[ga] ISO-3166-1 and reserved codes

[John Charles Broomfield <jbroom@manta.outremer.com>]

Hi,
	Something that may clarify the questions surrounding addition or not
of TLDs from the reserved list. A message from the late Jon Postel himself.

Yours, John Broomfield.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Country Code TLDs

     Date: Thu, 21 Nov 1996 20:45:59 -0800 
     From: postel@ISI.EDU (Jon Postel) 
     Subject: Country Code TLDs 

Hello:

As a point of clarification, here is the IANA's statement about country
code top level domain names.

        ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

        The codes we use are those from the ISO 3166 standard.

        A country must recognised as such by the ISO (or by the UPU);
        the code used must be the ISO-3166 code (or if there is no code
        in the Standard, then the code used should be that which is
        reserved in the ISO-3166 Reserved Code Elements list as a UPU
        code).

        ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The effect of the extra stuff about allowing as a TLD something that is
both a ISO-3166 Reserved Code Element and a UPU code is to add 4
possibilities:

        AC = Ascension Island
        GG = Guernsey
        IM = Isle of Man
        JE = Jersey

This small extension of the rules by the IANA seemed to greatly offend
a very few people, and seemed to be no big deal to many others.  A key
point to keep in mind is that the IANA did not choose the codes or make
up the list, it extended the set of allowed codes to another list
provided by the ISO 3166 maintenance agency.

--jon.


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