Websites using .org domain names fear they could lose their web addresses as intense backlash over the domain registry’s proposed sale continues. The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, the not-for-profit organization that coordinates the internet’s domain name system, is deciding whether control of .org will be sold to a private equity firm about which little is known.
After eight years of debate, numerous delays and countless quarrels, an effort to expand the Web’s address system beyond the familiar .com and .net to more than 1,000 new endings is reaching its conclusion. By the end of January, companies can start selling website names on the first batch of approved new suffixes such as .clothing, .singles and .plumbing.
Protect Your Call Signs In The .xxx Domain
ICANN (the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) has approved the use of .xxx as a domain (like .com) for the adult entertainment industry. In September, broadcasters and others with registered marks will have an opportunity to reserve their marks defensively in the .xxx domain.
Groups able to pay the $185,000 application can petition next year for new updates to “.com” and “.net” with suffixes using nearly any word in any language, including in Arabic, Chinese and other scripts, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers decided at a meeting in Singapore today.
