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Countries have total control over their country-code TLD. The _only_ thing the US can be considered "intransigent" about is keeping control over net/com/org/mil/edu -- and so what? They're just anachronisms of the early days when the net was for all intents and purposes a project of the United States. It's just friggen three letters for godssake. It's not like the English freak out that they have to type in ".co.uk" instead of ".com," but the UK could just as well make it ".flibityflabityfloo.uk" and neither the US proper nor ICANN would have a damned thing to say about it and every country has that prerogative. Hell, they can even sell it.

second, why should so much power dealing with the interent be given to a corporation, why not a common non-profit organization handle the .com and .net(and .org, .tv, .info even.... excluding individual contries' domains)?

Capitalism is all about supply and demand. One of the best ways to make a shitload of money is to control the supply of a given resource. The DNS system is ripe for this type of exploitation, since there are a finite number of good domains. Domain value is further increased by making .com a "premium" TLD, instead of one classification among many. The business community will do everything it can to avoid expanding the domain namespace to protect the value of their holdings.

If we try to upgrade or replace DNS, the established interests will shape the new system so they can continue controlling supply. Call me cynical, but this is how markets work. We can only expect more of the same in the future. The whole .tv scam is a perfect example of this.

Dammit! slashdot.tv is already snagged, but thank G-D that slash.tv is still available for a paltry $400/year! What a bargain!

Seriously though, .tv corporation's sliding scale pricing policy is pretty scary, as it charges more for "more desireable", but unregistered, names. I don't doubt that Verisign will continue such a nasty practice. I just hope they don't try to apply it to other TLD's. I know that they shouldn't be able too, but when has that ever stopped them. Maybe that is why they are hoarding expired domain names.

Dammit! slashdot.tv is already snagged, but thank G-D that slash.tv is still available for a paltry $400/year! What a bargain!

Seriously though, .tv corporation's sliding scale pricing policy is pretty scary, as it charges more for "more desireable", but unregistered, names. I don't doubt that Verisign will continue such a nasty practice. I just hope they don't try to apply it to other TLD's. I know that they shouldn't be able too, but when has that ever stopped them. Maybe that is why they are hoarding expired domain names.

Dammit! slashdot.tv is already snagged, but thank G-D that slash.tv is still available for a paltry $400/year! What a bargain!

Seriously though, .tv corporation's sliding scale pricing policy is pretty scary, as it charges more for "more desireable", but unregistered, names. I don't doubt that Verisign will continue such a nasty practice. I just hope they don't try to apply it to other TLD's. I know that they shouldn't be able too, but when has that ever stopped them. Maybe that is why they are hoarding expired domain names.

I heard a commercial on the radio today about the .tv TLD. I had not heard of this before, especially from this site (except as speculation).

You can now get one from, appropriately, www.tv. The prices generally seem reasonable, expect for special cases, where they get ridiculous.

I was surprised. How did Slashdot miss this one?

Just when the Tuvalunese start getting an income stream that doesn't involve having their islands, or their neighbours', trashed by phosphate mining, ICANN wipe them out with the .tel TLD !

dotTV has the right to terminate your email address at its sole discretion. If your email address is terminated, you will be refunded the $1.00 annual maintenance fee.

As soon as somebody buys those domain names you will lose your email address there.

The last sentence of the article states:

DotTV is backed by the Pasadena Internet business incubator Idealab, the firm behind online retailer eToys and the free Internet service provider NetZero.

Idealab "creates, launches and operates Internet businesses". Unfortunately, they have something to do with etoys which deserves a swift execution for its treatment of etoy.com

The dotTV Terms of Service contract specifically explains the company's nationality:

LIMITED DISTRIBUTION AND TERRITORIAL CONSIDERATIONS Unless otherwise specified, all materials and services in the Site are presented solely for the use in the United States, its territories, possessions and protectorates. This site is controlled and operated by dotTV from its offices within the State of California, U.S.A. dotTV makes no representation that materials in the Site are appropriate or available for use in other locations.

So DotTV is an American (U.S.) company.

Not just that, but the Auction Rules and Registration Agreement give plenty more ways of making money.

You must put down a $1000 deposit. The top three (not just the winner) can lose that deposit if them or ones above them decide not to buy it after the auction.

You must buy two years, and every year the price increases 5%.

Of course, all fees are non-refundable. So when they decide you aren't using the site for appropriate " purposes of conducting legitimate business." Heh, your site has to be under the "laws of any jurisdiction where the domain name is accessible." Is there any activity any more that is allowed everywhere? Take porn.tv, there are laws in various lands against just about every act. Therefore dotTV is free to yank the domain and keep the $50,000 per year you gave them. Castro has plenty of crazy laws. Should nbc.tv broadcast a report going against Cuba (assuming they buy the domain, and that they would broadcast anything anti-Castro, definately a stretch), they're out.

This seems like some easy and useful ways of generating revenue. Time to start hunting down teeny islands and buy every two-letter word TLD. For several millions, you could even convince them to change their name to Linuxania or something useful for TLDing. :)

Not just that, but the Auction Rules and Registration Agreement give plenty more ways of making money.

You must put down a $1000 deposit. The top three (not just the winner) can lose that deposit if them or ones above them decide not to buy it after the auction.

You must buy two years, and every year the price increases 5%.

Of course, all fees are non-refundable. So when they decide you aren't using the site for appropriate " purposes of conducting legitimate business." Heh, your site has to be under the "laws of any jurisdiction where the domain name is accessible." Is there any activity any more that is allowed everywhere? Take porn.tv, there are laws in various lands against just about every act. Therefore dotTV is free to yank the domain and keep the $50,000 per year you gave them. Castro has plenty of crazy laws. Should nbc.tv broadcast a report going against Cuba (assuming they buy the domain, and that they would broadcast anything anti-Castro, definately a stretch), they're out.

This seems like some easy and useful ways of generating revenue. Time to start hunting down teeny islands and buy every two-letter word TLD. For several millions, you could even convince them to change their name to Linuxania or something useful for TLDing. :)

Browsing through the http://www.tv/images/ directory I came across a price chart for how they determine the starting auction value for the domain names. You can check it out here: http://www.tv/images/pricing.gif.

Browsing through the http://www.tv/images/ directory I came across a price chart for how they determine the starting auction value for the domain names. You can check it out here: http://www.tv/images/pricing.gif.