information .IO isn’t a country and is changing?

offthehandle · Feb 27, 2019

“Could it soon become a ccTLD without a territory, leaving it open to retirement and removal from the DNS root?

It’s not impossible, but I’ll freely admit that I’m getting into heavy, early speculation here.

There are a lot of moving parts to consider, and at time of writing the UK government has not even stated how it will respond to the non-binding ICJ ruling.

Should the UK abide by the ruling and wind down BIOT, its IO reservation on the ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 list could then be removed by the International Standards Organisation.

That would mean .io no longer fits the ICANN criteria for being a ccTLD, leaving it subject to forced retirement.”

http://domainincite.com/23957-un-ruling-may-put-io-domains-at-risk

Lord Antares · Feb 27, 2019

Interesting. I had plans for .io

I'll be following this.

Kate · Feb 27, 2019

You're always taking a chance when you decide to lay the foundations of your business on an unregulated, exotic extension.

barman · Feb 27, 2019

Well, that would suck.

alcy · Feb 27, 2019

I am sure domainers can live without .io... to average domainer it represents only a few renewals... but to the coutnless startups and other companies that run on .io with fully developed brands and sites etc... this would be pretty bad.. cause .io is far from being an unpopular or unknown extension.

in short.. its best for all if it does not happen. but like was said in some comments... it can always be auctioned off to another highest bidder operator.

Shimmy · Feb 27, 2019

Businesses usually get 5 years to move the site when a cc shuts down. So no biggie. 5 years is like a century on the internet.

NickB · Feb 27, 2019

This a Non Binding opinion NOT a judgement - this will rumble on for some time yet

"The UK has signalled that it could cede control of the islands “when no longer required for defence purposes”. In 2016, it extended the US lease on the strategic Diego Garcia base until 2036."

https://www.ft.com/content/4932d0c4-391b-11e9-b856-5404d3811663

BaileyUK · Feb 28, 2019

Indeed the financial-times article was quite clear about it being an opinion (including that of the United Nations) It's been rumbling on for years. I've no doubt the UK will use a sweetener or combined UK/US pressure to keep things just as they are. If the Financial-Times hadn't posted the piece I doubt anyone would have been any wiser

Kemal G · Feb 28, 2019

There is currently no country or state called "Soviet Union," but .su TLD is available to register and use properly. (register.su)

.su was assigned as the country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for the Soviet Union (USSR) on 19 September 1990. Even though the Soviet Union itself was dissolved a mere 15 months later, the .su top-level domain remains in use today.
- Wikipedia - .su

They couldn't shut down .su TLD, because there were many websites running on .su domain names. I think at worst, .io would be like .su. I can't see anything to worry about for now.

MadAboutDomains · Feb 28, 2019

They didn't listen when the UN ruled about Julian Assange being stuck in abritrary detention, so I doubt they'll be actioning a non-enforcable ruling about an entire island that they conduct strategic military operations out of along with the USA.

It's possible, but the UN rulings seem to go in one ear and out of the other...

Want2learn · Feb 28, 2019

alcy said:
I am sure domainers can live without .io... to average domainer it represents only a few renewals... but to the coutnless startups and other companies that run on .io with fully developed brands and sites etc... this would be pretty bad.. cause .io is far from being an unpopular or unknown extension.

in short.. its best for all if it does not happen. but like was said in some comments... it can always be auctioned off to another highest bidder operator.

Interestingly enough I was just reading about startups. I went to Google and Namebio to get an idea of how things were going. I did see a few .io names. I decided to give the phrase Smartup a whirl down the www! Its actually quite popular. Perhaps you could help out their startup dot io to smartup dot coms!

offthehandle · Feb 28, 2019

alcy said:
I am sure domainers can live without .io... to average domainer it represents only a few renewals... but to the coutnless startups and other companies that run on .io with fully developed brands and sites etc... this would be pretty bad.. cause .io is far from being an unpopular or unknown extension.

in short.. its best for all if it does not happen. but like was said in some comments... it can always be auctioned off to another highest bidder operator.

Auctioned, but why buy it? I guess like .CC that Verisign has. There are way too many extensions as it is. I don’t have any IO’s,, but keep seeing threads here and various startups using it on techcrunch, hence posting the article just as a heads-up to those who have them.

Jurgen Wolf · Feb 28, 2019

Kemal G said:
There is currently no country or state called "Soviet Union," but .su TLD is available to register and use properly. (register.su)

They couldn't shut down .su TLD, because there were many websites running on .su domain names. I think at worst, .io would be like .su. I can't see anything to worry about for now.

It was inherited by Russia.
That's why it exists.

.YU (former Yugoslavia) was removed completely.

Coopey · Mar 1, 2019

Have you seen how hard it is to break a territory away from the English crown historically?
.io will be around in 10 years or I'll eat my hat.

ResoluteDomains · Mar 2, 2019

I am hoping that because its so embedded in a lot of production sites as services, APIs etc, that the effort / cost / logistics of altering all of that code will be enough to keep it around. I wonder what the .io registry has to say about this?

Truespin Domains · Mar 31, 2019

Oooh, this is a bit worrying. Although I find it hard to believe a solution wouldn't be found given they popularity of io

Lord Antares · May 12, 2019

Any news on this?

Recons.Com · May 12, 2019

Lord Antares said:
Any news on this?

Yes. It worked as a clickbait, as intended. That is what domainincite does for living.

Lord Antares · May 12, 2019

Recons.Com said:
Yes. It worked as a clickbait, as intended. That is what domainincite does for living.

So it's bollocks?

tonyk2000 · May 12, 2019

If (and only if) something happens with British Indian Ocean Territory in political aspects, then .io may be questioned. Nothing will happen with it I think. .IO registry will need just to become a sponsor of the next ICANN meeting in Cancun or Monte Carlo, paying for 5* hotels and 1st class air tickets for example. The .io extension is not that big, such a sponsorship should be enough to make sure it would be up and running regardless of political or geographical realities.

alcy · May 12, 2019

Recons.Com said:
Yes. It worked as a clickbait, as intended. That is what domainincite does for living.

wow.. thats some living isn't it...

Lord Antares · May 13, 2019

That's a relief. I quite like .io.

information .IO isn’t a country and is changing?

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