.mail is a generic top-level domain proposed by The Spamhaus Project in 2004, but unapproved by ICANN. Its purpose is to enable responsible message recipients to reliably and efficiently identify and accept spam-free mailstreams.

Core Functionality

.mail would attempt to reduce the spam problem by maintaining a list of domains authenticated as both not belonging to known spammers, and providing verified contact information. The sTLD would contain the actual hostnames of servers used to send mail. A .mail domain would only be able to be registered by a party that already owns a domain in another TLD which has been in operation for at least six months, and whose WHOIS information has been verified for accuracy. The structure of the .mail domain consists of existing domain names with the new TLD appended, such as example.net.mail, associated with example.net. Unlike other domains, the .mail domain would not be fully under the control of the registrant, but would go to a publicly-accessible server where the status and contact information of the domain could be seen, and complaints to abuse@server1.example.net.mail would go to an organization which monitors spam complaints and revokes names registered to spammers. Mail filtering software can also query the .mail address associated with a message and reject the message if the address is forged or revoked.

Secondary Functionality

.mail would provide a method for increasing the reliability of the email infrastructure. It could be extended to protect messaging infrastructure other than that of email (see spam). It would provide important information to law enforcement addressing crimes such as phishing, and a host of other Internet-based crimes. It could make it easier for responsible entities to give better email anonymity services.

Security Considerations

.mail was designed to withstand attack from capable and determined adversaries. The proposed directors, officers and staff consist of seasoned veterans with established reputations for actively representing the broad community. Compensation, public records, and clear organizational policies would further ensure accountability. Carefully formed legal approaches, contracts and arbitration clauses would protect against legal jeopardy. Projected income and expense flows were balanced to ensure financial viability. Experienced industry giants VeriSign and eNom were chosen to ensure continued technical operations in the face of determined technical attacks. In addition, Spamhaus weathers some of the largest Internet infrastructure attacks known, and serves over a billion DNS queries a day. By increasing the efficiency of spam filters, it could reduce the environmental impact of the energy generation they require.