Hello, people who know things about the #internet and #domainnames and like #DNS and such.
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Hello, people who know things about the #internet and #domainnames and like #DNS and such. I have a little chunk of ignorance I hope someone can clear up:
Because reasons I found out that I can't register a particular domain name (fuck.ai, if you must know) because it's already registered. There's no landing page, not even a For Sale site. Looking at WHOIS a bit closer I see the domain was registered to an entity called blockeddomains.gov.ai which also doesn't resolve to a website. What is this?
I don't think this can be ICANN getting prudish; for instance, that domain name but with a dot com at the end leads to a british sex work site. blockeddomains.gov.ai sure sounds like a blocklist of some kind, but is a government really buying up domain names with swear words in them just to prevent them from being used? That seems silly, but who knows?
Any ideas? Knowledge? Insights? Inquiring minds want to know.
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Hello, people who know things about the #internet and #domainnames and like #DNS and such. I have a little chunk of ignorance I hope someone can clear up:
Because reasons I found out that I can't register a particular domain name (fuck.ai, if you must know) because it's already registered. There's no landing page, not even a For Sale site. Looking at WHOIS a bit closer I see the domain was registered to an entity called blockeddomains.gov.ai which also doesn't resolve to a website. What is this?
I don't think this can be ICANN getting prudish; for instance, that domain name but with a dot com at the end leads to a british sex work site. blockeddomains.gov.ai sure sounds like a blocklist of some kind, but is a government really buying up domain names with swear words in them just to prevent them from being used? That seems silly, but who knows?
Any ideas? Knowledge? Insights? Inquiring minds want to know.
@guyjantic Guess, not knowledge (about the situation; I speak from knowledge about DNS):
Someone bought a bunch of domains they considered offensive to prevent sites with those names from existing.
The information in whois that your looking at is pretty opaque. Whoever bought fuck.ai also controls the domain in whois, but that's about all you can say.
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@guyjantic Guess, not knowledge (about the situation; I speak from knowledge about DNS):
Someone bought a bunch of domains they considered offensive to prevent sites with those names from existing.
The information in whois that your looking at is pretty opaque. Whoever bought fuck.ai also controls the domain in whois, but that's about all you can say.
@guyjantic Oh. And .gov isn't _reliably_ a government site, just probably.
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Hello, people who know things about the #internet and #domainnames and like #DNS and such. I have a little chunk of ignorance I hope someone can clear up:
Because reasons I found out that I can't register a particular domain name (fuck.ai, if you must know) because it's already registered. There's no landing page, not even a For Sale site. Looking at WHOIS a bit closer I see the domain was registered to an entity called blockeddomains.gov.ai which also doesn't resolve to a website. What is this?
I don't think this can be ICANN getting prudish; for instance, that domain name but with a dot com at the end leads to a british sex work site. blockeddomains.gov.ai sure sounds like a blocklist of some kind, but is a government really buying up domain names with swear words in them just to prevent them from being used? That seems silly, but who knows?
Any ideas? Knowledge? Insights? Inquiring minds want to know.
@guyjantic@infosec.exchange The sponsor for
.aiand the entity reponsible for the registry is Government of Anguilla:So They can decide which names are not up for delegation. This is not uncommon among registries. For example, the
.usnamespace has a list of reserved names that are unavailable:
Register Your .US Web Address Today | .US Domains - About.US
Search and register your .US domain to launch your brand, business or idea today. Plus find eBooks, resources and free tools to build your online presence.
(www.about.us)
They also mention their blocking policy explicitly in their FAQ:
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Hello, people who know things about the #internet and #domainnames and like #DNS and such. I have a little chunk of ignorance I hope someone can clear up:
Because reasons I found out that I can't register a particular domain name (fuck.ai, if you must know) because it's already registered. There's no landing page, not even a For Sale site. Looking at WHOIS a bit closer I see the domain was registered to an entity called blockeddomains.gov.ai which also doesn't resolve to a website. What is this?
I don't think this can be ICANN getting prudish; for instance, that domain name but with a dot com at the end leads to a british sex work site. blockeddomains.gov.ai sure sounds like a blocklist of some kind, but is a government really buying up domain names with swear words in them just to prevent them from being used? That seems silly, but who knows?
Any ideas? Knowledge? Insights? Inquiring minds want to know.
@guyjantic
I'm guessing it's prudishness from the government of Anguilla (which is at gov.ai). Registrars don't have to pay for their domains. -
@guyjantic Oh. And .gov isn't _reliably_ a government site, just probably.
@jmax this is good information. I thought the former.
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@guyjantic@infosec.exchange The sponsor for
.aiand the entity reponsible for the registry is Government of Anguilla:So They can decide which names are not up for delegation. This is not uncommon among registries. For example, the
.usnamespace has a list of reserved names that are unavailable:
Register Your .US Web Address Today | .US Domains - About.US
Search and register your .US domain to launch your brand, business or idea today. Plus find eBooks, resources and free tools to build your online presence.
(www.about.us)
They also mention their blocking policy explicitly in their FAQ:
@i oh! It's one of those nation TLDs that gets used for other things, like .tv
I feel like I should have thought of that. Thanks.
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@guyjantic
I'm guessing it's prudishness from the government of Anguilla (which is at gov.ai). Registrars don't have to pay for their domains.@FritzAdalis ah, I also did not know that last fact.
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@jmax this is good information. I thought the former.
@guyjantic I mean no disparagement of ICANN; I trust their intent to only hand out .govs to actual governments, but they aren't the CIA or a super hero; I doubt they're impossible to fool.
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@guyjantic I mean no disparagement of ICANN; I trust their intent to only hand out .govs to actual governments, but they aren't the CIA or a super hero; I doubt they're impossible to fool.
@jmax Good point. Others have pointed out that .ai is actually the nation TLD for Antigua, and that governments who own these TLDs don't have to pay for their domains, so it's likely the Antigua government actually is using registration as a way to block domains someone finds distasteful.
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