You Don't Own Your .io or .ai. You Rent a Country's Politics

All domains are pretty much rented... I know it's more fragile with cc-tld's but really, given the corporate interests behind other TLDs and the use of trademarks to re-settle established lands, so to speak... I wouldn't trust any domain to always exist.

That said, despite it being in a position where it would have normally disappeared, I don't think .io is going anywhere... there's way too much interest in keeping it around. I'd go so far as to suggest that maybe it should become "not" a "cc-tld" despite it being two characters and having it's origins in a national definition.

Re: You Don't Own Your .io or .ai. You Rent a Country's Politics

#5

Post by tliltocatl » Mon, Jul 06, 2026, 5:32 PM UTC

Same applies for .com/.net, except it's USA's politics. Which you may or may not consider more reliable. But yea, ccTLD domain hacks are pretty damn stupid.

Re: You Don't Own Your .io or .ai. You Rent a Country's Politics

#6

Post by Bender » Mon, Jul 06, 2026, 6:41 PM UTC

Nobody owns a domain of any TLD otherwise they would only pay for it once and it would be theirs forever assuming they are not violating trademarks.

Re: You Don't Own Your .io or .ai. You Rent a Country's Politics

#7

Post by thebeardisred » Mon, Jul 06, 2026, 6:59 PM UTC

This was why, despite quite a few of us enjoying the gag, we gave up the domain `libcore.so` at CoreOS many, many years ago. Too much of a supply chain risk.

Re: You Don't Own Your .io or .ai. You Rent a Country's Politics

#8

Post by whalesalad » Mon, Jul 06, 2026, 7:13 PM UTC

tliltocatl wrote: post #5

Same applies for .com/.net, except it's USA's politics. Which you may or may not consider more reliable. But yea, ccTLD domain hacks are pretty damn stupid.

not quite the same, gtld != cctld they are governed way differently.

Re: You Don't Own Your .io or .ai. You Rent a Country's Politics

#9

Post by andreashaerter » Mon, Jul 06, 2026, 7:19 PM UTC

On topic when draw.io (diagrams.net) realized that, from https://www.drawio.com/blog/move-diagrams-net/#io-domains

    There are two major problems with .io domains:

    The first is that the islands which should own the domain suffix, don't, thanks to a wonderful piece of modern day British Imperialism. If you ever feel the need to donate to us, please give it to a more worthy cause.

    Secondly, there was a security issue with the .io domain. In 2017, a researcher managed to take control of four of the seven authoritative name servers for the .io domain. We accept that mistakes can happen, strong processes limit the chances of them happening, but they still can.

Re: You Don't Own Your .io or .ai. You Rent a Country's Politics

#10

Post by andreashaerter » Mon, Jul 06, 2026, 7:26 PM UTC

Bender wrote: post #6

Nobody owns a domain of any TLD otherwise they would only pay for it once and it would be theirs forever assuming they are not violating trademarks.

BUT:

1. For generic TLDs like .com/net/org/., the rules mostly come from ICANN, the registry, and the registrar.

2. For country-code TLDs like .de/io/to/io/ai/ly, the rules come from that ccTLD's own registry. Best example AFAIK: .ly domains must not contain obscene contents contrary to Libyan law or Islamic morality (which was a driver for bit.ly's domain change)

So ccTLDs are not simply "generic TLD rules plus country rules." They are their own category with their own policies. Trademark violations are one way to lose a domain, but not the only one. The risk is MUCH higher when using a country TLD.