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People who paid a lot for one letter .uk domains could lose out under new plan

by — Policy & Law 7 Comments

If priority is given to first registration, many .me.uk registrants will be big winners.

Registrants paid big bucks for one and two character .co.uk and .org.uk domain names when .uk registry Nominet auctioned them off a couple years ago. Bidders paid £3m in total.

Under the proposed plan for allocating second level .uk domain names, they could get screwed.

Nominet’s latest plan to release domains such as example.co.uk instead of example.uk would give a first right of refusal to owners of the matching third level string.

While this is better for existing registrants than the old plan that gave no rights to existing third level owners, what happens if more than one of the same string are registered, e.g. example.co.uk and example.org.uk?

Nominet’s proposal is to give priority to the first-registered of the domains.

So if example.org.uk was registered before example.co.uk, then the registrant of example.org.uk would have first rights to example.uk.

Nominet auctioned off one and two letter domains under its various second levels at about the same time. But the registration dates differ. And .me.uk domains are often times the first registered.

Here’s an analysis showing which of the single letters was registered first for each letter:

a.co.uk
b.co.uk
c.co.uk and c.org.uk tied
d.me.uk
e.org.uk
f.me.uk
g.me.uk
h.me.uk
i.co.uk and i.org.uk tied
j.co.uk and j.org.uk tied
k.co.uk and k.org.uk tied
l.me.uk
m.co.uk
n.me.uk
o.me.uk
pmme.uk
q.co.uk
r.me.uk
s.co.uk and s.org.uk tied
t.me.uk
u.net.uk
v.co.uk and v.org.uk tied
w.me.uk
x.me.uk
y.co.uk
z.co.uk

Nominet’s proposal is open for comment. I suspect single letter registrants will be vocal.

Nominet reconsiders second level .uk domains (and it may be good for domainers)

by — Policy & Law 20 Comments

New plan gives rights to existing domain registrants and offers lower pricing.

Nominet, the registry behind the .uk namespace for the United Kingdom, has put forth a new plan to offer second level domains to the public. Currently, registrations are only available at the third level.

The group’s previous proposal to offer domains such as example.uk instead of example.co.uk was shelved in February after a number of stakeholders lodged complaints about the program.

The earlier proposal wouldn’t have given priority to existing third level .uk domain holders. It also had a planned wholesale cost of £20 per domain per year, which is about ten times the cost of a third level registration.

The new plan, now open to community feedback, would give priority to the owner of a third level domain. If you own example.co.uk, .org.uk, etc. you’d get first dibs on example.uk. In the event that more than one of the same third level domains are registered (example.co.uk and example.org.uk), the holder of the oldest registered domain of the string would have senior rights.

Also, the price will be about £5.

This still places a burden on existing domain registrants, especially those with large portfolios. But it may strengthen the overall value of the .uk namespace, which will help domain investors that own .uk domains.

I don’t own any .uk domains, so I’m curious to hear from those that will be affected if this proposal becomes reality.

Nominet shelves plan for shorter .uk domain names (for now)

by — Policy & Law 1 Comment

No second level registrations — for now.

.UK registry Nominet has delayed approving its own proposal for offer second level domain names.

The proposal would have allowed people to register domain names at the second level (e.g. name.uk) instead of the existing third level requirement (e.g. name.co.uk).

That concerned existing registrants of third level domain names, who wouldn’t necessarily be first in line to get the second level equivalent of their third level domains. With wholesale pricing of £20 per year — nearly ten times how much the registry charges for third level domains — it all seemed like a big money grab.

Although the board didn’t approve the shorter domains at its meeting yesterday, .uk domain owners aren’t out of the woods yet.

The board is still researching ways to bring the program to fruition. It wants to explore ways to give some sort of priority to existing third level registrants and consider rolling out some of the features it planned to add to second level domains to the third level. Given the amount of money the registry can make, I don’t think it will let the idea die easily.

The board plans to review its progress at its June meeting.

Backlash rising against second level .uk domains

by — Policy & Law 10 Comments

Existing .uk domain owners upset about plans for second level domains.

Earlier this month I reported about .uk registry Nominet and its plan to release second level .uk domains.

As of right now you can only register third level .uk domains, such as domain.co.uk. The plan is to allow domains such as domain.uk to be registered.

Domains.uk may well be a superior domain, but this isn’t sitting well with current registrants of third level .uk domains.

In fact, Nominet’s plan to charge more for the domains and offer them with a suite of products may complicate matters. If .uk domains come with security tools that ultimately make them more trustworthy, it could damage firms that don’t opt for the upgrade.

Worse, it’s not as simple as opting to get the second level equivalent of your third level domain. Just because you own domain.co.uk right now doesn’t mean you’ll get domain.uk.

Although many people are upset, I think Edwin Hayward has done the best job of researching and explaining the issue. His 26 page position paper explains the problems with Nominet’s plan and backs it up with data and comparisons to other countries that have belatedly offered second level domain names.

You can read more at mydomainnames.co.uk.

Nominet proposes second level .uk domain names

by — Uncategorized 11 Comments

Shorter .uk domain names may be on the horizon.

.UK domain name registry Nominet wants to allow businesses to register shorter .uk domain names.

The group has opened a three month consultation period for what it’s calling direct.uk — which is a catchy name for offering second level .uk domain names.

Right now only third level domains, such as name.co.uk, are available. Direct.uk would let businesses register name.uk.

The second level domains would likely include added security features such as daily malware scanning and Domain Name System Security Extensions (DNSSEC). Registrant verification may also be required.

Wholesale pricing would be £20 per year, which is nearly ten times the current third level pricing.

Registrants of existing third level .uk domain names may not automatically get rights in the same second level domain name, although there will be a sunrise period in which unregistered rights in a term may be considered.

All of the details are still up in the air pending the results of the consultation.