Domain suspensions considered harmful

Registries are often asked to suspend domains linked to websites that the police considers illegal or companies and institutions belive to infringe on their intellectual rights.

The 26th of May 2014 torrentz.eu was suspended in response to a request by the Police Intellectual Property Crime Unit in the UK, without a court order. The operators of the website immediately registered, with different top-level domains, five new domains where the website was accessible. The original domain was then unsuspended briefly after it had been suspended.

Domains are used for much more than to address websites. Email is always sent using a domain, and domains are often used to connect users to their home and work networks. Domains can hardly be considered illegal any more than a street address. A street address is not illegal even if there is illegal activity in one apartment at the address. When a domain is suspended the website or the content itself is not, as became apparent when torrentz.eu was suspended. A suspension of a domain does not lead to a total blocking of the website it points to.

When domains are suspended, as described above, it does not only indignate the website's visitors, but it also disrupts email and other services, which are unrelated to the website, that the domain facilitates. Disruption of email communication and service, unrelated to the website that is meant to be closed, is utterly unnecessary and unacceptable in these instances. A suspension of a domain is in a way comparable to banning the use of an address of an apartment building depriving everyone at that particular address of their postal service. Additionally, the suspension of individual domains can affect other domains, specially in the situation when domain service is a registered subdomain.

Finally, it should be noted that when registries and registrars are made to suspend domains it can create negative publicity within the internet community, harming the top-level domain and reducing its credibility. It is difficult to rectify that sort of damage that easily could be avoided with increased awareness and proficiency of the technical workings of the internet.

A .is domain has never been shut down on court order in spite of several attempts.

Towel Ready? Don't Panic!

This sunday, may 25th, is the international towel day. It's a tribute to Douglas Adams, the author of Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy.

You are urged to share it with a towel, photographs and other people. See the website towelday.org for details.

Why should I register a .is domain?

The .is extension is not only beautiful for it self, it's unique in the way how well it fits with persons and companies names and adjectives, e.g. when building a search engine catchy domain sentance like: toyota.is/thebestcar/intheworld.

Iceland is a peaceful litle country with stable economy and politics. It is known for respecting human rights and for being one of the oldest democracy in the world. The icelandic parliment, "Althingi", was founded in the summer of 930 by the Vikings, only about 60 years after the settlement of Iceland.

The .is top level domain is ideal for those who want to present a professional and trustworthy image all over the world, and show their commitment to the region as well.

Office closed on Monday April 21st

ISNIC's office will be closed Monday, April 21st. We open again on Tuesday, April 22nd.

The web portal is up and running as usually. You can register and manage your .is-domain online, by logging into your account here on isnic.is.

Thousands of new top level domains

New top level domains (TLDs) have started to flood the domain market. A few examples of these new TLDs are: .academy, .cab, .carreers, .center, .company, .computer, .construction, .contractors, .diamonds, .directorym, .domains, .enterprises, .kitchen, .land, .limo, .management, .photos, recipes, .sexy, .shoes, .systems, .tattoo, .technology, .tips, .today and .voyage to name a few.

Many have predicted that the decision by ICANN/IANA to open up registration of new TLDs would inflict dramatic changes to the internet. Others point out that this is not the first time that new TLDs have been introduced (.museum, .biz, .xxx, .job, .info, .pro), which to date have made very little impact at all. One thing's for sure, the changes now are bigger than we've ever seen before and the uncertainty and possibilities are therefore greater.

Internet á Íslandi - ISNIC does not have any plans to service or register other TLDs than .is, but ISNIC will, like all established registries, have to adapt to these great changes. In our opinion, these new TLDs open up new possibilities as competition grows. ISNIC will continue to offer a safe and secure DNS service with high technical standards. We've already seen that these new TLDs have caused many registries to open up their registrations and relaxed some of the more inhibiting registration requirements.  ISNIC will continue to grow foreign .is registrations, as it has done these last few years. That is unavoidable, mainly due to the small size of the domestic market in Iceland.  Some people find this regrettable and maintain that ccTLDs should first and foremost be for the domestic population and businesses. Others say that any such local-precense requirements is contrary to the spirit and nature of the internet, which is why limitations of that nature are slowly disappearing.

One thing is for sure, there will only be one .is and it is arguably one of the most beautiful TLDs on the internet.