reserved/Restricted Names.*
> CIRA will maintain a list of reserved names and a list of restricted names that are not available for registration in the CIRA Registry. These lists will include, but not be limited to:
> 
> * the Canadian top level country code .ca ...





Maybe I'm just immature but I find this one is kinda funny:






ps: Jokes aside, Cira should redirect ca.ca to cira.ca, considering ca.ca is restricted because of the .ca itself.


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## Esdiel (Mar 31, 2022)

Levis.ca is restricted because of the Municipality of Levis in Quebec, and while the domain is reserved for them, they are using https://www.ville.levis.qc.ca.

For those that don't know, Levis is essentially the same place as Quebec city except that it's on the other side of the Saint Lawrence River:





I found this one interesting given the domain isn't in use and their name matches the name of Levi's Jeans. 

Makes me wonder if the municipality could make a similar deal like the Municipality of Cadillac did with Cadillac.ca. However, that seems unlikely given that Levi's Jeans seems to only have 1 website worldwide, and they actually use Levi.com (singular) as their main domain. And any other domain they own, like Levis.com and Levi.ca, all redirect to their main site. 

Below are other domains they have redirecting to levi.com:


levis.dk
levis501warehouse.com
levisoutlet.ca
levi.nl
levis.eu
levi.at
levi.co.uk
levis.no
levi-strauss.de
levis.fi
levi.se
levis.com
levis.fr
levis.nl
levi.com.ve
levis.pl
levi.ca
levi.fr
liveinlevis.com
levismadeandcrafted.com
liveinlevi.com
levisvintageclothing.com
levi.eu
levis.be
levi.es
levi.ie
levis.at
levis.ru
levisred.net
levis.ie
levi.gr
levis.ch
levi.be
levis.pt
levi.de
levi.dk
levismusic.com
tamponaf.com
levis501.com
levis.asia
tamponsaf.com
levis.it
501.com
levis.se
levis.co.uk
levi.it
levis.es


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## rlm__ (Mar 31, 2022)

sadly, there are a _lot_ of good domains locked up by restrictions....


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## dancarls (Mar 31, 2022)

I have been trying to get a name that is restricted for no real reason, I have contacted cira multiple times with little success, the last word I think i received was that the name will probably be available for registration when they get around to checking the list of restricted names again, and then put it back into circulation. They also say they do not have any idea of when they will review the names or when names will be available for registration.

There is no appeal process, no way to challenge the domain in question, just wait and hope it gets dropped on a date and time your checking.


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## Esdiel (Sep 8, 2022)




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## Esdiel (Sep 8, 2022)




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## theinvestor__ (Sep 8, 2022)

So when all these domains make their way into TBR… Who has the bankroll to make the investments?


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## Esdiel (Sep 8, 2022)




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## Esdiel (Sep 8, 2022)




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## Esdiel (Sep 8, 2022)

theinvestor said:


> So when all these domains make their way into TBR… Who has the bankroll to make the investments?



Doesn't look like BTC.ca will make it's way to TBR. Not anytime soon anyway, and I doubt they'll ever let it go now.


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## MapleDots__ (Sep 8, 2022)

theinvestor said:


> So when all these domains make their way into TBR… Who has the bankroll to make the investments?



I would imagine you pick one or two of your favourites and bite the bullet and bid.


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