What happens to the ccTLD extension when a country ceases to be? Apparently, the answer is “it’s complicated.” When the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, the ccTLD .su should have gone with it. But more than 15 years later, .su domains continue to be sold despite ICANN’s efforts to shut the domain down.

In other cases where a country has split, like Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia to name two examples, the ccTLD domain extension has been eliminated. But for whatever reason, .su continues to live on, with the registry accepting new registrations despite ICANN’s wishes.

At issue is how to handle the elimination of the .su extension in a fair manner. Owners of .su domains continue to hold and use them, many refusing to switch to the new .ru domain. As of early this year, there were about 45,000 .su registrations. That’s up 45% this year alone. Compare that with the over 1.37 million .ru domains registered as of April 21st, 2008.

RU Center, the Registry operator for .su and .ru domains is actively promoting the extension of late. A price reduction has brought the cost of a .su domain in line with .ru (at 600 Rubles). And on April 15th, 2008, they began taking orders for IDN .su domains.

Contrast that with the website of IANA, the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority. It lists the .su ccTLD as “being phased out.”

Meanwhile, cybersquatting is rampant with names like apple.su and ford.su being registered by individuals not associated with the trademark holders.

Posted on Monday, April 21st, 2008 at 9:38 am by James Koole.
Filed under: General.
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