ccTLDs: Yugoslavia Fades, USSR Keeps on Ticking

ICANN has decided to drop the .yu ccTLD (Yugoslavia) while it seems they would like to with .su (USSR), but they are meeting resistance from many Russians.For .yu, there is a transition period of two or three years, for those with .yu domain names to fully transition to “.rs” for Serbia and “.me” for Montenegro. The move away from .yu has taken time because, as AP reports, “the federation of Serbia and Montenegro, formed from the remnants of Yugoslavia in 2003, was given “.cs.” But before anyone could use it, the country further split into Serbia and Montenegro last year.” But each time there’s a change, ICANN “must find an organization that is representative of the country’s users and has the will and the skills to run the domain.”AP further reports, “In unanimous votes last week, ICANN assigned .me to Montenegro’s government and .rs to a group called the Serbian National Register of Internet Domain Names, a nonprofit organization formed for the task.”The Serbian group also was appointed caretaker of .yu during the transition, taking over duties from volunteers at the University of Belgrade.”Meanwhile Alexei Platonov, director of the independent Russian Institute of Public Networks, says they want to save the .su ccTLD. There are around 10,000 .su domain names registered, with another 1,500 being registered every month. However this pales into insignificance when compared to .ru which this week passed its one millionth registration.ICANN, in what it calls its drive to clean the internet of seemingly outdated domain names, wants to delete the .su ccTLD.Reuters reports, “Countries’ domain names are designated according to an international list called ISO 3166-1 which holds two letter codes for every nation.”As the Soviet Union is no longer on the list, the .su domain should be scrapped just as .cs died after Czechoslovakia split into the Czech republic and Slovakia in 1993, ICANN has said.”Kim Davies from ICANN told Reuters, “In 1992 it (.su) was taken off the ISO list and since that day it has been at odds with the ISO standard.” Further, “Our primary aim is to maintain the stability of the internet.”But the ICANN line is at odds with other ccTLDs not on the ISO 3166-1 list are being used. Reuters notes “These include Britain’s .uk for the United Kingdom which gained prominence over the list’s .gb for Great Britain.”For more information, see:ICANN dukes it out with the USSR in cold war rematch smackdown
www.theregister.co.uk/2007/09/19/icann_ussr/Yugoslavia Fades, USSR Keeps on Ticking
news.digitaltrends.com/news/story/14232/yugoslavia_fades_ussr_keeps_on_tickingUSSR alive and kicking on the Internet [Reuters]
http://www.reuters.com/article/internetNews/idUSL1986480720070919
http://tvnz.co.nz/view/page/536641/1364669Plan approved to retire Yugoslav domain [AP]
www.boston.com/business/technology/articles/2007/09/19/plan_approved_to_retire_yugoslav_domain/
www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20070919.wgtSoviets0919/BNStory/Technology/