Laos takes back .la

[mole]

Dear .la Registrants,
On 11 December 2002 ICANN announced its decision to re-delegate the ccTLD .la to the Lao Government, specifically the Lao National Internet Committee (LANIC). DotLA and Sterling were not aware that this change was being contemplated by ICANN or IANA, and we were not contacted by ICANN/IANA for our comments either before or after ICANN made its decision.

By way of background, Sterling signed a contract with the Lao government in 2000 for exclusive rights to operate and market the .la domain for 7 years, and Sterling's .la registry operations successfully began in December 2000.

In good faith, Sterling has invested over $3M, nearly $1M of it going directly to the Lao's for the license and a Lao Internet gateway and system, to develop, operate and market the .la registry and domain.


http://www.nic.la/

 

[CoolHost.com]

Uh Oh ... no more ".Los Angeles"??
Thanks for the info!

 

[fizz]

Looks like it's gone la.

 

[Desi]

Without knowing much background or "politics" behind this I do sure hope that it becomes a warning for all such ccTld operators who're motivated by pure greed. They hijack a countrie's (usually small, poor, third-world nation) national asset (its cctld) by striking a backhand deal with it's (mostly) non-democratic government without due consent of its populace and start pitching/marketing it as a fake gTld to few select customers in rich, developed countries. I also hope that similar fate befalls on those who push "alternative" tlds that are actually third/fourth level (New.net & others) but are marketed/promoted as if they're a gTld; hope approval of sTlds such as .travel & others down the road will draw the final nail in th coffin of this greed-filled, deceitful practice.

 

[Dale Hubbard]

Seems to be OK now? Anyone buying any?

 

[Anthony Ng]

.la has been delegated to a company affiliated with DreamHost, an ICANN-accredited registrar located in California, quite a while back.

 

[missedcall]

Without knowing much background or "politics" behind this I do sure hope that it becomes a warning for all such ccTld operators who're motivated by pure greed. They hijack a countrie's (usually small, poor, third-world nation) national asset (its cctld) by striking a backhand deal with it's (mostly) non-democratic government without due consent of its populace and start pitching/marketing it as a fake gTld to few select customers in rich, developed countries. I also hope that similar fate befalls on those who push "alternative" tlds that are actually third/fourth level (New.net & others) but are marketed/promoted as if they're a gTld; hope approval of sTlds such as .travel & others down the road will draw the final nail in th coffin of this greed-filled, deceitful practice.

100 % correct


" Los Angeles is the world's first city to have its own official internet address "

That's what is adv on nic.la page...AT least they should MENSION HOW THIS DEAL WAS MADE AND THAT THIS EXTENSION IS a national asset of a country .....instead they adv that is the "offcial" internet address for Los Angeles ! Glad to see they lost it!

 

[Anthony Ng]

" Los Angeles is the world's first city to have its own official internet address "

That's what is adv on nic.la page...AT least they should MENSION HOW THIS DEAL WAS MADE AND THAT THIS EXTENSION IS a national asset of a country .....instead they adv that is the "offcial" internet address for Los Angeles ! Glad to see they lost it!

Sorry, but you were quoting a VERY old post (of more than 2 years ago). The website you saw just now has nothing to do with that story. Yes, they are marketing .la as the domain for Los Angeles, but everything is working fine (and DreamHost is not losing it).