-
ICANN Relaxes Rules on Top Level Domains
Techtree News Staff, Jun 27, 2008 0930 hrs ISTAt a top-level meeting held in Paris today, ICANN voted unanimously in favor of relaxing strict rules around so-called top-level domain names.
Soon, there might be a .sex or .hotel vying for Internet space with the more conservative .org, .com, or .net. The reason: Internet regulator - Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) has managed to do something it wanted done for a long time, i.e. opening up of Internet addresses.
At a top-level meeting held in Paris today, ICANN voted unanimously in favor of relaxing strict rules around so-called top-level domain names. The regulator also approved a second proposal towards introducing domain names written in scripts such as Asian and Arabic.
At present, top-level domain names are limited either to commerce (.com) and institutional organizations like .net or .org or to individual countries such as .uk (UK), .it (Italy), and so on. Under the new scheme, thousands of domain names could be coined -- based on a (any) string of letters. Individuals would be able to register a domain based on their own name as long as they're able to show a 'business plan and technical capacity'. Similarly, companies would be able to secure domain names based on their intellectual property.
Some such domain names could even become hot topics of debate. For instance, the very thought of a .sex is enough to send people into a tizzy -- so much so bloggers are ready to bet on an auction frenzy over that particular domain name.
Roberto Gaetano, member of ICANN, was reported to having said, "We are opening up a new world, and I think this cannot be underestimated." The new system is expected sometime next year.
At a top-level meeting held in Paris today, ICANN voted unanimously in favor of relaxing strict rules around so-called top-level domain names. The regulator also approved a second proposal towards introducing domain names written in scripts such as Asian and Arabic.
At present, top-level domain names are limited either to commerce (.com) and institutional organizations like .net or .org or to individual countries such as .uk (UK), .it (Italy), and so on. Under the new scheme, thousands of domain names could be coined -- based on a (any) string of letters. Individuals would be able to register a domain based on their own name as long as they're able to show a 'business plan and technical capacity'. Similarly, companies would be able to secure domain names based on their intellectual property.
Some such domain names could even become hot topics of debate. For instance, the very thought of a .sex is enough to send people into a tizzy -- so much so bloggers are ready to bet on an auction frenzy over that particular domain name.
Roberto Gaetano, member of ICANN, was reported to having said, "We are opening up a new world, and I think this cannot be underestimated." The new system is expected sometime next year.
Related Links
Tag keywords
Discussion Board
(3) Comments
Anonymous
,delhi, on Jun 28, 2008 11:14 PM
Report abuse
Abhishek
,Delhi, on Jun 28, 2008 01:18 PM
Opinion Poll
- Which desktop web browser do you use?
-
Internet Explorer
Firefox
Chrome
Safari
Opera
Other (specify in comments)
Poll Results View Previous Polls