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That is some terrible revisionist history. .com, .net, .gov etc. were the first TLDs created in the early 1980s (when the DNS was invented, before ICANN existe
by kijeda 13y ago
That is some terrible revisionist history.
.com, .net, .gov etc. were the first TLDs created in the early 1980s (when the DNS was invented, before ICANN existed). Only later in the mid 1980s were country codes added to the repertoire, and each country was given one based on the ISO 3166 standard — including the US (.us).
The only domains with geographic prohibitions were .gov and .mil, being run by the US Government. People of all countries have always been able to register domains in .com, .net etc., not just Americans.
- takluyver 13y agoAnyone can register a .com, .net, .org address, but the registries are subject to US law. So, for instance, US courts can order a .com domain taken down, even if it points to servers in another country.
- woe 13y agoYou're not exactly nailing the history there yourself. The very first specification of TLDs listed five of what we now call gTLDs (.com, .edu, .gov, .mil, .org) and also stipulated that every two-letter ISO country code would also be a TLD. ccTLDs have been around from the very beginning of the DNS.