Swedish Regulator Bans Inclusion of Letters “b”, “a”, “n”, “k” in Domain Names Under .SE

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Swedish Regulator Bans Inclusion of Letters “b”, “a”, “n”, “k” in Domain Names Under .SE

	By Patrik Fältström Technical Director and Head of Security at Netnod
	August 27, 2009 Views: 17,781 Comments: 4

Swedish Regulator PTS have today notified .SE, the Swedish (.SE) TLD registry that they have to change the rules. You can find the press release here and the actual notice to .SE here (PDF).

In short, the decision implies that any form of the sequence of the characters “b”, “a”, “n”, “k” are illegal in domain names in Sweden. Further that checks of what domain names are registered are to be checked before registration.

This is, as people know (except PTS obviously), is not how domain name registration works. Instead, one is strengthening the dispute resolution process so that it is more well known what will happen if some infringement is happening. Next step is of course to have more terms than “bank” be added to this black list. Like registered trademarks in the world, and other terms. For example everything in Wikipedia!

I hope .SE is refusing to follow this rule.

By Patrik Fältström, Technical Director and Head of Security at Netnod

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Comments

Just in case anyone thinks this is a good idea Jay Daley – Aug 27, 2009 8:58 PM

riverbank
bloodbank
bankside
oldbankhotel

and so on ...

# 1 Reply | Link | Report Problems

And how many of those would you expect to find attached to a Swedish domain name? Suresh Ramasubramanian – Aug 28, 2009 2:32 AM

Not that I dont agree with Patrik about how an alternate approach wouldnt be out of place.

# 2 Reply | Link | Report Problems

.*bank.* Patrik Fältström – Aug 28, 2009 3:52 AM

As english is a language many people in Sweden do understand, it is not uncommon at all. http://bloodbank.se/ for example exists as a registered domain. But we do have other words in Swedish using the characters b, a, n, k as well. Including some cities. Searching for "bank" in the phone book in Sweden give 358 matches on people, 2000 matches on organisation names and 242 matches matches on geographical locations. In a situation where we have approximately 250 organisations licensed to deal with bank or bank like services.

# 3 Reply | Link | Report Problems

And I thought the IE registry did Michele Neylon – Aug 29, 2009 1:53 AM

And I thought the IE registry did odd things!
So any domain containing that string is to be blocked?

# 4 Reply | Link | Report Problems

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