What's happening with EUMX?

[JeremyNicoll]

Originally Posted by TenFour

The BBC has a .com address too! My point is just that for anyone with any expectation of correspondence or web visitors from outside of their own country I think it is desirable to have a .com, .org, or .net address, and then you can keep it forever. The situation with .eu addresses points out one of the possible problems. What if you move to a different country? Your .co.uk address then gets tossed out the window.

The www.bbc.com website is clearly different from the .co.uk one; I expect it's run by/for BC Worldwide or their foreign language / propaganda World Service.

Anyone who moves to another country, but still owns/runs a UK company can presumably keep a .co.uk address for the business of that company. At worst they might need to use a VPN to communicate with it, I suppose. If the business has also moved, having to change its website address will be the least of its regulatory problems.

It's a pity that .com etc have dual meaning - ie mean US-specific, and also: worldwide.

[TenFour]

I don't believe .com, .net, or .org have any country-specific meaning. I see tons of companies all around the world using them. They are truly international.

[Tsunami]

Originally Posted by TenFour

The BBC has a .com address too! My point is just that for anyone with any expectation of correspondence or web visitors from outside of their own country I think it is desirable to have a .com, .org, or .net address, and then you can keep it forever. The situation with .eu addresses points out one of the possible problems. What if you move to a different country? Your .co.uk address then gets tossed out the window.

At the moment, everyone can register a .co.uk domain, you don't need UK residency or citizenship. Foreigners anywhere in the world can own a .co.uk domain. The problem is mainly that the policy can change at any time. Unlike gTLDs which are de facto open for everyone to register, ccTLDs can be open for registration to anyone too but this can change.

I really like .co.uk and thought of registering a .co.uk domain recently. I hesitate though. Because is the UK registry going to continue its policy where foreigners can own a .co.uk domain? The .eu situation proves that ccTLDs are not always without risk.

For this reason, I too would go for a gTLD (.com, .net, .info, .org) although some ccTLDs are tempting (.co.uk, .tv, .co). In the case of .tv for example I think you can safety say it's going to be open for everyone forever, because there's hardly any Tuvaluans (approx 10000 only) and the profits from .tv are very important to the island nation. They won't change the rules in the distant future I think.
With .co.uk I feel less sure.

[Tsunami]

Originally Posted by JeremyNicoll

It's a pity that .com etc have dual meaning - ie mean US-specific, and also: worldwide.

.com is not a US-specific extention, it's an international/global extention. Anyone can register a .com domain, no matter where in the world you are.

The US-specific domain extention is .us, even though it's not as widely used in the States as .com is. This doesn't make .com a US-specific extention though.

[TenFour]

They won't change the rules in the distant future I think.

That's the crux of the problem--no way to be sure what political winds will blow tomorrow.

[Tsunami]

Originally Posted by TenFour

That's the crux of the problem--no way to be sure what political winds will blow tomorrow.

In case of .tv, the revenue from international domain sales is too important for the country, they won't change the rules as they'd lose to much money if they'd change the rules.
I don't know about Colombia and Montenegro, but I cannot see them putting restrictions on .co and .me domains neither.

.co.uk is a totally different case, as they'd have a lot of income from only local registrations too.