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uk.co Domains Knocked Offline By Registrar Dispute

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the transpose-transpose dept.

An anonymous reader writes "The .uk.co domain was wiped off the face of the Internet this morning with no notice, leaving more than 8,000 livid individuals and businesses - including Amazon and Priceline - with no Web presence or email. I saw this on nvnews.net, which originally came from the register, but since the domain is wiped out, you can no longer reach the article." Actually, you can read the story fine on theregister.co.uk. ;)

20 of 248 comments (clear)

  1. Not true - or an exaggeration anyway by KNicolson · · Score: 5, Informative
    leaving more than 8,000 livid individuals and businesses - including Amazon and Priceline - with no Web presence or email.

    As The Reg article says, it was used by these two companies, for example, to catch people who typed http://www.amazon.uk.co by accident. Both these two still have their co.uk versions working successfully.

    1. Re:Not true - or an exaggeration anyway by cyb97 · · Score: 5, Funny

      Id guess that f.uk.co can gross some money ;-)

    2. Re:Not true - or an exaggeration anyway by squiggleslash · · Score: 5, Funny
      Yes. That awful "Castle Computing", much in Slashdot lately for alleged GPL violations, was www.castle.uk.co.

      Is this the wrath of any angry God, upset that his representative on Earth, Richard Stallman, should have his licence so cruelly ignored?

      Or is this just another dispute about money? Time will tell...

      --
      You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.
    3. Re:Not true - or an exaggeration anyway by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      What kind of twisted in-bred retard would type in uk.co by accident?

      I allege that, were there such a person, the likelihood of them correctly typing a difficult word like 'amazon' shrinks to zero once they start getting co and uk mixed up.

      Jesus, someone register me coca.com.www.cola. You know, just in case.

  2. Who gives a f.uk.co by bstadil · · Score: 5, Insightful

    These domains are just a revisit of deceptive sites that uses common misspellings. Like amason.com

    --
    Help fight continental drift.
  3. Sub Judice... by $$$$$exyGal · · Score: 5, Informative
    What went wrong we may find out tomorrow as a Colombian judge decides whether Net Registrar has the continued right to the domain. Until then, Robert Fox tells us, he considers the matter sub judice and so does not want to comment further.

    For those that don't know, "sub judice" means that Mr. Fox doesn't want the media to do something that would influence the judge.

    --sex

    --
    Very popular slashdot journal for adul
  4. Uh-oh by Doctor+Sbaitso · · Score: 4, Funny

    What's with all these top-level domains disappearing? First .name, now .uk.co... I'm just glad I still have my trusty old .cx domain name.

    --

    ---
    Hello, Slashdot user. My name is Dr. Sbaitso. I am here to help you.
    1. Re:Uh-oh by Stephen+VanDahm · · Score: 4, Funny

      On a serious note, I think it's fascinating that all it takes is one JPEG to ruin an entire TLD forever.

      Steve

  5. Re:What country is .co? by YOU+LIKEWISE+FAIL+IT · · Score: 4, Informative
    Yup, it's Columbia. The domain in question is owned by the Univ. of Columbia, and they want to sell it off, like Tuvalu did. The government is not too happy, and this has sparked something of a pissing match.

    Read the article on el Reg, it's got the goods.

    Personally, I believe people that do this ( like the .au.com people ) deserve what they get.

    --
    One god, one market, one truth, one consumer.
  6. Re:Why doesn't everyone just get a .com? by Repton · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Err, because if every domain was a .com, we may as well drop the .com suffix and go to arbitrary names. Which would defeat the purpose of the domain name system altogether --- we would lose easy distribution of the workload, and just put more pressure on a few servers.

    Heirarchies are a Good Thing, as any geek should know.

    [and, besides, often you want to distinguish yourself as belonging to a specific region...]

    --
    Repton.
    They say that only an experienced wizard can do the tengu shuffle.
  7. No big deal by Animats · · Score: 4, Insightful

    There were only 8,000 domains in "uk.co", and they were mostly slimeballs anyway, trolling for people who don't know they should be typing "co.uk". No big loss.

  8. The Thought Process by Riomaggio · · Score: 5, Funny

    So, by wiping out this domain we avoid the typical web user playing through the following scenario:

    1) Web user thinks: "I need to order a book, let's go to Amazon"
    2) Web user types: "amazon.uk.co"
    3) Web user sees 15,000 porn sites pop up
    4) Web user starts to sweat, looks around office, hopes no one walks by
    5) Web user clicks furiously, but fails to keep up with the rush of pop-ups, pop-unders, and installation prompts
    6) Web user co-worker walks by, see's web user sweating, moaning softly and clicking so fast his/her hand is a blur
    7) Web user hits reset button on PC, loses all work, but manages to stem the tide of porn
    8) Web user sees co-worker next in cafeteria next day sitting with several other people, all are looking at web user and snickering...

    It's happened to all of us, admit it! Getting rid of "spam" domains is a good thing!

    Now, if they could could just get rid of whitehouse.com, I'd have a lot more respect for the American government!

    1. Re:The Thought Process by agentZ · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Now, if they could could just get rid of whitehouse.com, I'd have a lot more respect for the American government!

      The US Government can't own or enforce a copyright or trademark, so they can't, by law, go after whitehouse.com. That being said, however, I'm sure the good folks at White House Apple Juice have other ideas!

  9. Good riddance by Stormie · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Just like it would be good riddance if the .au.com domains dropped off the internet. These scammers register a single .com domain for $15/year or whatever and then try so sell as many ".au.com" domains as they can, all pure profit, to suckers who couldn't get the .com.au domain they wanted.

  10. Re:Why doesn't everyone just get a .com? by tarquin_fim_bim · · Score: 5, Funny

    I've heard some talk of other countries, across the ocean, I don't believe it myself though.

    -------
    How do I get all this sand out of my eyes?

  11. Another way to lose your domain... by Yoda2 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Did you know that ICANN requires you to have a physical address in your registrar record? Someone tried take one of my ".net" domains on a technicality because I had a P.O. Box listed. More info here.

  12. I doubt it by carpe_noctem · · Score: 4, Insightful

    ...leaving more than 8,000 livid individuals and businesses - including Amazon and Priceline - with no Web presence or email

    Somehow I doubt that amazon's web and email presence was severely limited by the lack of an amazon.uk.co domain.

    --
    "Quoting famous computer scientists out of context is the root of all evil (or at least most of it) in programming." - K
  13. this isn't true at all by carpe_noctem · · Score: 4, Interesting

    From www.uk.co:

    Since December 2002, we had offered to enter into a new arrangement with Net Registrar in order to safeguard your uk.co registrations with them for a short period of time to allow you sufficient time to transition to alternative domain names. ....

    A Council of State decision in Colombia dated 12 July 2002 ordered the Minister of Communications in Colombia to take over the administration of .co top level domain names by no later than 31 December 2003.

    They had been planning this since July, and while they were supposed to have done it on the 31st of December, they actually seem to have given all the .uk.co people nearly two months to find new domains. It's not like they just swept the rug out from underneath their feet as the reg's article seems to imply (though the article does mention that this was mandated last July).

    --
    "Quoting famous computer scientists out of context is the root of all evil (or at least most of it) in programming." - K
    1. Re:this isn't true at all by damiam · · Score: 4, Informative
      31 December 2003 ... while they were supposed to have done it on the 31st of December

      Check your year.

      --
      It's hard to be religious when certain people are never incinerated by bolts of lightning.
  14. Don't fuck with RMS by Fnkmaster · · Score: 4, Funny

    Remember Castle Software from the GPL violation articles on /.? You know, the guys who (supposedly) ripped off GPLed kernel code for RISC OS. Yup, they were www.castle.uk.co. Not anymore. The vengeful spirit of RMS is seeking revenge on these bastards by knocking out the whole uk.co faux-domain.