How a UK Treaty Could Spell the End of the .io Domain (theverge.com)
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AmiMoJo writes: A treaty finalized by the UK may bring about the end of the .io domain. Last week, the British government announced that it has agreed to give up ownership of the Chagos Islands, a territory in the Indian Ocean it has controlled since 1814 -- relinquishing the .io domain with it.
The Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) has a process for retiring old country code domains within five years (with the possibility for extensions). The IANA established this rule after the Soviet Union's .su domain lingered after its collapse, becoming a domain commonly used among cybercriminals. Since then, IANA has also had to retire the .yu domain previously used for Yugoslavia, but it remained operational for years following the country's breakup while government websites transitioned to new domains. And while the independent Solomon Islands does have the domain name .sb, where 'B' stands for how it used to be a British protectorate, that domain was registered decades after it achieved independence. The UK still has the inactive .gb domain as well, but it's considering getting rid of it.
The Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) has a process for retiring old country code domains within five years (with the possibility for extensions). The IANA established this rule after the Soviet Union's .su domain lingered after its collapse, becoming a domain commonly used among cybercriminals. Since then, IANA has also had to retire the .yu domain previously used for Yugoslavia, but it remained operational for years following the country's breakup while government websites transitioned to new domains. And while the independent Solomon Islands does have the domain name .sb, where 'B' stands for how it used to be a British protectorate, that domain was registered decades after it achieved independence. The UK still has the inactive .gb domain as well, but it's considering getting rid of it.
To two domain, or not to two domain (Score:3)
For .gb the blog post [blog.gov.uk] is nice and clear. It's not clear what's happening, though, as the domain [iana.org] is still around, rather than being retired in 2023.
Re: (Score:3)
My vote would probably be that we want to hold on to
So, when those island nations "sink" (Score:1)
... their TLD sinks with them?
Hmm, might want to hedge my bets [wikipedia.org] on the ".tv" domains I was thinking about buying.
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Hmm, might want to hedge my bets [wikipedia.org] on the ".tv" domains I was thinking about buying.
It's almost like we shouldn't be misappropriating CC TLD's just because it's nifty. That rug will be pulled out from under someone when it's suddenly no longer a rug - which is what's happening here.
And on the other end of that, IMO we *should* be making much broader use of CC TLD's for regional and personal use. For example, it'd be nice if we had more use along the lines of "mycompany.new-york.ny.us". Ref: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
Re: So, when those island nations "sink" (Score:3)
Why would you want a ny.us domain for a company that will be sold to China in the near future?
That's (one of) the problems of regional domains. It ties you (your companies) identity to a political jurisdiction. Which might be fine for those bureaucrats who want to hang on to your tax revenue. But not so good if you get tired of their shenannigans and try to leave.
I have a friend with a business domain name whose ISP got bought out by Microsoft years ago. He recieved an e-mail informing him that he would h
Now on my to-do list (Score:2)
I rarely pay attention to something like this, but I will have to circle around to my docker and k8s deployments because I recall a few of images referenced in the io TLD. But if the owners just re-register their domains it shouldn't be a problem.
GitHub Pages and Itch Direct (Score:3)
But if the owners just re-register their domains it shouldn't be a problem.
There are probably way too many inbound links to GitHub Pages (subdomains of github.io) and Itch Direct (subdomains of itch.io) to fix in a reasonable time. Change my mind.
Re: (Score:2)
I worked at Rangle.io in 2018.
There was a trend a few years back when lots of tech companies that were doing JavaScript work were using '.io' not only in their domain names but in their brand names.
I'm sure they can all re-register, but it seems like the "blast radius" on this is not going to be small. Lots of businesses will be affected and will have to change their domain name and drop 'io' from any branding.
I will say that it seems like the trend was short-lived, though. I haven't heard of any new compan
already did for .su and .yu (Score:2)
Re:already did for .su and .yu (Score:4, Interesting)
Re: (Score:2)
The whole TLD thing is a form of corruption anyway. How many .io users actually reside on the island?
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The whole TLD thing is a form of corruption anyway. How many .io users actually reside on the island?
Do you think that youtu.be resides in Belgium?
Re: (Score:2)
Today we have a framework for new vanity TLDs. .io should be transitioned from a country TLD to a normal vanity TLD
This would require a new rule as 2-Letter suffixes are reserved exclusively for ccTLDs.
Re: (Score:2)
Maybe a rule that "Two letter suffixes are reserved for ccTLDs. Should a ccTLD be retired, it may be used as a gTLD, and all existing domains within that gTLD are to be honored".
Or some such nonsense
Retiring domains is stupid (Score:5, Interesting)
Never give up domains that you've used extensively, not as an individual, not as a company and not as a country. It breaks stuff and is a major security risk. Domains are forever, and we should change the system to reflect that. Maybe you can't use the domain unless you pay for the infrastructure to host it, but having to keep paying essentially arbitrary prices for domains just to be able to "own" them is not in line with what domains are and how they are used. Make the upfront price reflect ownership, but stop that everybody-is-a-renter model.
Re: (Score:2)
Domains are forever, and we should change the system to reflect that.
I tend to agree; the policy really should be ccTLDs must continue to operate forever, so long as they have existing domain registrants willing to pay the cost of the registry and willing to organize a registry amongst themselves if necessary to take over the operation, BUT there is also a strong requirement to maintain accurate WHOIS and eliminate Abandoned domains, Abused domains, and domains with Inaccurate whois Registrant info and Cont
Re: (Score:2)
I mentioned a separation of infrastructure cost and ownership. Operating a domain should not be a monopoly situation, and owning a domain should be a one-time cost. Clearly the cost of hosting the domain at the first level is not just an upfront cost, but suppose the registry wouldn't have to operate the servers, just publish the zone in a defined way, and let DNS resolver operators provide what is now offered by the root and first level servers. With signed records, this should be an almost transparent cha
Re: (Score:2)
Also, the whole ".su" thing occurred before gTLDs were valid. What IANA can do is sell ".io" to a new registrar, and (in theory) it should be ok.
Fifty Bucks (Score:2)
At fifty bucks times a zillion it's not going to evaporate.
Perhaps it will become a GTLD and perhaps somebody will pay a small fortune for that property transfer.
If they stubbornly refuse we might just resecede the Indian Stream Republic and call it Independence Operation to save the tech industry.
Maybe we should keep (Score:2)
the .io domain around so we can use it when we have a colony on the innermost of the Galilean Jovian moons.
Re: (Score:2)
A lot of thought [wikipedia.org] has already gone into that, though probably not at the domain level.
Given the history of country codes (imported from international postal codes), maybe we should have a TLD of .ss (Solar System).
Diego Garcia? (Score:2)
Re: (Score:1)
As per, e.g.: this BBC article (https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c98ynejg4l5o) [bbc.com], Diego Garcia is included in the Chagos Islands territories to be handed over to Mauritius, however:
So I'm assuming that the British Indian Ocean Terri
US pushed UK to do this (Score:2)
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/wo... [telegraph.co.uk]
"The Telegraph understands that American officials pushed the UK toward the deal, fearing that if it was not signed, Mauritius would successfully apply for a binding ruling at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to take control of the islands, effectively shuttering the air base."
Which is complete bullshit.
The US DOES NOT RECOGNIZE the UCJ (it's incompatible with the US Constitution) and has rather routinely ignored its rulings.
The idea that *suddenly* the US/UK would b