Membership is FREE, giving all registered users unlimited access to every Acorn Domains feature, resource, and tool! Optional membership upgrades unlock exclusive benefits like profile signatures with links, banner placements, appearances in the weekly newsletter, and much more - customized to your membership level!

.UK Announced

If it goes ahead..

I do believe most companies will try and register their .uk

I do not believe most businesses will use it though, they will just redirect the .uk to the .co.uk, especially in your scenario if they have to change advertising.. what would be the point in swapping to .uk just to cut out the co, certainly wouldn't be worth the money to change.

Shows how pointless the .uk will be as the security that's been promoted won't do much if you then immediately redirect to an "insecure" .co.uk!
 
I think the security thing is a sham and just a way to mask pushing .uk through. Especially since it is proposed sites would be left live and the owner notified.

However whats to say if they did release .uk that they prohibit forwarding, other than to say other "direct.uk"s if they advertise all these security features and really want to build a shorter extension that is trusted I dont think domain forwarding would be possible with this. For example anyone could forward a direct.uk domain masking it to a .co.uk or .ng or .scam which does not have any viruses but could be used for harvesting emails/personal details. Come to think of it some one could register the .uk version of a high traffic and trusted .co.uk try and leach traffic to their scam site.

I know .tel prohibit forwarding (other than to other .tels) so while its a very different tld it has been done before. So .uk would not be the first.

The more I think about it the more I realise this proposal goes beyond simply a registry selling more domains it could really mess with the uk digital economy.
 
However whats to say if they did release .uk that they prohibit forwarding

In that scenario.. say someone builds a great brand on a .uk and then decides they want to target a global market and switch to .com but can't..

Would be all the more reason not to build on a .uk to begin with.
 
Pressure

In that scenario.. say someone builds a great brand on a .uk and then decides they want to target a global market and switch to .com but can't..

Would be all the more reason not to build on a .uk to begin with.

These points are why I worry that Nominet are going to issue .uk and tweak a few bits "because they have listened" yet their solution to problems will still not be thought through and we will have a new set of problems they have not considered. (plus some of the ones that they did not solve with the tweaks!).

That's why pressure must still be put on them, even though the consultation has finished to ensure they should have another period of consultation to a much wider audience with more details.
 
That's why pressure must still be put on them, even though the consultation has finished to ensure they should have another period of consultation to a much wider audience with more details.

Agreed.
 
Last edited:
If this did go through with anything resembling what's been tabled thus far, I honestly think there will be a whole ton of legal action that potentially could down Nominet.

Seriously think about all the connotations:

i. Companies and individuals who feel duped

ii. Companies and individuals who lose a domain to a competitor

iii. 2 letter auction bidders who were clearly deceived

iv. .co.uk owners who were told (even in 2012) - its "agreatplacetobe.co.uk"

v. Companies for costs to redo letterheads, business cards, vans, cars, advertising etc etc

et al.

There will also (i think) be a lot of legal claims against the Directors personally for lack of due diligence.

There will be a whole host more ways to sue Nominet and the Directors - and once they start, there will be no way to stop the claims and counter claims as Class actions will appear in order to defend the rights of the small independent mum and dad businesses (which were never even asked for their opinion on this as Nom came up with some wholly BS answer about Data Protection stopping them emailing all .co.uk owners).

This WILL be carnage and the UK domain industry will be a laughing stock - thanks to the whim of a few individuals who clearly can't be objective in their view of a future registry.
 
The Future

At the moment I keep coming back to .wales that Nominet have started at their own cost, which is in consultation. I'm considering whether to complete the consultation with I do not think it should go ahead unless the Welsh government are funding it and the costs .wales will apportion by Nominet are fair.

As there are plans for .scot (Scottish government) and .london (from Mayor Boris's office)- what will happen to UK brand -especially if there is confusion with .co.uk and .uk?

I wonder if Nominet have plans to launch .eng (England) at a later date, with another series of expensive auctions?

.ni may not get of the ground as Nominet could not even generate enough interest to hold a Northern Ireland roundtable for all UK registrars and businesses about .uk.
 
No one takes 100% responsibility... whichi is why certain egomaniacs get there way!

Sits somewhere between OFCOM and DCMS (Dept Culture Media and Sport) as far as I can tell...

Which means they will all pass the buck when this f&cks up...
 
Does anybody know definitively who regulates Nominet ?

A quote from the Minister on Tuesday:

Nominet is recognised by the Government as the registry with responsibility for oversight of the “.uk” top level internet domain. It is a private sector, not for profit, public purpose company. Its day-to-day operations are not subject to regulation by the Government. Nominet welcomes suggestions about “.uk” policy development. It is currently carrying out a public consultation on proposals to create a new shorter “.uk” domain with enhanced security features which would allow for the first time registrations at the second level immediately before the dot (e.g. “culture.uk”).

Hansard source (Citation: HC Deb, 8 January 2013, c213W)
http://www.theyworkforyou.com/wrans/?id=2013-01-08a.135025.h&s=nominet
 
What's more interesting is the question to which that answer was given.

Sent from my GT-N7100 using Tapatalk 2
 
Larger companies with the legal clout will probably be given more attention by Nominet than the mum and dad businesess who don't have the funds to sue.

Sounds like this could go very wrong very quickly. People need the opportunity to protect their livelihoods and should be given first option on their own .uk domains.

There is already some law out there that protects brand names anyway isn't there? For example, you couldn't pick up virgin.uk and do anything with it, I don't think you even have the right to sell it to Virgin if you got to it first, so why should it be any different for other smaller business.
 
Crikey, that was my MP, I can expect a reply back saying "shut up shop and get a .com" then :)
 
Can you elaborate please?

From the Hansard entry:

Stephen McPartland (Stevenage, Conservative)
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what steps she plans to take to ensure that small businesses with .co.uk addresses are not put at a disadvantage by the creation of the .uk domain name.
 
From the Hansard entry:

Stephen McPartland (Stevenage, Conservative)
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what steps she plans to take to ensure that small businesses with .co.uk addresses are not put at a disadvantage by the creation of the .uk domain name.

Thanks, sorry I meant could you elaborate on your orginal post "What's more interesting is the question to which that answer was given."
about the above question.
 

The Rule #1

Do not insult any other member. Be polite and do business. Thank you!

Members online

Premium Members

New Threads

Domain Forum Friends

Our Mods' Businesses

*the exceptional businesses of our esteemed moderators
General chit-chat
Help Users
  • No one is chatting at the moment.
      There are no messages in the current room.
      Top Bottom