Today, days after the domain shorter Vb.ly was basically seized by the registry of the Libyan ccTLD .Ly, we have a statement from the registry regarding this seizure.
Basically as you can read below the Libyan government has decided that it wants any .Ly domain with 4 or less letters to be reserved for people and companies located in Libya.
This should be a cautionary tale that ccTLD’s are different than TLD’s.
Libya of course has the right to set up whatever rules and restrictions they would like on their ccTLD, including limiting domain registrations to those with a presence in Libya.
However, it would have been nice if they would have done that at the outset, rather than years after non-Libyan businesses used the domain to build up their online presence.
Here is the announcement by NIC.LY the registry for the .LY extension:
“””NIC.ly rules and regulations were set by the local Libyan internet community (in accordance with best practices for ccTLDs) to reflect it’s identity and content. It’s a bottom up module in which the Community’s feedback, opinions and remarks are taken into decision-making consideration, and it is our duty to uphold these rules and regulations to serve the better interests of the community we represent.””
“”In reference to the vb.ly incident: the domain’s purpose (proclaimed by its registrants themselves) was to serve as a ‘sex friendly URL shortener’, mainly for adult uses. This means that vb.ly had a policy different than the other URL shorteners, not using filters and encouraging the use of this service for creating links to adult sites and other “NSFW” links, thus placing vb.ly by definition in the porn/adult site category.””
“”This use was deemed as unacceptable by our local internet community, regardless of whether or not the site hosts adult material or redirects traffic to 3rd party sites””
“”Contrary to vb.ly’s claims, they were contacted on numerous occasions to investigate these concerns, and over the course of these contacts vb.ly has ignored our efforts and even changed their contact numbers.””
“”When our repeated warnings were ignored, and after over 3 weeks of failed attempts to contact the owners of vb.ly, NIC.ly had no alternative but to apply its regulations that clearly state that it reserves the right to suspend or remove a .ly domain name in violation of rules and regulations.””
“”The domain has also been excluded from future registrations so that no other entity (local or abroad) can re-register it.”””
“”As to the decision to keep the registration of domain names shorter than 4 symbols long under .ly only for entities with a local Libyan presence, this comes in accordance with NIC.ly’s concern that the rise in popularity of URL shorteners from abroad taking up all these names has deprived locals of their right to register the important 3 letter abbreviations of their various businesses and interests.””
“”We as a Registry would prefer seeing art.ly used for a website about Libyan art for instance, or lda.ly used by the Libyan De-mining Association, rather than adding more URL shorteners under our National TLD.””
“””For over 5 years, we as a Libyan Registry recognized by ICANN have been open for domain name registrations from all around the Globe, and we pride ourselves on being the online destination of thousands of domain names from all over the World””
“”Over this span of time never once have we abused the trust invested in us by the Global internet community, nor have we ever taken advantage of having an attractive extension like ‘.ly’. Only when our Community’s rules and regulations were compromised was when we had to act.””
So as the announcement 5 years after running the registry the rules are changing.
Those who have short .Ly domains I guess your registrations maybe at risk.
They Certainly seem subject to the whim of the government.
What happens to Bit.ly now?
They better be worried and start looking for a substitute URL
Bit.com or B.co
Personally I think it’s a load of crap that EVERYBODY with a .ly domain ( I don’t have any) has to suffer because one sleezy website like VB.ly failed to report to the .ly registry.
a “short” .ly domain with less than 4 chars that is 🙂
I can see the dot co taken away too.
I can see Canada take away the dot ca too — heck- you never know what the Canuks will do when USA beats them in ice hockey.
There are ccTLDs and there are ccTLDs.
This is the case of Lybia (from the CIA world fact book):
Government –
Jamahiriya (a state of the masses) in theory, governed by the populace through local councils; in practice, an authoritarian state.
Executive Branch –
Chief of state: Revolutionary Leader Col. Muammar Abu Minyar al-QADHAFI (since 1 September 1969); note – holds no official title, but is de facto chief of state
Political Parties and Leaders –
None
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/ly.html
—–
Mr T
For the record I don’t know why VB.Ly is “sleazy”.
I mean they do serve up adult material but beyond that not sure what is “Sleazy”
I would say that its probably not the smartest thing to engage in adult content in a middle eastern county where they cut off your Johnson for uttering the “F” word.
it’s the risk hidden in the use of small countries’ TLDs
Now this is the time to stay away from ccTLDs and moving to buy good .COM.
are you allowed to say johnson on the internets?
Definitely not in the middle east
On the other hand its Friday night go rent
The Big Lebowski
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0118715/
Not all cctlds are hostile.
“Now this is the time to stay away from ccTLDs and moving to buy good .COM.”
Your “good .COM” is already saturated. There are still good names not in used, but less and less each month.
And it’s funny to see how many people think .com should be the only extension to buy. In this case, I don’t see the point in TLDs.
Actually, typing just http://thedomains would be better than type http://thedomains.com
“moving to buy good .COM”
yes, its the best and also the safest
.
“”We as a Registry would prefer seeing art.ly used for a website about Libyan art for instance, or lda.ly used by the Libyan De-mining Association, rather than adding more URL shorteners under our National TLD.””
————–
This is perfectly fine and understandable, let’s be honest. Their mistake was to go global before setting the rules. They are many countries that have restrictions on sites that be be bad for ‘morals,’ whatever that may mean.
I own quite a few .cctlds but I am a local there too, so it’s very different.
Oh, and Libya doesn’t really care about bad publicity at all. Here’s one of their gems:
“Libya’s leader, Muammar Gaddafi, yesterday called for a jihad, or holy war, against Switzerland, in an escalation of his vendetta against the country where police once arrested his son.
At a meeting in the city of Benghazi to mark the prophet Muhammad’s birthday, Gaddafi described the country as an infidel state that was “destroying” mosques. Last year he urged the UN to abolish Switzerland and divide it between Germany, France and Italy.
“Any Muslim in any part of the world who works with Switzerland is an apostate – is against Muhammad, God and the Qur’an,” Gaddafi said.”
That Qadaffi is a madman.
I think anyone that buys real estate, be it virtual or physical in a foreign country and is not a natural born citizen of that country is taking a risk. Take the risk if you must but be ready to have the rug pulled from under you without notice. I would rather settle for a .Us or .Biz than a banana republic extension anyday.
Michael,
I was just using the word “sleazy” as a description for the semi-porn website. I agree with what you said, but I’d be pissed if I owned a .ly and lost a developed website because some local semi-porn site failed to do their job (return the phone calls) or follow the rules.
All I have to say is, “unfortunate.ly” 😀
I with “Bulls” –
Me (You),
.ly didn’t decide to go Global, it was managed by someone outside the country for many years and was only redelagated to NIC,ly about five years ago. with many Domains already running and almost all of them global Emails.
NIC.ly decided to keep the existing ones and respect the contract they already have. and from their statement they are continuing on that path. but only restricted the remaining less than four for local entities giving them a chance.
@Marwan,
Good to know folks follow this kind of stuff…
Gee Wiz insn’t .co managed outside the country of Columbia as well ?
Regardless of the fear factor in ccTLD’s, like .co & .ly and the questionable governments that ultimately control them – even though they might have a long shelf life in the eyes on some – they take up very little shelf space – no matter how long it takes to get in – get out faster.
there’s a particular reason why a short URL service must end with .ly ?
why not a “global TLD” like (e.g.) .WORLD or .W ???
I’ve read a rumor about Microsoft that (seems) wants to request a TLD (like .W) called .0 (dot zero)
Please read the registry’s press release carefully:
1) They do not allow pronography. And they had given repeated warnings to the domain holder who failed to rectify the business practice. Any registry will delete the domain if domain holder doesn’t follow rules.
2) Their current regulations are to reserve domains for local registrants upto 4 letters.
THEY HAVE NOWHERE SAID THAT ALL 4 LETTER DOMAINS OWNED BY FOREIGNERS WILL BE DELETED.
Panic, rumour and hatered are harmful for global peace and business. Please do not follow sheep mentality. Apply your mind.
N.B.: We have cctlds in around 200 countries. We respect their rules, and have never faced any issues.
Regards
@the amazing DomainersGate directory
“why not a “global TLD” like (e.g.) .WORLD or .W ???”
exactly – why not just sell your soul to the devil for a quick buck to the naive and impressionable –
the genius “environmentalist” Al Gore invented the .com Internet
– not the ???.sucker Internet
”
N.B.: We have cctlds in around 200 countries. We respect their rules, and have never faced any issues.
”
Proceed with caution with ccTLDs – especially from those with “questionable” persisting governments
– NO BS for those who have not drank the juice yet.
Brian, then Google should be in great danger. They have recently started using over 40 new cctlds in Middle East and Africa. Some of them- .cf, .ml, .ne, dz, etc.
You have valid suggestion of being cautious- Google have lost google.ir couple of years ago.
However, cctld based business has its own advantage provided all eggs are not in one cctld.
Regards
Swarn
What is wrong with .US? You can still get three letter hand regs. If you host at godaddy, their system can auto-install yourls, a url shortening program for free.
I have my own domain shortener, why don’t you all have one too?
You would no longer have to rely on the goodwill of hopping savages and head-loppers.