No, I don’t mean Reading, ‘Riting and ‘Rithmatic. I mean Registry, Registrar, and Registrant. As I blogged about earlier, I’m fairly new to the VeriSign Naming business, if not the Internet. When I first got here, those three Rs could sometimes be confusing. Based on some of the conversations I’ve had the pleasure of having due to this blog, I may not be alone. So, I thought I’d take the opportunity of this post to explain the differences.

The official definition of these terms can be found in this glossary and are:

Registry (In the case of .tv, that would be us, VeriSign): An Internet domain name registry is an entity that receives domain name service (DNS) information from domain name registrars, inserts that information into a centralized database and propagates the information in Internet zone files on the Internet so that domain names can be found by users around the world via applications such as the World Wide Web and email.

Said another way, that means that we here at VeriSign manage the database of .tv names (one and only one name per TLD please) and make sure those domain names make it out to the Internet and point the traffic to the right place (e.g., to a web page, or to an email goes to the right place).

Registrar: A registrar provides direct services to domain name registrants. The registrar database contains customer information in addition to the DNS information contained in the registry database. Registrars process name registrations for Internet end-users and then send the necessary DNS information to a registry for entry into the centralized registry database and ultimate propagation over the Internet.

The registry, works with registrars as the channel to end customers. The registrars set end pricing, do the sales and marketing to end customers, often package domain names up with other products and services, and have the systems to do those sales and manage the process. They take payment from those that register the domain name and do customer service for those end customers.

Should you want to get a domain name, or get service for an existing domain name, you should go to a registrar. A complete list of .tv registrars can be found here.

Registrant: The individual or organization that registers a specific domain name with a registrar. This individual or organization holds the right to use that specific domain name for a specified period of time, provided certain conditions are met and the registration fees are paid. This person or organization is the “legal entity” bound by the terms of the Domain Name Registration Agreement with the registrar. Note that the VeriSign registry provides direct services to registrars only, not Internet end-users. The registry database contains only domain name service (DNS) information (domain name, name server names and name server Internet Protocol [IP] numbers) along with the name of the registrar that registered the name and basic transaction data. It does not contain any domain name registrant or contact information. Registrars provide direct services to registrants.

So in a word, this is the customer. Thank you to all the customers of .tv. Some example customers are:

www.mtv.tv: The perfect domain for the European branch of MTV, the home of so many great videos.
www.fora.tv: Get smart fast by browsing this collection of political events, lectures and debates from around the world.
www.mlb.tv: Major League Baseball’s video hub, currently featuring clips and highlights from every team’s 2009 season.
www.beet.tv: One of the leaders of the media revolution with its focus on executive video interviews and strong distribution partnership strategy.
www.justin.tv: The symbolic home of lifestreaming video today it’s the gold-standard for video blogging with over 500,000 individual channels.

Photo via: http://www.flickr.com/photos/lizjones/ / CC BY 2.0