Re: [ga] FYI: Future of .su

[David Farrar <david@farrar.com>]

Bret Fausett wrote:
> I'd be interested in hearing views on what *should* happen with the .su
> ccTLD. Once a country, always a ccTLD? Or should ccTLD delegations bear some
> more precise relationship to national identities?

This is a fascinating area.  Just a couple of days ago I said that no 
registrant operating in good faith should lose their domain name due to policy 
changes etc.

However if a country changes it name and hence its ISO3166-1 code it does 
create problems.  An argument *could* be made that as all the businesses and 
individuals will have to be spending money changing their physical and postal 
addresses that the same burden should apply to their internet address.

If you went down this path you would want registrants to be able to go from 
(for example) domainname.su to domainname.ru.  However if the new domain name 
has been operating at the same time as the old one you may end up with 
collisions.  Also the two ccTLDs may have different managers and hence 
different naming policies.

So overall I think it is fairer not to close down a ccTLD just because the 
country disappears.  Close it down for new registrations but allow current 
registrants to stay there as legacy.

The exception may be if the renamed country wants it old TLD deleted.  So if 
New Zealand became Aotearoa and went from .nz to .ao it might one day decide to 
delete .nz.  But when a country splits rather than is renamed such as 
Czechoslovakia and USSR then it is not clear if anyone can speak for the old 
ccTLD.  I suppose the government of whereever the old registry is physically 
located could pass a law closing it down if it really wanted.

DPF

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