The recent landrush for numerical .nl names has not gone as expected with some problems occurring that relate to speculative applications for names from a small number of applicants.
Both SP-Kamerlid Arda Gerkens and the association for internet service providers, ISPConnect, are both dissatisfied with the process with the latter speaking of a massive hijack. Gerkins meanwhile claims there was a massive hijack, something denied by SIDN, and the government must take the role of SIDN away and transferred to OPTA.
There were around 500 participants in the landrush for numerical domain names on February 28 and 29, a small number have lodged complaints, as well as there being discussion critical of the procedures on a number of online forums.
Some of the concerns relate to the case of Hoekstra Media/MijnAlbum.nl who were successful in obtaining almost 2,600 numerical domain names. However the owners of MijnAlbum.nl counter they followed all the rules. The company wrote special software for 35 servers that automated the requests for the names.
However Roel Bouwman of QSP Internet Services said it was a terrible weekend. He had requests for names in for ten customers, none of which were successful. He feels he had no chance competing against Hoekstra Media/MijnAlbum.nl with the specially written software and servers automating their applications. He believes it is just not possible ethically and that SIDN should conduct the landrush again.
While Hoekstra Media/MijnAlbum.nl intend to develop the websites themselves, they have let it be known that if someone wants to buy specific domain names, for the right price they will sell.
There were 200,000 applications for almost 15,000 unique numerical domain names, meaning that for every successful registration, twelve were rejected.
The speculative applications for numerical domain names were concentrated around the short domain names.
SIDN will be providing more information on their investigation over the next week.
There is an interview with Roelof Meijer, SIDNââ¬â¢s General Manager, on the Dutch Radio Online here (in Dutch).
More information, also in Dutch, is available from the SIDN announcements here and here.
For your .nl domain names, check out Europe Registry here.