Aland Islands now have their own .AX extention

[Gerrit]

The Aland Islands have launched their new .AX domain, and the first registrations and sites are already done.

Nothing special maybe, until you have a close look at the Aland Islands: a semi-independent archipelago with not even 200000 citizens, governed by Finland and mainly a bit seperated from the mainland because the islands' citizens speak Swedish rather than Finnish.

Earlier, .cat got accepted because of the linguistic situation in Catalunia.

I wonder if this is not setting a precedent. In the past only independent countries or semi-independent countries (such as Falklands Islands, Faroe Islands, Greenland, American Samoa, ...) could get their own extention.
Now suddenly two 'territories' get their own extention just because of linguistic reasons. This may set a precedent of linguistic minorities in other countries asking for an own extention? I do know that in Belgium a political entity governing the rights of the Dutch-speakers already proposed a .VL (for Vlaanderen region) extention, and in Canada the province of Quebec once asked for an own extention. Are we going to see more an more minorities asking for their own domain?? The ICANN acceptance of .AX and .CAT did set a bit of a precedent ; imagine Wales, Scotland and Lappland asking for an own domain-extention just because they have a minority language going?

 

[dhscott]

.cat was slightly politically motivated also, they are trying to gain independance from spain I hear. Falklands etc. have their own governments as far as I know.

A quick search on the Aland islands reveals they are actually autonomous (Correct spelling?) meaning that they are just like the isle of man in that respect.

You learn something new everyday on here! :hehe:

 

[webmasterinfo]

Could have regged .ax domains since march..
Good night..

 

[Coopey]

Methinks .ax can be used for some domainh.ax
The UK seems to have the most territories with their own extensions .im .gg .je .gi .io etc, etc- but I think all these places are semi-autonomous, and have their own governments, as Axland and Catalunya do too.

I can't think of many Welsh people/companies to put up the money for their own sponsored domain like the Catalans, if it did I wonder if it would it be .cym? Imagine all the typos with people going to .coms instead, (since people are more used to them).

 

[dhscott]

See now the UK does not govern those places, it's like saying australia is a territory of the UK.

Technically, the UK already has 2 ccTLDs. .UK and .GB. The welsh and / or the scots cannot claim TLD's for themselves as they are part of the same country, the UK. The same applies to Northern Ireland in this case also. However, if the UK still used the GB extension, then northern ireland COULD apply for a TLD as far as I am aware as Great Britain does not include northern ireland, hence the very long name "The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland".

The scots cannot claim they are a different country as King James united the 2 countries after elizabeth the 1st died nearly 400 years ago. He was king of scotland and heir to the english thrown.

The welsh have no standing whatsoever as they were conquered by an english king and the territory technically became part of england. This is why wales has no representation on the flag of the UK

I'm not ranting am i?

 

[jonasholmstrom]

... meaning that they are just like the isle of man in that respect.

:imho:

As an Alander I would to agree with this statement.