From: zgr3p (rtfm at domain zgrep.net)
Date: Sun 21 May 2000 - 23:59:45 IST
> > > > > Nominet in the UK have their *own* second level - nic.uk! :)
> > >
> > > Erm, no they don't, actually. That's a domain in the .UK TLD. The
only UK
> > > one in use as far as I know.
> >
> > What's the difference?
>
> I think Simon was just being fastidious. Nominet have split the uk
namespace
> into several second-level domains, for better organisation. I would
presume
> their reasoning behind this was that 1) it isn't a "managed registry"
(i.e. they
> don't "screen" doms like the IEDR do), and 2) following on from 1, it's
such a
> large namespace.
I was being a smartarse, really. But nonetheless it does seem strange.
Nominet do not use it themselves, only for the official UK NIC web site.
Their own domain is nominet.org.uk. I'm sure the reasoning for using SLDs
is exactly as you say, it is a large namespace. It also allows for better
control of domains, which contrary to your point 1, they do actually do,
though not as mercilessly as IEDR. Unlike NSI who are totally
irresponsible, but let's not go there.
Basically, the rules are:
.co.uk - anyone can have anything they want. First come first served. If
you have an obvious trademark like Harrods they will not support you in
trying to extort money from the "real" owner because neither will the UK
courts. This has the unfortunate side-effect that Joe Schmoe from Kokomo
gets screwed if his business has the same name as a bigger one. There was a
plumber or builder or something similar on the south coast whose
long-established business was called MTV and he lost mtv.co.uk because MTV
Europe wanted it. On the other hand, my Financial Director managed to sell
microsoft.co.uk to a certain mulinational conglomerate without getting into
legal trouble....
.org.uk - anyone can have one. You're supposed to be a non-profit
organisation/individual a la .org but they don't check.
.net.uk - you *must* be a UK ISP. No exceptions. I would never get
zgrep.net.uk, for example.
.ltd.uk - limited companies. The requested name must match the Companies
House registration otherwise it's rejected.
.plc.uk - public limited companies. Rules as above.
There are six others, mostly controlled by other bodies. .ac.uk for
academic establishments is controlled by UKERNA and applies to sixth form
colleges as well and higher education places. The .sch.uk for schools is
different because it's a third-level domain - all names are LEA subdomains,
e.g. .wilts.sch.uk or .reading.sch.uk for obvious reasons of volume.
> If you looked it from that point of view however, no-one in the UK
namespace -
> aside from Nominet and the government - would have a real domain name --
they
> would be considered to have canonicals. I'm sure neither Nominet nor the
> hundereds of thousands of people who have registered domains in the uk
namespace
> would like to see it that way though. :)
Well, now who's being fastidious? :-) Actually your mention of the
government is interesting. Because they don't have a domain, they have a
SLD like everyone else - .gov.uk which is used like the US .gov domain.
This is also administered by UKERNA who let me tell you are a pain in the
ring to deal with. There's also a .mod.uk domain, cf .mil.
The system actually works extremely well. The main problem, in my opinion,
is that the rules regarding .ltd.uk and .plc.uk whilst well-intentioned are
too restrictive, resulting in the domains not being used often enough.
There are far too many limited companies and PLCs using company-ltd.co.uk
because it's difficult to get sensible versions of the correct name.
I applied for bentley.ltd.uk for a company called Bentley Office Cleaning
Services whose reason for wanting it was pretty obvious and sound. However
their Companies House certificate doesn't say Bentley Limited so it was
refused. Of course they couldn't have bentley.co.uk because the car company
has that. So they were pretty much stuffed. Common sense should come into
play somewhere. We had a company with both a .co.uk and .ltd.uk -
highclere.co.uk (which would be rejected by IEDR because it's a placename)
and the unspeakable highclerethoroughbredracing.ltd.uk .......
Simon
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