NEWS Nominet signs off snappier .uk domains
Businesses will have the chance to register shorter .uk domain names from next summer under plans approved by British registry Nominet.
Nominet offers domains such as ‘
example.co.uk’ and ‘
example.org.uk’, but will begin selling names directly under the top-level .uk domain as well. Under the new system, for example, Facebook could register
Facebook.uk.
“We’re excited to offer the option of a shorter, snappier domain name that we believe will appeal to our existing customers and to the businesses and bloggers of tomorrow,” said Nominet chief executive Lesley Cowley.
Te plans had been killed off earlier this year following criticism, before being revived in June.
Tere are more than 10 million existing Nominet customers, all of whom will be given five years to decide whether to register an equivalent .uk address. Tey can use the new domain either in addition to or instead of their current address.
In the small proportion of cases where there could be
competition—such as someone
owning ‘
example.co.uk’ but someone else owning ‘
example.org.uk’—the shorter domain
will be offered to the
.co.uk registrant, Nominet said.
Te five-year period is designed to match the time it will take before businesses next need to change their signage or stationery, Nominet explained, meaning they don’t incur unnecessary incremental costs.
Domain names not already registered with Nominet will be offered on a first-come, first- served basis.
Te registry will charge an annual wholesale price of £3.50 for single-year .uk registrations and £2.50 for multi-year registrations. Both prices match current fees for a current
co.uk domain.
With around 1,400 new generic top-level domains (gTLDs) coming on to the Internet in the next few years, Nominet is keen to keep up with the competition.
Cowley said: “In an industry that is seeing an unprecedented level of change with the upcoming introduction of more than 1,000 new TLDs, we’re hard at work to ensure innovation in .uk keeps UK web users and businesses ahead of the curve.”
Premier League ends YouTube copyright row
Video-sharing website YouTube and the English Premier League (EPL) have gone their separate ways aſter a long-running copyright dispute, according to Te Guardian.
Te British newspaper says it has seen court documents revealing that the EPL, joined by the French Tennis Federation, the National Music Publishers’ Association and other record labels, has agreed to drop its claims.
YouTube was accused of encouraging copyright infringement by allowing extracts of works, including clips of televised football matches, to be uploaded on to its site without permission.
Te case was filed in 2007 at the US District Court for the Southern District of New York, dragging on for more than six years. In the most recent development, in May this year, Judge Louis Stanton denied the EPL’s request to file a class action against YouTube.
Te Guardian said the parties agreed to a “voluntary dismissal”, meaning they will pay their own costs.
www.worldipreview.com
According to the paper, the settlement may allow football clubs to show delayed highlights of their games on their own YouTube channels.
Te move is a sensible one for the EPL, said David Hansel, partner at Hansel Henson LLP, as it now much easier for consumers to stream football matches via the Internet for free.
“For the Premier League, YouTube is far less of a threat than it once was. Te killer content now is live football—and the new and relatively significant danger for the Premier League is live streams, which are being fought on a number of fronts.” (For more on this story, see article on page 37.)
What is perhaps surprising about the deal, Hansel said, is that football clubs may be able to use YouTube channels to show highlights of their games.
“At the moment, the clubs (through the Premier League) have a website and you can watch clips of the games there through a premium service— there is a collective selling of rights by the Premier League. Te clubs may now move to YouTube, but what’s to stop groups of clubs breaking away and controlling their own TV rights?”
Hansel noted, however, that such a change may not necessarily be bad for the EPL.
“Even if there is a deal on people being able to watch clips on YouTube, the revenues will be dwarfed by the live TV revenues, I would have thought.”
To show live football from this season until 2015– 16, broadcasting companies BSkyB and BT have shelled out more than £3 billion between them.
A YouTube spokesperson said: “We’re glad that the Premier League and the remaining plaintiffs agreed to dismiss their copyright claims against YouTube. Our focus is on building a great platform for our many content partners who earn revenue from YouTube, and the billion people who enjoy their videos.”
Trademarks Brands and the Internet Volume 2, Issue 4 13
Stuart Fuller, director of commercial operations at brand protection company NetNames, said UK businesses should be happy with the news.
“A .uk domain will be attractive to business in the UK, although there has to be some care taken to ensure that confusion over
co.uk,
me.uk and org. uk addresses is alleviated. I can see the appeal to businesses that want to emphasise the ‘Britishness’ of their products and services, as well as defining where their geographical location is.”
A Nominet survey of UK business decision- makers, from earlier this year, found that 72 percent thought ‘
example.uk’ registrations should be an option, while only 2 percent thought they shouldn’t.
But the project has met a backlash from domain name investors and other groups, including digital rights activists the Open Rights Group (ORG). Te ORG, which argued for the .uk plans to be dropped, said the project would create a “walled garden” that would undermine confidence in the rest of the UK domain name space.
With .uk, the move brings the UK into line with other large country-code registries such as Germany’s .de or France’s .fr.
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44