.ie (Ireland) ccTLD Legislation Changing

[jmcc]

Not sure if any of you have .ie (Ireland) domains or are considering investing in them but the legislation covering .ie is changing and it may well outlaw domain speculation according to some interpretations. For those who haven't any .ie domains, there is nothing to worry about.

Regards...jmcc

 

[accent]

For those who haven't any .ie domains, there is nothing to worry about. ...

Not exactly. If registrys can change the rules after the game has begun then things are that much more unstable for all of us. Anti-domainer rules could be copied by other registrys.

They can and do change the rules, but this sounds like more than usual. More information would be helpful, surely there are .ie owners here (but not I).

 

[jmcc]

Not exactly. If registrys can change the rules after the game has begun then things are that much more unstable for all of us. Anti-domainer rules could be copied by other registrys.

There is a very nasty section in the legislation that could easily be used to revoke any potentially deceptive registrations. That basically means trademarks or typos.

They can and do change the rules, but this sounds like more than usual.

There is also a section that makes these rules retroactive meaning that once this becomes law, every registration is assumed to have been registered under these terms.

More information would be helpful, surely there are .ie owners here (but not I).

I've written about it in more detail on the link below. It has the links to and quotes from the legislation:

Is New Legislation A Death Warrant For IEDR?

At the moment, the .ie ccTLD has a managed registry. This means that some kind of proof of entitlement has to be provided before a domain can be registered. This proof can be a Registered Business Name cert, a company name, an invoice. The main part though is that the registrant has a substantive link to Ireland. UK and US companies doing business in Ireland can also obtain a .ie and so can owners of European Community Trademarks. The other end of the scale is .co.uk which is an unmanaged and therefore open ccTLD.

If other registries adopt this kind of legislation and actually use some of it, then the whole domaining industry will be in very serious trouble when it comes to anything other than open ccTLDs.

Regards...jmcc

 

[carltonleon]

Interesting Jmcc.

I was thinking of investing in a few .ie but I am not sure now.

 

[jmcc]

Interesting Jmcc.

I was thinking of investing in a few .ie but I am not sure now.

This is the first stage of the legislation and it hasn't been passed yet. But I think that IEDR might make a few examples of obvious squats. The Gabor & Petho squatters already lost a WIPO action over buy-sell.ie and there may be more. These guys are blatent squatters and the deceptive practices phrasing is aimed at this kind of operation rather than at genuine domainers. However the concept of .ie ccTLD as a managed ccTLD as opposed to an mostly open ccTLD like .uk has to be protected and this legislation contains enough to do it.

Regards...jmcc