Domain Name Extension for Porn .XXX Gets Approval Finally

Domain Name Extension .XXX given final approval

After over a decade or wrangling, a short lived green light that turned to red light, the sponsors of the domain name extension .XXX can now celebrate because the approval to go ahead with the domain name extension that promises to carve out a digital red light district on the worldwide web has finally be given the go ahead by the body responsible for approving domain name extensions; ICANN.

Dot XXX domain name extension was given the initial approval at the last ICANN meeting, the consultation check it promised to carry out after that approval before the final approval is given was completed recently and the registry sponsoring .XXX domain extension ICM Registry is now set to sign the document that will give lice to .XXX domain names.

When the dot XXX was first proposed almost 11 years ago, there was definitely a lot of opposition to it, not only from religious groups who argue that having a .XXX domain legitimise pornography, but some pornographer object to it as well, saying it will degrade their contents.

When the initial approval was given to the domain last year, over 100,000 pre-reservation for the .XXX domain name has been lodged with the sponsoring registry.

It is now clear at the moment whether the domain will help porn sites or work against it as it will be very easy for businesses and other organisation to block the entire .xxx domains name using their firewall or other filtering technology.

You can comment on this article or discuss it in details at UK domain name forum .

Two character short UK domain name registration opens (sunrise)

Two character short UK domain name registration opens
The processes of making previously reserved short .uk domain name extension which was voted on by Nominet members earlier this year has finally started. The so called sunrise period which is a phase where individuals or companies with trademark right on a particular word for example BT.uk are allowed the register the domain name. After the sunrise period, domain registration tends to go to what is known as land rush, the process where all and sunrise are allowed to register the remaining short character domain names.

Nominet announced at their website that the process will consist of two stage application process.
Stage 1
Trade mark rights holders have until midday (GMT) on 17 January 2011 to apply for a domain that matches their trade mark via a Nominet registrar.

Stage 2
Applicants will then need to have their IP rights checked by CMS Cameron McKenna, the validation agent we will be using for this process. Applicants will need evidence of using the trade mark in the UK prior to 1 January 2008. The deadline for applying to CMS Cameron McKenna to have IP rights validated is midday (GMT) on 31 January 2011.

The .UK domain name space is probably the most popular domain name extension after the .com domain extension. You can read the full information about the application process for short .uk domain name extension at Nominet’s website,

You can discuss this post and any domain name registration related issues at UK webmaster forum.

More web censorhip powers for Nominet and registrars

Nominet, the UK’s domanin name registry which oversees .uk domanin name addresses, is searching for new policies regarding domain names suspending and already plans to meet in the next weeks with stakeholders, police, and government bodies; all these moves are made for a better prevention of online criminal activity.

SOCA (The Serious and Organised Crime Agency) has asked Nominet to examine its policies and wants the registry to get domains shut-down powers. Although this is just a proposal, people are already invited to join the discussions on their website and state their opinions about this issue. Moreover, in SOCA document we could see that Nominet should also change their contracts model with registrar and include firmer language; also, the registrars and Nominet should respond faster to domain names suspending requests.

On the other hand, IT lawyers are deeply concerned regarding SOCA’s request while dramatic changes can happen if police officers will have the power to shut down any website before a conviction or something alike. Moreover, this will need judicial overshight and lot of caution should be used while shutting down legitimate websites by mistake could lead to many court actions with “massive damages” requests.

This is not the first time Nominet and registrars will start shutting down websites related to criminal activity – not so long ago they have shut down 1,200 websites that were selling/marketing counterfeit goods. Although this measure can block certain domain names for being used, it’s a news the fact that cybercriminals register domain names in bulk, thus when closing a website, other 5 can born the next day. This action cannot completely stop the online criminal activity but can definitely act as a measure to prevent and even lower the « criminal related » websites.

Nominet is inviting public to state their opinions at policy@nominet.org.uk .

Colombian domain (dot co) reaching for the stratosphere

Colombian domain (dot co) reaching for the stratosphere

The Colombian domain extension .co is becoming one of the most popular domain names with people buying new domain name extension. .co domain extension is even set to challenge .co.uk and .com domain name, the two most popular domain extension in the world.

Dot co (.co) domain name extension was awarded to Colombian government but ICANN, the Colombian government gave it to a private firm to run the domain extension. Though it was launched in July 2010, it was awarded to the Colombian government about 10 year ago. Dot co extension has seen registration that well in excess of half a million.

The commercial arrangement between Colombian government and the private firm ensures a quarter of the revenue from .co domain extension goes to the Colombian government. A spokes person for the private firm running the domain extension was quoted as saying

“We are going for a global audience and in three to five years we hope to have three to five million registrations.

“The average person can try up to 20 times to register a domain and companies are starting to come up with long and silly urls,” he said.

So far, 38% of firms registering for a .co domain are in the US, with 20% in Europe, the majority of these from the UK.

For countries lucky enough to have a domain name with a meaning beyond their own borders – such as the tiny South Pacific island of Tuvalu (.tv), domain names can be a rich income source.

The .tv web address has proved a hit with the broadcast industry, while Montenegro’s me has appeal to the social networking generation.

You can discuss the above domain name and other domain name related issues at domain name registration forum.

Register a .uk domain name and win an iPad

Registering a domain name these days is one of the easiest task when it comes to creating a new website, but what if you could also win a wonderful prize by only buying a co.uk domain name from VelnetWeb, a UK based web hosting company ?

Velnet is one of the fast growing web hosting company in UK, with a wide range of products from web hosting and domain name registration to web design and ecommerce stores creation. With the latest discounts offered ( -20% for the Velnet Business Plan hosting plan ), Velnet is striving to offer its clients more options for less money, without the lacks of any initial features.

VelnetWeb is recently holding a competition in conjuction with Nominet, the .uk domain name registry in the United Kingdom. The competition will run for a total of 8 weeks, starting on 2 of August and lasting until 27 September 2010. Every person that registers a .uk domain name in that period can win either a brand new Apple iPad or one of the daily give-away iTunes vouchers, each worth £25. There are 8 brand new iPads in the competition and lots of iTunes vouchers, so chances of grabbing one are quite high.

In order to take part of this competition, along with registering a .uk domain name on the .UK prize draw page, anyone that wants to participate to the draw should tick the “Prize Draw Signup” and will be automatically entered in the contest.

Each week, the winners will be picked automatically by Nominet and they will be contacted and announced on VelnetWeb website with details regarding how to get in possession of the prize.

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