.ORG, The Public Interest Registry Waives Renewal Fees for Japanese Registrants Affected by the Recent Disaster

RESTON, Va., April 11, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- In light of the recent disasters that have devastated Japan, .ORG, The Public Interest Registry (PIR) today announced a plan to waive renewal fees for Japanese domain name holders who are unable to renew their .ORG domain names. Together with PIR, more than 15 participating Registrars have committed to automatically renew for one year at no cost the .ORG domain names that would unintentionally expire due to the inability of the owner in Japan to re-up their registration.  Affected names will include those with expiration dates within the March 11 – June 11, 2011 period.

(Logo:  http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20100628/ORGLOGO )

"The recent earthquake in Japan and the destruction that followed has shocked and saddened everyone, including the Internet community," said Brian Cute, CEO of .ORG, The Public Interest Registry. "Survivors have been left without the basic necessities, let alone Internet capabilities. By waiving the renewal fees and working with our Registrars, we are protecting .ORG registrants in Japan from losing their domain names during a time when they and their country need to focus on sustaining and rebuilding. PIR's goal, along with our valuable partners, is to assist in any way we can."

Participating registrars include: GoDaddy.com Inc., Ascio, INDOM, WebNic.cc, Net 4 India Limited, Discount Domains Ltd., Fabulous.com, Blacknight Internet Solutions, Dotster, Inc., Moniker.com, Spirit Domains, Advanced Internet Technologies, Japan Registry Services Co., PSI-Japan, Network Solutions, NameSecure, TLDs L.L.C.

To view an up-to-date list of participating registrars, please visit http://pir.org/help/japan.

About .ORG, The Public Interest Registry

Trusted across all ages, backgrounds and nationalities, .ORG is where people turn to find credible information, get involved, fund causes and support advocacy. .ORG, The Public Interest Registry empowers the global noncommercial community to use the Internet more effectively and, concurrently, takes a leadership position among Internet stakeholders on policy and related issues. The .ORG domain is the Internet's third largest "generic" or non-country specific top-level domain with more than 9 million domain names registered worldwide. .ORG, The Public Interest Registry, was founded by the Internet Society in 2002. It is based in Reston, Virginia, USA.

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