Country code domain name registries have a very broad set of rules and regulations. For people who are used to the more predictable world of .com and other gTLDs the way ccTLDs are run can seem a little like the wild west!
Personally I enjoy working with ccTLDs, but I do find that some of them are their own worst enemy.
The most recent one to shoot themselves in the foot? The .in registry.
Yes the world is a big place and there are nasty people out there who will try to do evil things on the internet. However abuse mitigation needs a scalpel not a sledgehammer, and even if you want to use a sledgehammer at times you really need to know what you’re doing.
In the case of .in they seem to have “invented” a solution to address a non-existent problem.
Their recent announcement is short and doesn’t really explain anything, but essentially says that if you want to “bulk register” domain names then their CEO needs to sign off on it. The problem is that their definition of “bulk” is unlikely to be the same as anyone else’s – 2 domain names for individuals and 100 for companies.
From informal conversations with other registrars it’s pretty clear that this new policy is going to cause headaches and render .in an unattractive proposition for many.
You can read the letter here (PDF)
Where did this come from?
It’s not terribly clear. The .in registry was one of several to present and the most recent ICANN meeting during a session led by the ccNSO on the general topic of DNS abuse. The slides from that session are here and the .in bit is from slide 25 onwards.
It’s not a particular sane policy in my view as it’s quite easy to circumvent and “bulk” registrations aren’t “the” big issue with DNS abuse. Sure, there are some bulk registered domain names that can cause issues or be used for nasty things, but this is not the best way to deal with this.
