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NeuStar to Manage .US Registry

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the slashdot.us-is-a-little-too-literal dept.

flatt writes: "The US Government picked NeuStar, the managers of the upcoming .biz registry, to manage the .us registry today. NeuStar has made a press release and there's an AP article over at Excite about it. Finally a country code that I'll register in." This has been brewing for a long time, and has been criticized as a giveaway.

6 of 217 comments (clear)

  1. Excite article... by CmdrTroll · · Score: 5, Interesting
    The excite link was slashdotted but here is a summary of what it said:

    • The registry will go on-line on December 15th, 2001
    • Neustar will be partially subsidized by the US government, and will charge users $5/domain/year for .us domains
    • Neustar will be selling x.509 certificates (similar to what Verisign does) for .us domains for $75/domain/year. They have a deal with Thawte that allows them to use the Thawte certificates in most browsers today.
    • Pre-registration starts November 30th, 2001, at www.neustar.us

    -CT

  2. new TLD's by rossdee · · Score: 5, Funny

    "The US Government picked NeuStar, the managers of the upcoming .biz registry, to manage the .us registry today."

    So will there also be a .them TLD ?

  3. An International Internet by Embedded+Geek · · Score: 5, Interesting
    So, is this (the use of .US domains) going to be a step towards a more international Internet, even a baby step?

    I know that people (esp in the mainstream press) marvel at how global the Internet is, but the fact is that it is inherently biased towards people in the US. Personally, unless I have reason to think otherwise (e.g. oxford.edu, moscowballet.org, airfrance.com, etc) I (incorrectly) tend to assume that a domain is on my side of the pond (or Pacific, or Canadian or Mexican border). It strikes me as unfair that a business running in the UK realistcally has to grab both .co.uk and .com domains to be sure that they reach their (UK) customers while I could simply buy eds-taco-palace.com and everyone knows it's in the States.

    On the gripping hand... if we are entering an era of U.S. hedgmony, perhaps this skewed view is appropriate. After all, if the Romans had the Internet, would they have confided themselves to a ".rmn" country code?

    PS - Random thought - imagine IP addresses in Rome: ccv.xcv.xxx.ii. But then they'd have had to cross the Atlantic and conquer the Aztecs to get zero and make it work...

    --

    "Prepare for the worst - hope for the best."

  4. in other news... by Malachite · · Score: 5, Funny

    ...the number of stupid webpages sporting american flags and those silly "osama bin laden: wanted dead or alive" posters is expected to skyrocket.

  5. Re:only us residents by rfc1394 · · Score: 5, Insightful
    Again a ccTLD which is only of use for residents of this country.
    As the actual owner of a .US domain for more than two years now, that's not my understanding, I believe that .US has always been open to anyone who wants to register a compliant address. (Compliant means it has to be under a 2-character state and a specific city in that state). In fact, you don't even have to be where the domain is named; for example, my domain is listed as Washington, DC, but I do not live there (I live about 5 miles from Washington in another state). When I filled out the application with the nic for .US, which then was ISI at the University of Southern California (USC-ISI), I put down my address in Virginia and was issued the domain name the next day.
    That's not fair - why is my country then giving away it's domain to people all around the world?
    Doubtful that there are very many people outside of the US would want to bother with a .US address. I only got it because they're free, and basically about the only ones getting them are organizations tied to a specific city and state (local governments) and people or companies who are (to put it bluntly), cheapskates like me. The price of "free" was a lot more affordable for me when I wasn't working, as opposed to the (then exorbitant) $35 a year for a .COM or other TLD address.
    In my opinion this should be standarized. So that all ccTLDs are open for everybody.
    A country code TLD is subject to whatever rules that the country code agency of that country decides. You can't get a ham radio license in a particular country unless you follow its rules and there's no reason that whomever runs a particular TLD can't set rules on who can apply or what they can get.

    Since most countries are charging for domains in their TLD the domain operator usually sees it as a profit center, and with the exception of the few remaining communist countries - and maybe some of them, too - I suspect you can get a registration in just about any country's tld whether or not you live there.

    Paul Robinson <Postmaster@paul.washington.dc.us>

    --
    The lessons of history teach us - if they teach us anything - that nobody learns the lessons that history teaches us.
  6. Re:Now! Register your domains! by TeknoHog · · Score: 5, Funny
    all.your.base.are.belong.to.us

    (no http:// coz I fail to understand what it has to do with domain names)

    --
    Escher was the first MC and Giger invented the HR department.