You Name it

Domain names are a fundamental element of the internet. Like phone numbers, each computer on the internet is assigned an identifying Internet Protocol (IP) address number - which may look something like this, ‘66.249.65.1’. When you enter a website domain name into your browser, it sends a request to a global network of servers that form the Domain Name System (DNS). This system was invented to make it easier for humans to remember and navigate these strings of numbers/addresses.

In the very early days of the internet, computer scientists created a straight forward hierarchical organisational system for these domain names. From a technical point of view, the management of these names could be very straight forward. However, this abstraction, turning these addresses from numbers to words, created a lot more meaning for people and in turn, this created a much bigger organisational challenge. Given that the internet is the biggest decentralised communication system humanity has ever seen - the reality of managing the policies around these more meaningful words became a lot more complicated.

No one actor had the legal jurisdiction on how to go about coordinating these domain names and that's where ICANN came in. The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) is a not-for-profit €100 million a year, multi-stakeholder corporation, set up in 1998 to manage domain name files. It is a giant co-ordinating body that exist to manage the international policy issues that arise around domain name ownership and management.

The Name Game

Historically, ICANN had generally been very strict about opening up new top level domain names suffixes (e.g. '.com, ‘.net' and '.org') , but in 2011, it "opened the Internet's naming system to unleash the global human imagination". It decided to allow the creation of numerous new generic domain names as well brand-specific names like ".canon".

Worthy of the Name

ICANN is responsible for delegating the management of international country code top-level domain names e.g. ‘.ie’, ‘.uk’ and ‘.au’. The country codes are controlled by a trustee from the country to which they are assigned. Some countries are stricter than others about the use and registration of their domain's name/code. '.MD' is Moldova's country code for example, and it is restricted to individuals or companies with a physical address in Moldova. '.TV' on the other hand is owned by Tuvalu, a tiny Polynesian nation island, and their country code is much more commercialised. Tuvalu allows ‘.TV’ to be sold as an abbreviation for 'television' worldwide (Twitch.tv being a famous instance).

Ireland’s '.IE' is based on a specific vetting process that is currently operated by the IE Domain Registry. In order to register a '.IE' domain name, commercial applicants must provide a ‘real and substantive connection to the island of Ireland’. If they’re not resident here, "they may still be eligible to register if they sell goods or services to consumers or businesses in the island of Ireland and can provide evidence of this". Although this is not fraudulent - many Irish consumers have been hit with unexpected customs changes since Brexit - after purchasing product from the a '.IE' website that they hadn't realised were actually coming from the UK.

While trust is a major issue on the internet, given the importance we place on words, it is clear that names still hold have a lot of power in establishing a reputation in a global internet society.