The downside is that some countries have restrictions on names; in Australia, a .com.au must match up to a registered business, which is awfully useful to preve

The downside is that some countries have restrictions on names; in Australia, a .com.au must match up to a registered business, which is awfully useful to prevent squatting when you add trademarks into the mix. No such dice with the straight .com, .org, etc. (I like that we have both "restricted" and "unrestricted" zones; I can go register beiberloveskittens.com, for example, but know that beiberloveskittens.com.au won't go polluting the .com.au namespace without at least someone going to the effort of setting up a business for it to be attached to.)