back to article ICANN'T believe it's not Apple: Vatican wins domain-handout lottery

The Catholic Church will be the first institution to register a new top level domain name, internet addressing overlord ICANN announced yesterday. The Vatican's application will be top of the pile when ICANN starts to process applications for new top level domain names in early 2013. The Catholic Church wants to register .天主教 …

COMMENTS

This topic is closed for new posts.
  1. Ken Hagan Gold badge

    dot DOG?

    Is that "god backwards" or a subtle rival to the (impeded) dot sex?

    1. Adze
      Pint

      Re: dot DOG?

      GOD.DOG - perfect website for a really good mirror manufacturer? I'll bet there's more...

    2. LarsG
      Meh

      Like private 'vanity plates' on cars it's just soooo Chav.

      1. Stevie

        Hey!

        Is ".CHAV" taken?

      2. Stevie

        Hey!

        Is "CHAV" taken?

        1. Psyx
          Pint

          Re: Hey!

          Yes: Twice.

      3. Giles Jones Gold badge

        Exactly right and such a cash cow for the DVLA as well. So imagine the dough they'll rake in with this? with no competition in the market either they can charge what they like.

  2. Tom 38

    Biggest mistake ever in the history of the internet

    I've no problem with IDNs, or TLDs in non roman script, but this is just a daft money grubbing exercise that will confuse and irritate people. www.coke? fuckoff.com.

    1. JDX Gold badge

      Re: Biggest mistake ever in the history of the internet

      I think you mean fuck.off

    2. Steve Davies 3 Silver badge
      Childcatcher

      Re: Biggest mistake ever in the history of the internet

      Won't a number of slightly illegal white powder producers/dealers be a tiny bit unhappy if a sugary drink producer got the drop on them over the .coke TLD?

      Also, this whole thing is just going to allow legal extorsion when a domain squatter company gets in first with a valuable TLD.

      1. vic 4

        Re: a domain squatter company gets in first with a valuable TLD

        You seen how much it costs to get one of these? Don't think we'll see any squatters or landing pages at spelling mistakes.

        1. Ian Yates

          Re: a domain squatter company gets in first with a valuable TLD

          Brilliant. So it's alright that ICANN is introducing a class system to the Internet?

          I can't afford to buy my own TLD, so my company page will now look like some kind of budget URL. The whole thing is a sick joke.

          The average Joe doesn't even understand the (non)significance of "www" before a normal domain; how are they possible going to tell the difference between "coke" and "coke.com". Perhaps a bad example; there are bound to be more ambiguous new URLs.

      2. VeganVegan
        Mushroom

        Re: Biggest mistake ever in the history of the internet

        No worries: snow.crash

        <-- snort this!

      3. Fatman

        Re: ...sugary drink producer got the drop on them over the .coke TLD?

        Nah!!!

        Just point

        snort.coke

        to their site.

  3. PyLETS
    Boffin

    Where the money hits the fan

    No doubt ICANN execs are dreaming up their next years bonus packages right now. At the expense of making brand protection more expensive, and making life much easier for those wanting to register something.like.yourbank.whatever . Countries wanting non-latin TLDs have been able to have these for years, see RFC 4185.

  4. Dana W
    Meh

    Maybe when they get .apple they can give all of us who give them big buckets of money an email address that does not cost $50 a year.

    1. Ole Juul

      Apple?

      I certainly hope that the .apple TLD does not go to a computer company. That would be extremely objectionable considering that the name normally refers to a fruit. In fact there is considerable prior art to that effect. If a computer company gets that name it would make a sham out of this whole thing . . . oh wait ...

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Apple?

        Most of the words chosen are normal words given you can trademark normal words. No need to be a butt hurt fandroid.

        1. Craigness

          Re: Apple?

          You don't need to appreciate that Android is the best mobile OS in order to accept that giving generic TLDs to individual companies is a silly idea. Company names as TLDs is a silly idea too. Now stop being an iGnorant iTard.

          1. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            Re: Apple?

            Best on what grounds?

            Just because it is popular? which is more to do with the fact it is so cheap.

      2. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Apple?

        It's no worse than Windows.

      3. Fatman

        Re: I certainly hope that the .apple TLD does not go to a computer company.

        BUT!!! The winner could point

        rotten.apple

        toward that worthless[1] company.

        [1] Worthless in the sense of lacking scruples, not its market capitalization.

  5. NoneSuch Silver badge
    FAIL

    .UNNECESSARY

    .WASTE

    .OF

    .TIME

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    I'm a Russian phisher and I'm going to register .сом. All your credit card are belong to us.

    1. Crazy Operations Guy
      FAIL

      You do realized that these are looked over by human beings who would never let something like that happen? You're probably one of those idiots who thought they would do the same thing when IDNs were introduced, which is why you are hiding behind anonymity. Plus the 20+ year old meme gives away the idiocy as well.

      1. asdf
        Facepalm

        clueless alert

        Wow way to miss the joke. Perhaps the fact the poster used the 20+ year meme might have helped give that away. But I guess he might really be the Russian hacker that cleaned out your bank account that caused you to get so butt hurt about the topic.

        1. Crazy Operations Guy

          Re: clueless alert

          I'm annoyed at idiots that misunderstand basic technical concepts. I've seen far to many people believe this trash to think that the poster was attempting humor.

      2. S4qFBxkFFg
        Joke

        .corn

        "You do realized that these are looked over by human beings who would never let something like that happen?"

        Isn't that grossly unfair to the organisations below?

        http://www.ncga.com/

        http://www.corn.org/

  7. JDX Gold badge

    Can we buy?

    Are any/most of these going to registrars to re-sell, so I could for instance buy latenight.party, or are they all going to be used by a single company each?

    isn't apple.com easier to remember than shop.apple?

    1. Craigness

      Re: Can we buy?

      Maybe they just don't want "their" word to be misappropriated by apple websites belonging to apple growers.

  8. Stevie

    Bah!

    By all means let the world kowtow to the Saudis.

    I'm tempted to comment further but Rowan Atkinson and Mel Smith said it all so well in their apology to the country on Not The Nine O'Clock News.

    1. Yet Another Anonymous coward Silver badge

      Re: Bah!

      Surely the vatican should get .virgin ?

      And shouldn't the Saudis and the Vatican be busy objecting to each other?

      1. Dire Criti¢
        Devil

        Re: Bah!

        Surely the vatican should get .virgin ?

        Or maybe perhaps .altarboy?

      2. Ole Juul

        Re: Bah!

        Surely the vatican should get .virgin ?

        That should go to an olive oil company, perhaps not a Saudi one - though they might savour the .extravirgin TLD.

        1. Ryan 7
          Thumb Up

          Re: Bah!

          Surely it makes the most sense to go to Richard Branson, as he actually does have a number of enterprises under a single umbrella name. If that's not the most appropriate use for a gTLD then I don't know what is.

  9. This post has been deleted by its author

  10. Andus McCoatover
    Joke

    Three characters?

    The Catholic Church wants to register .天主教 - Catholic in Chinese.

    My cantonese is a bit rubbish nowadays, but I thought it read "Eff me rigid"

  11. Paul 135
    Pirate

    Insanity

    I'd rather some hackers took down the entire Internet DNS system than allowing this insanity to proceed. Something needs to be done before it's too late.

    1. JDX Gold badge

      Re: Insanity

      Too late for what exactly? It is probably not really going to affect you.

      1. Yet Another Anonymous coward Silver badge

        Re: Insanity

        Until you click on a link to a mybank.com where the .com is actually unicode lower case azerbijan

        1. Crazy Operations Guy

          "where the .com is actually unicode lower case azerbijan"

          Seriously people, are you not getting the fact that people check that over and it would be near impossible for something like that to happen?

          Plus $185,000 is a little more than anyone would want to throw away on the off change it gets past the people doing the screening, when current methods of phishing are oh so much easier and profitable.

          1. Yet Another Anonymous coward Silver badge

            Re: "where the .com is actually unicode lower case azerbijan"

            The $180K doesn't apply to the non-english TLDs

            Countries will be able to issue their own - you don't think China is going to allow the US to decide which chinese TLDs are allowed + pocket the money.

        2. Ian Yates

          Re: Insanity

          A more obvious abuse would be ".corn"

          Who exactly would be held responsible if such a TLD was used for phishing?

          I don't mind new TLDs, but granting them to companies is ridiculous. Just continue with making them public (and less of them)!

    2. Wyrdness
      Trollface

      Re: Insanity

      i.cant.cope.with.change

  12. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    "...meaning irritating keyboard-switching for those who speak a different tongue."

    Don't you mean "meaning irritating keyboard-switching for those who type a different finger."?

  13. Dazed and Confused

    .moron

    Are the people who dreamt this lot up being forcibly moved onto the new .moron TLD?

  14. graeme leggett Silver badge

    I bet the ITU wouldn't have made this balls-up

    If they had taken control.

    By the time theyd reached agreement between all the members there'ds only be boringly safe tlds.

  15. Beelzeebub
    Flame

    Um...

    It was me, sorry

  16. Beelzeebub
    Flame

    But then again.....

    I couldn't have foreseen this f* up so I plead not guilty, your Honor f* the american spelling.

  17. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    I want to register

    I want to register

    .<blink>

    .<marque>

    .'); DROP TABLE

  18. Gannon (J.) Dick
    Happy

    Wondering ...

    Is (dot) cixelsyd taken ?

  19. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Copyrights and Trademarks

    Will ICANN protect copyrights and trademarks, or will the owners have to spend millions battling the sales themselves?

    From the article, a "domain collector" is wanting to register Mormon as a TLD, but The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has registered this trademark. Is this going to be a repeat of when someone registered mormon.com and was hosting pornography? In that case, a rich member of the Church bought the domain and donated it to the Church so that the Church's good name wouldn't be tarnished.

    I'm sure there are other examples out there (virgin should go to Richard Bronson or one of the companies he founded).

  20. Grant Mitchell
    Thumb Down

    objections

    If the Saudi royal family can object to .sex etc, can I object to any religious based domains, as religion deeply offends me (and is more unnatural than reproduction!)... or does the not for profit (clearly not "not for prophet") ICANN only listen to people with lots of money?

    I can't see how this level of impartiality can possibly go wrong.

  21. -tim
    Stop

    One way to fight stupidity

    I'm just going to tell people that the new TLDs are like 900 phone numbers and they may get a bill for going to those sites.

  22. No, I will not fix your computer
    Headmaster

    天主教

    Technically means "Catholic Church" not "Catholic", or more literally "The One that Teaches about God", add a 新 in there and it becomes Protestant (new teachings) which of course brings us back to whether they should be allowed to register the TLD at all, after all, it is merely a "brand of God", like "Apple" is a generic used by a brand, and if they do would they be obliged to create (and devolve) a sub-domain to promote Protestant teachings?

    This is a cyber-squat of biblical proportions!

  23. Field Marshal Von Krakenfart
    Joke

    I'm going to register...

    talkingbollocks and takingbribes as TLDs, and then give free email accounts to politicians.

    1. Ted Treen
      Happy

      Re: I'm going to register...

      Nice one, Sir.

      But shouldn't they be compulsory as well as free for the aforementioned parasites?

  24. Ted Treen
    Trollface

    It appears...

    ...that the delightful Ms Leach is waiting for .TROLL

  25. Robert Helpmann??
    Childcatcher

    Non-English? How about ASCII?

    The bulk of the first 100 new top level domains to be considered are in non-English characters - Chinese, Russian, Japanese, Korean, Arabic.

    Cyrillic? Hiragana? Katakana? Kana in general? It's all Unicode to me. Maybe El Reg will buy the.®

This topic is closed for new posts.

Other stories you might like