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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!"
... 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!
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.
You could've hired me.
...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?
~~~
Can you please clarify how "corporations make money off our extensions with no return to the taxpayer?". Unless there's some great conspiracy selling off .US domains, I think most of the Slashdot crowd (me included) has no idea what you're referring to.
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...
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 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
According to the CIA world factbook it's a constitutional monarchy. Of 10,000 people. Which just quintupled it's GDP.
.tv domain names?
What I don't understand is how they can sell it twice; I thought they already sold it a while ago.
I'm not sure why Verisign would give that much. I mean, does anyone actually buy
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.
I think he's talking about that NSI was given .com, .net and .org to administer originally by NSF or DARPA when they got sick of doing it themselves. They then started charging for the domain names, even though they had been given no mandate to do so. Once they figured out it was a really profitable business, they fought tooth and nail to keep out other registrars. IIRC, they still have some monopoly control over the domain database until 2010 or the ICANN people decide they want a bigger slice.
It's just another example of a vague, unspecified government giveaway that turns into a free money monopoly for big business.
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.
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.
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...
.tv became a "hot" TLD because of the television tie-in, hence the desire to have a .tv domain. This just means that Verisign paid for the right to handle DNS for the domain so they can charge to register .tv subdomains, so do the math.
You could've hired me.
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
Well, the Prime Minister is correct, the poster is wrong. Tuvalu sold the rights to .tv
two years ago to a company called Idealab for $50 million. So Idealab lost money. Now Verisign is buying it for less than that. Big deal.
Thats a pretty unamerican thing to say.
Why even human meat (longpig) is for sale.
An Education is the Font of All Liberty
Tuvalu is a democracy. Queen Elizabeth II is the constitutional monarch, represented by a governor general, who has mostly ceremonial power. Actual power is in an elected council and prime minister.
Tuvalu is also quite poor; a group of sandy islands with few natural resorces and little industry. The gov't gets much of its money from selling stamps and coins. And now, from selling its TLD for $45 million. Great deal for them, probably.
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...
IIRC, they (Tuvalu) sold the rights to a company that formed the .tv corporation. Verisign looks like they just bought the company, which in theory would mean that Tuvalu got no money from the deal (unless they retained some sort of interest in the company that was formed).
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.
And I'd be a Libertarian, if they weren't all a bunch of tax-dodging professional whiners.
Berke Breathed
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
I remember hearing ads for the .tv TLD around a year ago. They were saying something about how television was so much better than radio and how .com and .net names are like radio and .tv domains would revolutionize "the 'net" like the television revolutionized entertainment. Crap like "Why settle for a static, boring .com name when you can have a fully multimedia .tv name..." I couldn't believe people would buy that line of crap.
"When it rains, it pours." --Morton's Salt
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....
They then started charging for the domain names, even though they had been given no mandate to do so.
That's not true at all -- Before, the NSF was paying NSI $70 for every registration. That was the original contract they agreed to with NSI.
After a while, the NSF said, "We can't afford to keep paying for everyone's domain registration!" and renegotiated the contract with NSI such that NSI would charge end users directly.
Still, there were protests. They went like this:
"I shouldn't have to pay you for a domain! Change things back the way they used to be!"
"Oh, you mean you want everyone's tax dollars to pay for domain registration?"
"Uh, gee, i mean, uh..."
--
Mod up a post Rob doesn't like and you'll never mod again
> According to the CIA world factbook it's a
> constitutional monarchy. Of 10,000 people.
Technically, yeah, but read down a little further and you find out their constitutional monarch is--Queen Elizabeth II! So the local prime minister/parliament really are running the show; difficult to tell from the Factbook entry how democratic they are; current prime minister took over because last one dropped dead of a heart attack (best rule of thumb to how much true democracy there is in a "democracy" is to see how often the head honcho changes because of an election).
Chris Mattern
"There's a sucker born every minute" -- P. T. Barnum, I believe.
Sometimes I think the reason most smart people don't get rich selling, as you say, crap, to the dummies, is that most smart people can't imagine anyone that stupid. Sadly, such people exist. Frighteningly, they vote.
You could've hired me.
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. =]
I remember the exact same article. The guy teamed up with them to get exclusive marketing and registration rights to the .tv TLD and he would share the profits with them. I never thought it would fly.
.fm .am out there Fromosia (sp?) and some other place.
There's still
--- RFC 1149 Compliant.
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?
What is it, exactly, they are trying to accomplish here?
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
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.
"
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...
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!!!
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.
</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.
Umm...yes, I had already read that, I don't see how the identity of their monarch affects what I said.
Curiously enough, the Queen seems to actually wield some power in Tuvalu's case, appointing (via the Governor-General) the cabinet after consulting with the prime minister. Then the cabinet elects the next prime minister. Actually an interesting little closed system, with power circulating among a few people who can continually vote themselves another term. Not exactly democratic, but I think it's hard for a state with a population of 10,000 (less than half the size of my old college!) to be truly despotic.
I tried contacting CIRA and I got no response. However my brother knows someone at CIRA so if I continue to have problems, then I will contact him. You see, the "CEO" of their company, Rob Hall, owns something like 4 Canadian registrars and has much influence here. I think it's probably hard to fight him through .ca infrastructure.
I tried emailing him directly but he ignored my email I think.
The only certainty is entropy.