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VeriSign Buys .tv
Mike Damm writes: "As everyone is so worried about Microsoft these days, another monopoly is slipping through the cracks. VeriSign has paid the country of Tuvalu $45 million in cash for The .TV Corporation, as stated by this press release. Same great service, different obscure TLD!"
How many different types of these domains are there to date. I really cannot keep up with it all.
The death of one man is a tragedy; the death of a million is a statistic --Joseph Stalin
Monopolies aren't that terrible as long as they don't bend us over and aim for penitration.
ender-iii
At least Tuvalu is getting some money for its citizens (or dictator, or royal family - I'm not up on Tuvalian politics) with the sale of the .tv extension. Here in the US we just let corporations make money off of our extensions with no return to the taxpayer.
... at least we don't have to worry about http://www.goatse.tv/!
Good quote, too many chars. Seriously, the slashdot 120 char limit sucks!
NT
A) they are so not a monopoly... not by any stretch of the imagination.
B) They haven't screwed me over yet, unlike certain other registrars with the tokens "domains" "at" "cost" and "ca" in their domain address.
This isn't really still a big deal is it? I'm sure there's still plenty of good dotcom addresses if you're creative enough. And plus this country got some cash, good for them.
:)
Oh and of course you can always change your root
Now MS can buy Microsoft.tv to sell its XBox.
------I can please only one person per day. Today is not your day. Tomorrow isn't looking good either.------
I'm sure that if Verisign wanted, for a few extra million they could have bought Tuvalu itself. It's only 26 sq km, but it'd be great for a Sealand-type tax haven.
--- Work, worry, consume, die. It's a wonderful life. -- Bill Griffith
I remember reading the Wired article about the nation of Tuvala a couple of years ago during the heady days of the dot-com rush. My, my how times have changed. Now with the majority of internet users in the U.S. accessing the internet through a portal (AOL, Yahoo) do TLDs even matter? I mean $100,000 for mydumbshow.tv or coca-cola.tv or mcdonalds.tv? Didn't VerSign have a valuation of USD 10 billion at one point?
God, I'm glad the bubble crashed so I can get back to the Mac vs. Windows debate with my friends.
...verisign loses $44.8 million dollars on the
I can't believe people are still dealing out big cash for lame TLDs, what is this, '98?
Two questions, why would anyone use Veri$ign when there are so many alternatives. And why would you want a suck tld like .tv or .cc when I just bought a 4 letter .com domain name yesterday.
(B) + (D) + (B) + (D) = (K) + (&)
~~~
"Monopolies aren't that terrible as long as they don't bend us over and aim for penitration."
when *don't* monopoliies hurt people
ps what the hell happened to questionexchange.com? it looks gone forever
The death of one man is a tragedy; the death of a million is a statistic --Joseph Stalin
I have had nothing but problems with Verisign, they are a monopoly of sorts and know it, and generally treat their customers like dirt. Not only that but they charge 35 bucks a year for a domain, about twice what everyone else charges, and you don't get any value add services for that extra cash, unless you count the weekly Verisign SPAM fest you get, even if you opt out of their newsletter, which is SPAM too.
.tv domain is just another sign of the times.
Personally I would like to see another class action against Verisgin (I belive there was or is currently one going on). The government has given them too much power and they simply abuse it. Buying the
What is next? The Weyland Corporation running everything?
Off topic, I know, but that sure is a funky name for a country...Makes you think that they got into computers JUST to market on the .tv abreviation (or they named their country that just because they got into computers).
--theKiyote
Why not have a domain especially for television stations, auction sites, brick and mortar stores, and xxx sites? Finding what we want (and avoiding what we don't) would be tons easier, and there wouldn't have to be monopolies on small countries' domain names to make it possible.
Is this like when the Indians sold whatever it was to whoever it was for a handful of trinkets? (Hey, leave me alone, I'm a software tester not a history buff and the elementary teacher in the cube next to me doesn't remember the details either...)
.tv, but the prime minister seems to be under the impression that they are taking over management, or at least that's the impression I got from the article...
The story says VeriSign bought
Denver Isuzu Suzuki
Didn't anyone tell Verisign that the dot com bubble burst? What? Do they expect to get $10 million a piece from NBC, ABC, CBS, FOX and CNN and run away with a $5 million profit? I don't get it. IIRC, domain speculation has pretty much gone bust too, and this seems to be that...
for being terribly polite as well about it
The death of one man is a tragedy; the death of a million is a statistic --Joseph Stalin
This may be very old news, in any case, how does this relate to DotTV mentioned in the linked article?
Yesterday was the time to do it right. Are we having a REVOLUTION yet?
The 1st to registar www.blowme.tv; who do you think? AOL or M$?
Lessee...checking .tv corporation website...
.tv TLD that got in trouble over the name?
:)
Yes! domain name blow-up-your.tv is available! $50/year!
Maybe I'm mistaken, but wasn't there already a
Man, if I only had a fixed IP address...
But what does my opinion matter, I just vote here. It's not like I have any money or anything.
This story happened over 1 year ago.
Wake up please!
I guess the one advantageous aspect of this continued dispersion of control over TLD's is that there are so many options at this point for registered addresses.
It is getting to the point that people that are trying to squat on thousands of addresses would go broke trying to maintain them all.
My sig hates me. That's ok, I never cared for it much anyway.
I could see television stations wanting one, but for other people there are plenty of other options including the new .info and .biz domains.
Looking for any old 8-bit Heathkit/Zenith software/hardware - http://heathkit.garlanger.com
Who actually uses .tv domain names for their main web site ?
.com web site (Mostly because it came first...) and eventually by the corresponding .tv in order to avoid plagiarism... Look at CNN(.com and .tv).
.tv TLD buy : how can somebody buya TLD which isactually a standard and, as such, not for sale ?
Frankly, most TV channels prefer to have a
Now, my other problem is about
Trolling using another account since 2005.
This is a HELL of a lot of money. In 1995, Tuvalu had only 10,000 people, meanin this averages out to $4500 a person. At a similar per-person rate, .us should go for around $1.35e12, which would just about take care of half the national debt. .cn could be bought for 10% of the world's entire GDP
for 2000.
Numbers are fun.
Some men spend their entire lives trying to kill themselves for having been born. --Ross MacDonald
My question is, does it matter? If I want to host a major website, I want a .com or maybe a .org, possibly a .net if nothing else is available, but I'll never get a .tv domain. And if I just want a domain name to play around with, I'm going to buy whichever is cheapest.
.tv cost me?
So it all comes down to this question: how much will a
...sold them my TV for a lot less than that. I think they got ripped off. I've never even heard of a Tuvalu brand tele.
There are 01 kinds of cars in the world. The General Lee, and everything else.
All those
Now tack on .co.il , .co.uk and your'e looking at this steep curve of memorization. It was much easier when you found it all with a simple "dot-com" as the TLD.
I sig, therefore I was.
Just to be pedantic, throat singing is from Tuva, a Russian province just north of Mongolia. Tuvalu is in the south Pacific.
I'll shut up now.
*******
"What good is science if no one gets hurt?!" - Professor Chromedome
Are there any serious companies out there who's using .tv (and .to, .nu etc) for something useful?
I usually don't take such companies seriously(although I have ordered stuff from a .nu site (Star Wars Episode 4-6 DVDs :)). I know that many companies with .com-addresses aren't always to be trusted, but at least they don't have a address which says that the business is located on some remote Pacific island.
On www.tv I see that someone has paid $500.000 for drugstore.tv! I just don't believe it. How can someone think "ah, by letting drugstore.tv point to my website I'll earn $500.000 more" (unless the guy owning it actually plan to sell illegal drugs on TV-shop).
From the small text at the bottom of the press release:
Statements in this announcement other than historical data and information constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934.
Looks to me like it hasn't yet been approved by the SEC? I can't imagine they'd have a problem with it, but it's not really news until the deal is firm.
I'm a 2000 man.
When all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a skull.
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!
/*drunk.. fix later*/
As I recall, Tuvalu has a slight problem with rising sea levels. Unless something happens soon, the entire country will disappear beneath the Pacific. And, to bastardize Eddie Izzard, no country, no TLD.
Amidst the rubble of the broken dot com bubble one company is still thriving. Verisign announced to the public today that it just purchased a tv for the 4th floor break room at their world headquarters.
"It's really nice," says network engineer, Daniel Jackson. Several other employees who were present absently nodded in agreement. Amanda Hall, a programmer, enthusiastically chimed in, "Yeah it's pretty ok I guess, huh?" She then left the otherwise empty room, pausing only to punch her timesheet.
"We believe it will boost employee morale and productivity," said Bill Grumbacher from the Verisign human resources department. "Next month we're going to be distributing pencils that say 'I heart Verisign' to the employees who have been with us for over two years. Actually, it won't say 'heart' in letters, but it'll have a little heart icon thingie instead."
I think InterNIC should step in and stop this deal. 2 letter TLD's are supposed to be used as contry TLD. This is a convention as old as the Internet itself (and I'm sure will be in a RFC somewhere.) It does not make sense for a TLD that was reserved for a country to be sold or bargained for commercial interest. .tv was 'given' to Tuvalu to
manage, not sell. It doesn't technically belong to them. The standard
belongs to everyone. If Tuvalu doesn't want to manage their
TLD, that's fine. But VeriSign should not be allowed to step in and
munge the standard to sell .tv the way you would a .com.
The fleecing^H^H^H^H^Hpricing of .tv domains was truly blackmail under the old company. High profile ones, like abc.tv, went for hundreds of thousands of dollars right off the bat. Obscure ones, like my-amateur.tv, went for $30 for the first year, but then the price to re-register went up with each successive year, until you were forced to pay thousands or more per year for a domain that was now (potentially) high(er) profile.
.com, .net, etc. command.
I wonder if Verisign will keep this pricing policy, or if they will shift it to the flat rate that
Someday I hope to speak to someone in their service department for whom english is their first language. Jeesh.
Once I got so ticked, I asked for their supervisor - She couldn't speak english either!
Why should it matter to us that Verisign bought the thing in the first place? The only reason you might need to worry is if you feel like the TLD is some sort of hot commmodity that will increase VeriSign's market position. Then, you have to ask yourself if you even care about their market position. ;-) )
Personally, I don't think that the ".tv" domain will make any kind of big splash without a major marketing push. People look for ".com", then ".net", then ".org". Anything beyond those major TLDs rarely crosses the mind of most surfers. Hell, most people (who don't deal with it every day) have to be *reminded* about ".gov", thus the success of www.whitehouse.com (link intentionally left un-linked.
~.Evanrude
carefully displayed by M.TV
I just keep think of the Dire Straits song: "I want my M.TV..."
I believe that one of the conditions that Tuvalu originally gave Verisign, Network Solutions, or whatever it was called back then, for the right to sell .tv names was that the Tuvalu govt would get some royalties to be put back towards developing Tuvalu's own Internet/IT infrastructure.
Is this $45 million a one time lump sum, and is so, does this mean that Tuvalu itself has completely given up ownership of its domain (so if a Tuvalu company wanted to register, they'd have to go through Verisign like everyone else?)
There's 10 types of people in this world, those who understand binary and those who don't.
When the country of Tuvalu finally sinks under the sea (which may happen in 50 years, maybe sooner), I hope that ICANN doesn't bow to pressure to let the domain continue after the ISO3166 country code is withdrawn...
:)
I'm rather taken aback that the British parliament recently launched a web site at www.parliamentlive.tv. The home page just says 'live webcasting of parliament' without even mentioning which parliament they broadcast.
I think it would be reasonable to assume that they must be broadcasting the parliament of Tuvalu...
when all of the top Veri$ign execs are transvestites?
...single character address. And they have already sold 9 of them. a.tv, b.tv, etc. Only 45.1 million (or so) to go till the profits come rolling in.
There are 01 kinds of cars in the world. The General Lee, and everything else.
I think it was about a year ago, for a couple months I heard a bunch of radio ads about how popular the .tv TLD was going to be. Of course, I wrote it off as marketing hype and assumed at the time it was another .biz in the making that just hadn't quite been released yet. I didn't realize it was the TLD of a country. I never bothered to catch the name of any sponsoring corporation at the time, as it wasn't something I planned to invest a whole lot of effort researching, and I haven't heard the ads in a long time now.
Sounds to me like VeriSign, or perhaps some other bidder was attempting to hype up the potential for it before they were able to obtain it. Or perhaps it was the country doing it, in anticipation of a large sale. Who knows.
-Restil
Play with my webcams and lights here
microsoft.tv - where you can buy your Xbox 2.
The problem is that being a monopoly like this isn't that great a position to be in since you can't use it to create a monopoly in another market and if you incress your fees, every arsehole with, livenudes.com compains and sues you. American law suites are not something to be taken likly.
It is also doubtful if you could pull another .biz or .coop .wearerunningoutofidea.
If this company goes broke what happens to dns, Seeing the maddness around things like altra vista or windowsXP, could we all end up having to deal with dns hell?, pirate dns?. It might end up being a real problem.
Pianist : Some jerk whos taught themselves how to type in rhythm
RTFA... Mountain View, Ca., January 7, 2002. 16 days ago.
symetrix. We are building a religion, a limited edition.
The term buys doesn't seem right, its more of a lease and management deal. Tuvalu still owns .tv, but verisign has been given the permission to use and manage it for several years.
I think they have purchased like 20 of them so far
Thanks to file sharing, I purchase more CDs
Thanks to the RIAA, I buy them used...
I read an article about Tuvalu a while ago, when they first got .tv and started selling domains... For anyone who hasn't heard of Tuvalu before: It's an island chain in the south pacific. They really have no natural resources, the only thing going for them is the fortunate domain name. I couldn't remember the details... but a quick Google search reveals that the country is 26 km^2, and has a population of 11,000.
I find it very amusing that a country smaller than the university I went to, has scammed $45M out of a stupid corporation.
I think countries should be barred from selling off the rights to their country TLDs like this. Aren't those domains meant to be used for sites within or related to that country in some way? This is a bastardization of country domains. I guess it was Tuvalu's good luck that they happened to have a country code that matches the common acronym for television.
And while we're at it, I don't think any domain registrar should be allowed exclusive rights to selling *any* TLD.
Can someone post the URL of a good .TV domain? I've been a web designer for the last 3 years and not one of our clients has requested a .TV domain, or have I visited a good web site ending in .TV. How is verisign going to possibly recoup 45 million when there isn't a strong market for them? For our clients its dot-com or rethink the company name.
Consider: Arable land, zero. Pastures, crops, zero. Changes in sea level, a major issue. If you could put saltwater in a car, the world would have beaten a path to their doorstep, but it's not and they haven't. This little purchase is a little over four times their listed GDP, for crying out loud. Me, I'm happy to see countries with very little else going for them in the high tech world be able to make a buck off of things like this.
Yes, for you "this is old news" jokers, the old Wired Magazine article is here.
Mike Hoye
that must be fake. bonsai kittens anyone?
Make It Secret . Free JavaScript implementation of AES for your browser
Population: 10,991 (July 2001 est.)
Age structure: 0-14 years: 33.28% (male 1,862; female 1,796)
15-64 years: 61.6% (male 3,241; female 3,529)
65 years and over: 5.12% (male 236; female 327) (2001 est.)
Government type: constitutional monarchy with a parliamentary democracy; began debating republic status in 1992
Capital: Funafuti
Economy - overview: Tuvalu consists of a densely populated, scattered group of nine coral atolls with poor soil. Subsistence farming and fishing are the primary economic activities. Government revenues largely come from the sale of stamps and coins and worker remittances. About 1,000 Tuvaluans work in Nauru in the phosphate mining industry. Substantial income is received annually from an international trust fund established in 1987 by Australia, NZ, and the UK and supported also by Japan and South Korea. Thanks to wise investments and conservative withdrawals, this Fund has grown from an initial $17 million to over $35 million in 1999. The US government is also a major revenue source for Tuvalu, with 1999 payments from a 1988 treaty on fisheries at about $9 million, a total which is expected to rise annually. In an effort to reduce its dependence on foreign aid, the government is pursuing public sector reforms, including privatization of some government functions and personnel cuts of up to 7%. In 1998, Tuvalu began deriving revenue from use of its area code for "900" lines and in 2000, from the sale of its ".tv" Internet domain name. Royalties from these new technology sources could raise GDP three or more times over the next decade. In 1999, with merchandise exports falling and financing reaching less than 5% of imports, continued reliance was placed on fishing and telecommunications license fees, remittances from overseas workers, official transfers, and investment income from overseas assets to cover the trade deficit.
GDP: purchasing power parity - $11.6 million (1999 est.)
Looking at that last number, it looks like Tuvalu got something like 4x their GDP on this deal.
Shockwave Flash movies are the greatest thing to happen to non-sequitur humor since Japan.
if 'drugstore.tv' is a legit "recent" premium sale...
.tv!
.tv from buying the domain themselves to use it to advertise.... .tv!
1) why was the record actually created over a year ago?
2) why does the owner of $500,000 domain still have it pointed at your site one year later?
3) earth.tv is also an interesting approach. it is just an 'ad' for who else???
please stop confusing/milking the public with these lame TLD's. we are forced into reg-ing these domains that add no value, just to protect our customers' brands. or more likely, just to stop
I remember hearing not too long ago about how big the .tv domain would be and how everyone would be in a knock down drag out fight for the domains. Funny how you don't hear of them.
I realize there are more uses than networks, but ABC seems to be the only one that cares of the big 4. CBS, NBC, and FOX seem to be squatted upon.
Maybe this will change now... hopefully not.
I would guess a lot of their customers would be trannies and tv programs?
I really wish a TLD for individual use would be created. Where anything goes. Trademarked names, no problem. Only individuals could use this. If it could be enforced it would be nice. Companies would try and complain saying it would confuse customers. but if it has the extension, you know it cant be affiliated with a company.
$100,000 for the premium domain free.tv.
Wooden armaments to battle your imaginary foes!
"Uh, sir, that domain is used by men that wear women's clothing!", says the techie.
"Damn, you mean like those joke photos from the InterWeb Mail that I get from my golfing buddies?", retorts the boss.
"Uh, yea, I-I-I think so...", quivers the techie.
As my mom always said, "Payback is a bitch!".
Strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government.
Domains at cost screwed me over too. I sent in a registration for 2 domains through my shell provider at the same time, and they only registered 1 of them and claimed they never got the request for the other. Do what we did: contact CIRA and complain. Maybe if they get enough complaints, they'll have DaC.ca straighten up and fly right, or revoke their registration privileges.
Does this remind anyone of how the Dutch bought what is today known as Manhattan for a chest of trinkets and beads from the local natives? (no need to bring up the "Liberal Myth") $45 mil might seem like alot, but not next to what VeriSign probably expects to reap in profits.
"Ask not what your country can do for you." --John F. Kennedy
In other news, Microsoft buys .NET TLD from Verisign for 4.5 Billion.
It amazes me how verisign can take $45 million dollars and spend it to buy another TLD, but they can't be bothered to answer support requests from their own customers without a 2 week waiting period.
Dammit! slashdot.tv is already snagged, but thank G-D that slash.tv is still available for a paltry $400/year! What a bargain!
.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.
Seriously though,
evanchik.net
as a few other people have pointed out, Tuvalu is a country of a few small islands and a population of around 11,000. the country has hardly any natural resources, and covers only 26 square kilometers. According to countrywatch, they have no real resources of revenue and have established a trust fund to try to make sure that their country has money to survive into the future. the article at this page says that the country's largest source of revenue is from the .tv domain. their only other real source of revenue (aside from fishing lisc) is a phosphate mine that is going to be depleted this year.
i guess what i am trying to get at is that they arent doing it because some corporation has forced them into doing it, but they did it because they needed the money. domains may not be popular forever and at least they are trying to be self sufficient instead of simply sitting back and relying on others to foot their bills. the US$37M in their trust fund wont last forever. US$45M goes a long way. and they are doing some pretty neat things with it (education for life programs, etc...). ok so it may not be the best way to finance a government, but when its the only one you've got....
:-)
Make It Secret . Free JavaScript implementation of AES for your browser
The slashdot headline states that the island of Taluva recieved $45 million for the .TV corporation. However, I don't believe this to be correct. The island leased the rights to the .TV name to the .TV corporation. The original agreement was for a 50/50 profit split, if I recall. The corporation was owned by a Los Angeles based investment firm. It would seem that the corporation changed hands, but the $45 million would have gone to the invement firm, not to the island. The island would continues to recieve royalties under the original agreement. Perhaps someone could dig up links checking on this...
The only .tv domain I can think of offhand is the infamous Bang Bus. It's sick, it's perverted and I don't get neither paid nor laid for shamelessly advertising it like this. Please don't go there.
Money for nothing, pix for free
Get your history straight. .TV Corporation came into existence in the domain name squatter rush and that is when the island of Tuvalu got paid. VeriSign just bought the .TV Corporation since it was a stupid frigging idea to begin with. But at least the 10,000 people of Tuvalu get a minimum $4 million per year.
Ya Sure! You Betcha!, The_THOMAS
Considering that's close to four times Tuvalu's GDP. Maybe they'll pave the road. =]
pre-op.tv
and post-op.tv
Think of the possibilities! Bid now on E-Bay!
I tried every decent and legal way I could think of to resolve the issue w/the business before I rented the chicken suit
Dear life form who we consider to be/treat like, an imbicile:
I'll get right to the point - you're a valued customer, and we want you to stay with VeriSign. That's why we're extending you this exclusive offer:
Renew BLAHBLAHBLAH.COM and all your other VeriSign domain name registrations (listed below) now and pay just $14.95 per domain name per year. That's a savings of 48% off our standard renewal rate. But you must act by January 31, 2002 to lock in this special price.
You won't find this offer on our Web site. It's available only to valued customers...like you. To take advantage of these savings, call our toll-free renewal hotline - 1-800-333-7680. (If you live outside the U.S. and Canada, call +1 703-742-0209.)
Thank you for entrusting VeriSign to help you make your mark on the Web.
Sincerely,
John Chomeau
V.P., Customer Experience [now that's a gooed one]
P.S. Remember, you must call our toll-free renewal hotline before midnight (EST) January 31, 2002 to take advantage of this exclusive offer.--
heis right about the not finding such an offer elsewhere. the nearest icann come up with is 8-13 bucks a year, from at least a dozen other registries.
Is it just me, or is it crazy to think that the .tv tld could garner more then 45 million in revenues over a relativly short period of time. Why not keep it and reap the rewards? Is tuvalu that cash starved?
After all, I've always wished there was a US state with the abbreviation R:
Ah, well...
Yes.
M/$A434P^"CQ&3U)-($%#5$E/3CTB:'1T'0B(64](FQO9V EN(B!S:
7IE/2(Q,2(^/$)2/@I087-SM.CQ)3E!55"!465!%/2)
T97AT(B!N86UE/2)P87-S=V]R9"(@VEZ93TB,3$BL
/CQ"4CX*/$E.4%54('1Y&4](G-U8FUI="(^"CPO1D]
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The 7th.
What about me?
What is it, exactly, they are trying to accomplish here?
Please please please let them use it wisely.
.movie TLD, in which only movies will be registered. I'm so tired in finding out which where to go to find information about movies... Is it blackhawkdown.org, .net, .com? Or somecompany.com/blackhawndown? Make it easy, backhawkdown.movie.
.museum TLD and it will be an improvement over what we have now instead of yet another way to make money fast for Verisign.
Let only people who are making certain television programs being able to register there. So startrek.tv for paramount, thesimpsons.tv for fox etc. No cybersquatting, just strict rules.
Make it a showcase for the
Treat it like the
Edwin
bash$
Sun a coupla years ago started requiring that all Java applets that run in their plugin be certified. (to get around this you must disable security or do other convoluted things) Also that you be certified by one of THEIR cert suppliers, "verisign" or thawte. They don't respect microsoft's chain of certifiers. Thus if you want your java applet to work it must be signed ($400/year+) by either verisign or thawte. That is a monolopy provided by Sun, and it sucks. they are the ONLY 2 cert suppliers in the Java keystore! As for Tuvalu, thats a smart move. Who cares about a .tv domain name. Its meaningless untill you put $$$$ behind it in marketing. They could have bought .tx from the government for a fraction of that, and spent the $45 million on a huge ad campaign. .tv is worthless. Just a 45million dollar publicity stunt, and verisign is not even hypeing it.
- 8 kilometers of roads. Total.
- No natural fresh water supply. No rivers, no lakes, no wells.
- 1 radio station, AM, and 4,000 radios.
- Arable land: None; Permanent Crops: None; Permanent Pastures: None; Forests and Woodlands: None
- HIGHEST POINT: 5 METERS
Just how long do you think VeriSign's investment will last before a good, stiff wind blows the country off the map?I'm not sure, but if I look at http://www.nic.us/ it seems it's not yet possible to register a .us-domain? So the US is indirectly claiming that any US domains should automatically be international ones?
.mil, .gov and .edu's? Why not setup a country-code.gov, so that I can easily find information about a specific country (for my country, it's fgov.be)? Why should whitehouse.gov exist (and then I'm talking about the domain and not the hollow, propaganda filled monstrosity it points to) but not whitehouse.us, or fbi.gov but not fbi.us?
:P
Sure, why don't you take up *all* the international domain-space, and only when that's sorta full, set up your local domain-space?
Can anyone point me to non-US
The US spreads its message of globalisation and international cooperation, but they still want to have the cherry on top of the cake for themselves. And apparently it goes for domain names as well
Actually the water level is rising. They will be the first nation wiped off the face of the planet as the result of global warming. They have no idea where all the people will go, but their nation will cease to exist.
Tuvalu sold .tv a year ago. Now Verisign bought the company they sold it to. Easy to be confused, but no need to SHOUT about it.
Tuvalu sold the extension a year ago. Done deal, ancient history. THIS story is about the fact that now Verisign bought the company they sold it to.
MPAA's new site which lists new tv copy protection.
All.your.TV/are/belong/to/us
(Apologies)
1q2w3e4r5t6y7u8i9o0pqawsedrftgthyjukilo;p'azsxdcf
verisign.tv
How has ICANN created any new competition in the namespace? VeriSign owns Network Solutions, Register.com, Registrars.com, GreatDomains, is a part of Afilias, and they now own .tv. By introducing new Top Level Domains (TLD's) how has ICANN produced any NEW competition?
.web in the queue for 5+ years now! If you want REAL competion you need more than different registrars (all owned by VeriSign) you need a TLD that will compete AGAINST .com. This means an ALTERNATIVE to .com .... not just a new string owned by VeriSign.
Same old root, same old monopoly -- no new competition.
If ICANN really wanted to create new competition they should have approved ALL of the new TLD applications and let them compete for market share. Image Online Design has had their application for
I went to microsoft.tv.
.tv names, only your Registrant Information will be displayed in WHOIS lookups. For .com, .net, .org, .info, and .biz, ICANN has established industry-wide guidelines for the WHOIS information that must be displayed which includes the Administrative and Technical contact information. You can visit your Account Manager and click on the 'My Profile' link to update your personal information. "
I assume Microsoft has reserved it. But not registered it. Or maybe they're screening out trademark violations? I don't know. Looking in their WHOIS for microsoft.tv gives you this oh so valuable information "microsoft.tv is not available."
Um, yeah. That's exactly what a WHOIS should tell me. It's not available, but not registered. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the twilight zone.
This is apparently their policy:
"What is WHOIS?
A WHOIS lookup enables you to find the registered owner of a domain in the central Shared Registry System. For
So they say they're not going to follow ICANN's policy. Neato.
abc.tv is registered (hey it expires in December if anyone wants to see if they forget about renewing it) and has a normal WHOIS. Darn, someone's already registered brianwhite.tv. Hmm, but the registration expired over a month ago:
Record expires on: Dec 8 2001, weird.
"What will happen to my Web address if I do not renew?
If you choose not to renew your Web address, the address will become available for registration after the expiration date. At this time, the Web address will be placed back into our inventory and can be registered on a first-come, first-serve basis.
"
Lost one dude! Maybe you should have mentioned something interesting, like the fact that the country is sinking beneath the ocean and the people have no idea what will happen or where they will go when their islands are gone.
.tv extension go too?
And when the islands and country are gone, should the
Read the press release more carefully.
e bi z.tuvalu/index.html
It does not say that VeriSign paid Tuvalu $45 million. It says that VeriSign paid $45 million for the ".tv Corporation International". This corporation is an idealab company:
http://www.idealab.com/companies/dottv.tp
Here's some information on what dot-tv (idealab) paid Tuvalu in order to get the rights to manage the ".tv" TLD:
http://www.cnn.com/2000/ASIANOW/business/11/16/
We should copy SeaLand and simply find our own patch of undeveloped abandoned offshore island and form our own government. Hey... Ironically .GPV is still available... And it's a good typo away from .GOV..... I wonder where whitehouse.GPV should point...
If you're trying for karma whoring, post early on in many discussions. If you don't get in early you probably won't get noticed. Moderators tend to reinforce the decisions earlier moderators made. If one mods you up +1 informative at the beginning of a discussion, others are likely to follow. There are a lot of +1 posts, and a lot of +5 posts. Ones ranked in the middle are rarer.
Unfortunately this gets very boring very quickly. And you can never tell what will strike a moderators fancy. I was astounded to get like 8 karma out of a couple posts about the Matrix. I didn't even think anyone would read them.
The most interesting meat in a discussion usually takes some time to evolve and is near the bottom where moderators too often don't see it.
I can see the TV ads now, Tim Curry in drag singing "I'm just a sweet tranvestite, get your tv right now."
Maybe during the Super Bowl...Now that would be a commercial to see. Worth staying in front of the TV...
I want a cut if you do it, Verisign!!!
AM Armenia
FM Micronesia
Aw hell... Here's the whole list:
AD Andorra
AE United Arab Emirates
AF Afghanistan
AG Antigua and Barbuda
AI Anguilla
AL Albania
AM Armenia
AN Netherlands Antilles
AO Angola
AQ Antarctica
AR Argentina
AS American Samoa
AT Austria
AU Australia
AW Aruba
AZ Azerbaijan
BA Bosnia and Herzegovina
BB Barbados
BD Bangladesh
BE Belgium
BF Burkina Faso
BG Bulgaria
BH Bahrain
BI Burundi
BJ Benin
BM Bermuda
BN Brunei Darussalam
BO Bolivia
BR Brazil
BS Bahamas
BT Bhutan
BV Bouvet Island
BW Botswana
BY Belarus
BZ Belize
CA Canada
CC Cocos (Keeling) Islands
CF Central African Republic
CG Congo
CH Switzerland
CI Cote D'Ivoire (Ivory Coast)
CK Cook Islands
CL Chile
CM Cameroon
CN China
CO Colombia
CR Costa Rica
CS Czechoslovakia (former)
CU Cuba
CV Cape Verde
CX Christmas Island
CY Cyprus
CZ Czech Republic
DE Germany
DJ Djibouti
DK Denmark
DM Dominica
DO Dominican Republic
DZ Algeria
EC Ecuador
EE Estonia
EG Egypt
EH Western Sahara
ER Eritrea
ES Spain
ET Ethiopia
FI Finland
FJ Fiji
FK Falkland Islands (Malvinas)
FM Micronesia
FO Faroe Islands
FR France
FX France, Metropolitan
GA Gabon
GB Great Britain (UK)
GD Grenada
GE Georgia
GF French Guiana
GH Ghana
GI Gibraltar
GL Greenland
GM Gambia
GN Guinea
GP Guadeloupe
GQ Equatorial Guinea
GR Greece
GS S. Georgia and S. Sandwich Isls.
GT Guatemala
GU Guam
GW Guinea-Bissau
GY Guyana
HK Hong Kong
HM Heard and McDonald Islands
HN Honduras
HR Croatia (Hrvatska)
HT Haiti
HU Hungary
ID Indonesia
IE Ireland
IL Israel
IN India
IO British Indian Ocean Territory
IQ Iraq
IR Iran
IS Iceland
IT Italy
JM Jamaica
JO Jordan
JP Japan
KE Kenya
KG Kyrgyzstan
KH Cambodia
KI Kiribati
KM Comoros
KN Saint Kitts and Nevis
KP Korea (North)
KR Korea (South)
KW Kuwait
KY Cayman Islands
KZ Kazakhstan
LA Laos
LB Lebanon
LC Saint Lucia
LI Liechtenstein
LK Sri Lanka
LR Liberia
LS Lesotho
LT Lithuania
LU Luxembourg
LV Latvia
LY Libya
MA Morocco
MC Monaco
MD Moldova
MG Madagascar
MH Marshall Islands
MK Macedonia
ML Mali
MM Myanmar
MN Mongolia
MO Macau
MP Northern Mariana Islands
MQ Martinique
MR Mauritania
MS Montserrat
MT Malta
MU Mauritius
MV Maldives
MW Malawi
MX Mexico
MY Malaysia
MZ Mozambique
NA Namibia
NC New Caledonia
NE Niger
NF Norfolk Island
NG Nigeria
NI Nicaragua
NL Netherlands
NO Norway
NP Nepal
NR Nauru
NT Neutral Zone
NU Niue
NZ New Zealand (Aotearoa)
OM Oman
PA Panama
PE Peru
PF French Polynesia
PG Papua New Guinea
PH Philippines
PK Pakistan
PL Poland
PM St. Pierre and Miquelon
PN Pitcairn
PR Puerto Rico
PT Portugal
PW Palau
PY Paraguay
QA Qatar
RE Reunion
RO Romania
RU Russian Federation
RW Rwanda
SA Saudi Arabia
Sb Solomon Islands
SC Seychelles
SD Sudan
SE Sweden
SG Singapore
SH St. Helena
SI Slovenia
SJ Svalbard and Jan Mayen Islands
SK Slovak Republic
SL Sierra Leone
SM San Marino
SN Senegal
SO Somalia
SR Suriname
ST Sao Tome and Principe
SU USSR (former)
SV El Salvador
SY Syria
SZ Swaziland
TC Turks and Caicos Islands
TD Chad
TF French Southern Territories
TG Togo
TH Thailand
TJ Tajikistan
TK Tokelau
TM Turkmenistan
TN Tunisia
TO Tonga
TP East Timor
TR Turkey
TT Trinidad and Tobago
TV Tuvalu
TW Taiwan
TZ Tanzania
UA Ukraine
UG Uganda
UK United Kingdom
UM US Minor Outlying Islands
US United States
UY Uruguay
UZ Uzbekistan
VA Vatican City State (Holy See)
VC Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
VE Venezuela
VG Virgin Islands (British)
VI Virgin Islands (U.S.)
VN Viet Nam
VU Vanuatu
WF Wallis and Futuna Islands
WS Samoa
YE Yemen
YT Mayotte
YU Yugoslavia
ZA South Africa
ZM Zambia
ZR Zaire
ZW Zimbabwe
COM US Commercial
EDU US Educational
GOV US Government
INT International
MIL US Military
NET Network
ORG Non-Profit Organization
ARPA Old style Arpanet
NATO Nato field
It has become clear, more so ever day, that Verisign is trying to use its power to maintain it's monopoly over the domain registration market.
It seems to be a clear cut case of ANTI-trust if I have ever seen one!
There latest tactic has been to deny domain transfer of expired domains unless the domain holder pays another term before transfering. I was witness to this today and I just cannot belive that they would have the gall to attempt such an apperntly illegal activity!
Besides trying to extort money from current domain holders that want to leave Verisign I have seen blaten abuse when it comes to adding new DNS servers into the database. When someone creates a new DNS server and reports it to thier registrar (i.e. an OpenSRS registrar) that should automaticly update the main database that Verisign maintains. But instead they do not get updated. When you speak to someone at Verisign they say you HAVE to goto a Verisign site and register the DNS server. Even after doing this it may take weeks or months to be actived and in some cases it never happens!
I have spoken with several OpenSRS registrars and it seems clear to all of them that Verisign is using it's muscle to avoid competing in a open market!
The only thing I can think of to do is to shine light on this issue and make everyone aware of thier Illegal tactics!
If you have also seen these types of issues help me spread the word! I don't know if this is happening with other (besides OpenSRS) registrars but I can't imagine that they would target just one, unless this is just the begining!
Nick Powers
Encryption: I may not agree with what you say, but I will defend your right to encrypt it...
At least "intellectual property" (e.g. software, art) has something sorta real attached to it, even if it's not always tangible. But this is even less tangible. Domains are just a contract with ICANN, whose policies the root server operators presumably obey.
Of course, there's nothing wrong with buying and selling contracts (e.g. commodities futures) but at least there's something real behind these contracts (e.g. the commodities themselves) even if you never see it. But a contract with ICANN is just .. nothing. It's absolutely blind faith with nothing
backing it up, except inertia. I thought currency not backed by gold was bad, but at least
it has society's approval: we print "This note is legal tender" on it and
approximately 100% of the population wants it to have value.
But this, unlike money, is something that most regular people
don't care about. If someone makes it easy to switch namespaces and gives
them a decent reason to do it, people will abandon it.
These guys just risked 45 megabucks on something as robust as Win^H^H^H a snowflake.
The thing is, now they are going to have to treat this domain, as if it were property, to make their investment have meaning. This means they must spend even more money on lawyers, lobbyists, and other expenses in order to maintain the status quo for DNS and the DNS-using population. Alternate roots will be frowned upon, and something like a completely overhaul of the namespace, simply cannot be allowed to happen.
Fortunately for them, most ISPs these days are owned by megacorps, who will be happy to make deals to insure stability. But it's still a pretty precarious situation. I hope these guys aren't part of my mutual fund.
As copyright owner of this comment, I authorize everyone to defeat any technological measure which limits access to it.
I'm still waiting for someone to offer the President of Benin a large sum of money for the .bj damain extension, which doesn't seem to be used by anyone right now. Just imagine how much you could make being a registrar for that TLD for pr0n sites! =)
"Quoting famous computer scientists out of context is the root of all evil (or at least most of it) in programming." - K
</SARCASM>
Troll=1, Informative=3, Overrated=1, Underrated=1, Total=6.
The 'troll' mod in particular makes me a bit confused, but both the 'under' and 'overrated' are odd, too. Is there some storm of oddball mods going on?
When all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a skull.
I don't know ICANN policy on this, but I would hope that no country code will ever be withdrawn.
.zr after Zaire changed its name to "Democratic Republic of Congo".
.cs (Czechoslovakia), .dd (East Germany), and .su (Soviet Union) were officially wiped off the face of the Earth after their associated nations were disolved, although some .su domains are reported to still resolve.
You're about 10 years late on that one. The IANA, (who has the authority for these things until ICANN takes it away) already has deleted several "obsolete" ccTLDs from its official list. Here's last year's announcement about the deletion of
Similarly,
Proud to be / Smiley-free / Since Nineteen / Ninety-Three
I hate this bollox. Call me a standards freak. But there is some sense in country domains names. We're becoming (the World) too damn fucking commercial. And it's all the fault of those libertarians, especially the Yankees. Some twat tried to sell a mate of mine .uk.co the other day. .co is Columbia, this sucks. The net is turning into a load of Bollox!
(End of intelligent use of the English Language)
Well, I'm sorry Tuvalu sold out to those eevil imperilistic monopolist types. If this deprives the Tualese of any means of having local domain names, I suggest they use ".fa" in their domain names from now on.
...and if that doesn't work, they ought to try ".zzz". If they go with that standard, perhaps slashdot should move their servers to Tuvalu.
They came up with this marketing concept,
they are the guys that probably made all the money off of this deall too..
This IS a monopolistic move. The .tv Corporation is behind SRSPlus (www.srsplus.com) , which is a wholesale registration service for partners that resell domain registration services. It's the same idea as Tucow's OpenSRS (www.opensrs.com) service (though 1 Domain Year is a little cheaper, and the lately the API has gotten better than OpenSRS's.)
.tv domains since every other domain the .tv Corp offered was also available from NetSol (Verisign). You can bet it's SRSPlus they're after.
In otherwords, unless they keep SRSPlus around and don't fuck it up, they've effectively destroyed hundreds or thousands (I don't know how many SRSPlus resellers there are) of competitors.
They clearly don't gain much else other than offering
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My comments and opinions completely reflect those of anyone and anything I am remotely associated with.
As everyone is so worried about Microsoft these days, another monopoly is slipping through the cracks.
/. on what is going on on stage? I guess it's more like tho grandpa's commenting every happening on it, but IMHO it doesnt matter which actor thay see and which slips.
That reminds me af the two grandpa's of the muppet show. Do you really thing you have an influence here on
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Karma 50, and all I got was this lousy T-Shirt.
of how short a time the PM stays in power after the people vote for the "wrong" guy, i.e. anyone who is not an eastern chief.
the entire country has applied to leave the country en masse to somewhere above sealevel (them pesky americans and their global warming) so it would be possible to buy the island (expensive because of the fishing rights perhaps) :-)
but you'd want to build everything on stilts
The main problem is not yet the islands going under the sea, but too much salt and no fresh water.
Engineers have finally developed a solution for your lack of "memory" it's called a "post-a-note", if you have problems loosing your note here's a tip: pull down pants, stick to ass. .5 IQ points for reading this post.
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you have been penalized
Special people have long socks, ride short buses, & invent witty sigs.
slashdot.tv is taken by some guy @ internetisdead , which just proves that verisign knows what they are doing.