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Even within the EU's economic area (EEA), as per your original comment, includes countries that are not members of the EU itself. The same laws apply in the whole EEA-region.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Supranational_European_Bodies.png

It is in fact amongst this group of countries you will the few registrars that [still] require a local entity. I see now that there are very few left...

NORID of Norway's requirements are as follows:

Main requirements
To register a domain name within .no, you need to:
- have a local presence in Norway
- be an organization. At present this is defined as being one of certain forms of organization registered in the Brønnøysund Register Centre
- ensure that the domain is technically operative

http://www.norid.no/regelverk/index.en.html

Here, let me quote from Norid: In order to apply for a domain name your organization need to be registered in Brønnøysundregistrene, which in turn requires that it has an address in Norway or in Svalbard.

(Vel, hvis du ikke er norsk, da...:)

Liechtenstein is .li

My favourite page to look such things up is http://www.norid.no/domenenavnbaser/domreg.html

Well, gee, as he says below, the .ch TLD is assigned to Switzerland, and:

A) The gmx.ch domain is registered to a company in Germany.

B) The last hop I can resolve on a traceroute is yet another German-owned domain.

C) Hmm...Maybe this might be a clue?

Combine all this with the fact that Switzerland and Germany are smack-dab in Central-Western Europe, and why, exactly, would I not assume he is European?

Don't insult my intelligence, Mr. AC...Not everyone in the US thinks nothing exists outside our borders, despite what those with anti-American prejudices may like to think :):P

--sex

Sealand isn't a real country, so no, they don't have their own ccTLD.

Neither are a number of places with their own ccTLD. Off the top of my head, the Cocos Islands (.cc), Christmas Island (the infamous .cx), and the Heard and McDonald Islands (.hm) (all part of Australia) come to mind... have a look here for more info.

So why shouldn't Sealand get their own ccTLD?

I've found http://www.norid.no/domreg.html to be useful when trying to figure out which ccTLD corresponds to which country -- they also link to the NIC, if the address is known.

Ever hear of country coded Top Level Domains (ccTLD)? Lots of 'em are open to the whole world; anyone can get one. Okay, some--like .se and .fi--are restricted, and some--like .uk and .au--require you to get a third-level domain (example.co.uk or example.net.au). Some others--Myanmar's .mm being the only one I know about--will charge you extra if you don't have an address in their country. But they are out there and there are DOZENS of 'em. Some--such as the USSR's .su and East Germany's .dd--are no longer being issued. But there are still plenty left.

If you want a complete listing of ccTLDs, check the following url: http://www.norid.no/domreg.html Okay, so yourbusinessname.am or yourpersonalsite.tv isn't as "sexy" as .com or .net. Who cares? It'll get your people there, and that's all that matters.

Actually, this has been relaxed a bit lately. You still have to be a registered corp/org, but you can have several domains (I can't find any limit in the current docs), and the domain names don't have to relate to the organization name.

Regarding por.no, it was reserved, together with a bunch of other names (such as city, county and other geographical names (which are used as third level domains, previously for businesses based in those areas, you had to have national presence to get an SLD). The reserved list shrunk significantly during the relaxation of the rules, ee the list

© 2000 Ilmari. All ritghts reserved, all wrongs reversed

Well, good luck in getting it registered, if that's all you've got to go buy.

Registering a domain under .no is not quite as easy as registering under .com. Yet.

See NORID's guide for first-time applicants.

2. General Rules

2.1 An organization may only register one domain name for itself.

2.2 An organization must document it's exsistance to NORID when applying for a domain name. This is normally done by presenting the organization number from the Brønnøysund register (National register of all organizations/corporations).

2.3 NORID decides whether a registration is to be performed, and whether the registration will be directly under .no or in the geographic nametree or i a category domain. Appeals go to NOK - NORID's complaint department.

3. Who may apply

3.1 The applicant must represent or be a member of an organization registered as such in Norway, see section 2.2. Normally it's required that the applicant presents an organization number registered in the Brønnøysund register for the organization. Registration of domains for sub-levels of the organization are not allowed.

3.2 The registered address of the organization must be in Norway, or on Svalbard.

3.3 Individuals may not register domain names directly under .no. Individuals must register a domain under the category domain priv.no, which is administered by EUnet Norway.

I hope this explains why the domain is registered to Micro Media ADB and not Jon Johansen's father.

It's worth metioning that there are loads of dummy organizations solely registered in order to get funny domain names. Examples from the top of my head, and what they translate to are:

• inni.no: inside something
• eller.no: or something
• ikke.no: nothing