In what looks to be a really odd situation, the website islandcrisis.net is reporting that the government of Mauritius did not pay their bill for the domain name gov.mu. So now it is going to be auctioned off. The domain supposedly gets 500,000 to 1,100,000 queries a day. The government moved on to govmu.org.
Read the full story here
The Internet Direct Limited (IDL), the company that is behind the deactivation of gov.mu, stated that the Mauritian government did not pay its bills, and as a consequence, they had to take the necessary measures. The costs that have remained unpaid amount to hundreds of millions of rupees. IDL also pointed that they had extended a number of deadlines for the payment of the bills.
The issue is of course, that the government can change the rules of the game and enforce the return of the domain name, sooner or later. Quite of an interesting case to put on watch.
Debt being over a million dollars, it has to be related not just to domain name registration and renewals, but other IT services.
Change of rules by government does not pay debt, so it won’t be just that easy.
Based on http://www.nic.mu/index.php/important-communique.html, the case is now on Supreme Court.
Looks like a nice reality watch. Have two boxes of popcorn. Please update us on the following series.