Nominet, the organisation in charge of looking after .uk domain namespace (including second level names such as .net.uk, .org.uk, .me.uk, .co.uk, .ac.uk, nhs.uk, gov.uk, and police.uk), today revealed their latest and greatest registration scheme – top level .uk domains.
They call it DotUK. And they’re quite excited by it. As am I.
But, ALAS!
I’m not entirely convinced of the fairness of their policies regarding the right to registration for .uk domains.
For the brand spanking new and lovely looking drake.uk, the right of registration goes to drake.co.uk.
Looking at the WHOIS:
Domain name:
drake.co.ukRegistrant:
Erank LtdRegistrant type:
UK Limited Company, (Company number: 7634457)Registrant’s address:
Minmere Barns,
Buckland Rd
Charney Bassett
Wantage
OX12 0EL
United KingdomData validation:
Registrant contact details validated by Nominet on 10-Dec-2012Registrar:
eRank Ltd t/a eRank [Tag = ERANK]Relevant dates:
Registered on: 14-Feb-2005
Expiry date: 14-Feb-2015
Last updated: 22-Jan-2014Registration status:
Registered until expiry date.Name servers:
ns1.kenby.com
ns2.kenby.com
The domain has only been in existence since 2005. Looking at the web page at www.drake.co.uk:
suggests that it’s not actively in use.
Indeed, a quick ‘dig’ shows it has no MX records:
mbd:~ martyn$ dig drake.co.uk mx
; <<>> DiG 9.8.3-P1 <<>> drake.co.uk mx
;; global options: +cmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 43473
;; flags: qr rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 0, AUTHORITY: 0, ADDITIONAL: 0;; QUESTION SECTION:
;drake.co.uk. IN MX
So drake.co.uk, for all intents and purposes, is completely inert. Dead in the water. Not being used. It’s the domain of the living dead until it comes up to renewal. Until that happens (or is transferred to somebody else), the equivalent drake.uk domain is being held to ransom by Nominet.
Whereas:
Drake.org.uk:
Relevant dates:
Registered on: 27-Mar-1997
Expiry date: 27-Mar-2015
Last updated: 30-May-2014
Drake.me.uk:
Relevant dates:
Registered on: 29-Apr-2008
Expiry date: 29-Apr-2015
Last updated: 06-Jun-2014
Both have MX records (Google Apps for Business), both point to the same web space (this blog) and both are used continuously.
The only thing that’s bothering me is the data validation thing. Both domains state:
Data validation:
Registrant contact details awaiting validation
Yet logging into my account at Nominet shows the address, telephone number and everything else to match the required format, albeit with some optional data missing (which I’ve just filled in – however it shouldn’t have made any difference to how the address appears in the Royal Mail database).
So my question to Nominet is – why does an inactive domain have higher priority of registration over me who has been using my primary domain (drake.org.uk) since starting my career, and the personal .me.uk domain since they were first released?
Sidenote: I’d have registered and used drake.me.uk back in 1997 if the .me.uk third level domain type had been around. But since it wasn’t, the available choices for a drake cTLD were limited. I could have had drake.co.uk, but figured there may be a business that wanted it. So .org.uk it was. Seems odd to me, however, that it took until 2005 for drake.co.uk be registered.
The rules for this new namespace seem to be mad, arbitrary and liable to cause lots of headaches.
While I’ve just noticed that, according to this page:
- The reservation period for existing customers who already have a .co.uk, .org.uk, .me.uk, .net.uk, .ltd.uk or .plc.uk runs up until 07:59hrs on 10 June 2019
the point still stands that because ANYBODY can register .co.uk domains it provides for an uneven playing field.
I can’t even register mbd.uk (which would be a lovely shortened version of my initials – and would save me a fortune on the .gd version as well as being country specific) because mbd.co.uk already exists and has first rights.
MBD.CO.UK DOESN’T EVEN HAVE ANY BLOODY NAMESERVERS!
(Bangs head against desk repeatedly)
See also – Happy Birthday My Domain.
