Dot UK domain name extension registration period to become variable

UK Domain Name Registration up to Ten Years

The most successful ccTLD in the world by many miles is .UK domain name under the careful stewardship of Nominet, the body responsible for overseeing the .uk domain name space. For a long time, perhaps more than a decade Noniment seem to use the Ford dictum of having a car in any colour as long as its black to the duration for which a domain name can be registered; 2 years.
Nominet being principally an non profit making organisation which tends to consult with stakeholders in the .UK domain name space before new policies are implemented is currently seeking input from its member about charging the maximum number of years a .uk domain name can be registered and the price of the new variable domain name registration.

One of the most interesting things about Nominent and its administration of the .UK domain name space is the fact that it has not increase the cost of .uk domain name registration to its members for many many years, contrast that with .com TLD which has had a number of price rises over the years. In its new proposal about variable domain name registration, the consultation page suggest domain names should be registered from between 1 year and 10 years, the noticeable thing about prices is the fact that the price for 2 years remains its current £5+VAT.

Suggested Registration Period
Currently, Nominent is seeking feedback from its members on 4 domain name registration period, they are:
1. Introduce variable registration periods of 1, 2, 5 and 10 years
2. Introduce variable registration periods of 2, 5 and 10 years
3. Introduce variable registration periods of 1-10 years
4. Introduce variable registration periods of 2-10 years

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

Dot UK web address registratrion reaches 8 million

.UK domain name extension hits 8 million

Nominet, the UK domain name registration authority said .UK domain name registration reached the milestone of 8 million in November 2009. After .com, .UK is the most popular domain name extension in the world, this was helped mainly by the fact that unlike most country level domain name extensions, .UK does not require you to jump through the kind of hoops countries like say Australia requires you to jump through to register a .com.au domain name extension.
Some people think that Nominet policy of making .uk domain easy to register for both UK and non-UK company is a good thing while other disagree, especially the part about making it easy for non-UK based company to register .uk domain extension. Whatever site of the argument you sit on, the .UK domain name continues to grow faster than web address of any country of similar size to UK.

.uk domain tranfer now online

Transferring a .uk domain name has realised on a cumbersome paper based system for years. Today, the domain name authority for .UK domain name space, Nominet announce the paper based transfer system is being replaced by a modern online transfer system to make transfer or any of the domain name in the .uk name space such as .co.uk , .org.uk, .me.uk much easier and quicker to transfer.
According to Nominet ” The new registrant transfer process in online services will replace the current paper based system on 25 June 2008.  The new transfer fee for the online system is £10+VAT, a significant reduction from the old fee for the paper based transfer which was £25+VAT.