Home / Blogs

A Tempest in a Libyan Teapot

Protect your privacy:  Get NordVPN  [73% off 2-year plans, 3 extra months]
10 facts about NordVPN that aren't commonly known
  • Meshnet Feature for Personal Encrypted Networks: NordVPN offers a unique feature called Meshnet, which allows users to connect their devices directly and securely over the internet. This means you can create your own private, encrypted network for activities like gaming, file sharing, or remote access to your home devices from anywhere in the world.
  • RAM-Only Servers for Enhanced Security: Unlike many VPN providers, NordVPN uses RAM-only (diskless) servers. Since these servers run entirely on volatile memory, all data is wiped with every reboot. This ensures that no user data is stored long-term, significantly reducing the risk of data breaches and enhancing overall security.
  • Servers in a Former Military Bunker: Some of NordVPN's servers are housed in a former military bunker located deep underground. This unique location provides an extra layer of physical security against natural disasters and unauthorized access, ensuring that the servers are protected in all circumstances.
  • NordLynx Protocol with Double NAT Technology: NordVPN developed its own VPN protocol called NordLynx, built around the ultra-fast WireGuard protocol. What sets NordLynx apart is its implementation of a double Network Address Translation (NAT) system, which enhances user privacy without sacrificing speed. This innovative approach solves the potential privacy issues inherent in the standard WireGuard protocol.
  • Dark Web Monitor Feature: NordVPN includes a feature known as Dark Web Monitor. This tool actively scans dark web sites and forums for credentials associated with your email address. If it detects that your information has been compromised or appears in any data breaches, it promptly alerts you so you can take necessary actions to protect your accounts.

The .LY domain is Libya, and their government recently cancelled the registration of the short and snappy VB.LY, provoking great gnashing of teeth. If you direct your attention to the address bar above this page, you’ll note that it’s at JL.LY, equally short and snappy. The .LY registry started allowing two letter second-level domains last year, and there was a quiet land rush. Now they restrict those domains to people actually in Libya, but say they’ll let us keep the ones we have. How concerned am I that they’ll take my domain away, too? Slightly, but not very.

Honestly, it was pretty foolish to put a sex site on a domain in a Muslim country. VB is Violet Blue, a very elegant high class sex site, but there’s no way it’s anything else. She argued that VB.LY was only a redirector to underlying sites and had no sexual stuff on it, which may have been technically correct, but it was utterly obvious to anyone what showed up on your screen if you typed http://vb.ly in the address bar. I think Violet Blue is swell, but it is naive to imagine that the Libyan government would not feel differently once they noticed it.

Every two-letter top level domain is a assigned to a country or country-like geographic area, known as a ccTLD. The rule that countries own their ccTLDs is far older than ICANN. Even though the US government has always had its thumb on the DNS root, they have been notably silent as domains for Cuba, North Korea, and Iran have been delegated and redelegated. ICANN has told me that they reserve the right to refuse to make a change to a ccTLD, but they never have done so. My impression is that they engage in polite negotiations when a ccTLD asks to do something technically ill-advised, so they don’t exactly refuse, but they don’t exactly make the change, either. It’s clear they only would flatly refuse to prevent serious technical problems.

In the agreements it has with some ccTLDs, ICANN doesn’t ask countries to do anything beyond some non-binding requests to notify each other if something of interest to the other party comes up, and sometimes for the countries to make token contributions toward ICANN’s expenses. One correspondent asked why ICANN doesn’t demand fuller disclosure of the policies, but what would be the point of asking? ICANN’s only recourse would be to pull the plug on a ccTLD and they’re not going to do that.

VB claimed to be unaware that she was violating Libyan laws, which is probably true. But the world is a big place, and the US is only part of it. Libyan laws are in a hard to read foreign language, but foreign countries are like that. (Libyans presumably have the same complaint about US laws, which are not written in easy to read Arabic.) I don’t think it takes a profound understanding of world culture to be aware that .LY is in Libya, Libya is a Muslim country, and Muslim tradition encourages modesty and forbids alcohol, so a site which features pictures of scantily clad women holding drinks isn’t going to work.

Although it can seem hard to believe at this point, domain names are intended to be stable identifiers, not fashion accessories. In most countries, people register in their country domain, so Canadians register in .CA, in .MX, French in .FR, and so forth. An ill-advised policy prior to 2002 required that all .US domains contain city and state, e.g. IBM.ARMONK.NY.US, so we all used .COM instead, but that’s unique to the US. If you live in Libya, .LY works fine, and you wouldn’t be doing anything contrary to Libyan law anyway.

Here’s a thought experiment: let’s say someone lives in Denmark, where pictures of 17 year olds are considered legal erotica, and builds his web site. He registers a domain for it in .US or .GU or .AS or .PR or .VI or .MP, where US law considers those pictures child pornography. How long would the domain last? Would it matter that he didn’t know, or that he couldn’t read the English fine print? Same issue.

I also have the short and snappy SP.AM which I got in 1999, by politely asking the university that ran .AM at the time. I don’t see any danger of it going away, but I do realize that Armenian law applies, and I don’t read Armenian. Ditto my much newer JL.LY, which I use for my blog—they might take offence and take it away, so I do have other US-based domains just in case.

By John Levine, Author, Consultant & Speaker

Filed Under

Comments

nic.ly's statement is worth reading. And so are its policies. Both in english Suresh Ramasubramanian  –  Oct 10, 2010 2:47 PM

Violet Blue doesn’t need to read Arabic at all.

Nic.ly - the .ly ccTLD operator - has a statement on this incident at http://nic.ly/anvp.php

This statement, I would say, shows good faith efforts by nic.ly to enforce their published policies.. which are available in english at http://nic.ly/regulations.php

There is only one registrar for .ly - Libya Telecom and Technology - and their website, and their policies, are in English.. http://www.ltt.ly/en/agents/l.php?service=2&city=1

Comment Title:

  Notify me of follow-up comments

We encourage you to post comments and engage in discussions that advance this post through relevant opinion, anecdotes, links and data. If you see a comment that you believe is irrelevant or inappropriate, you can report it using the link at the end of each comment. Views expressed in the comments do not represent those of CircleID. For more information on our comment policy, see Codes of Conduct.

CircleID Newsletter The Weekly Wrap

More and more professionals are choosing to publish critical posts on CircleID from all corners of the Internet industry. If you find it hard to keep up daily, consider subscribing to our weekly digest. We will provide you a convenient summary report once a week sent directly to your inbox. It's a quick and easy read.

Related

Topics

Domain Names

Sponsored byVerisign

New TLDs

Sponsored byRadix

Threat Intelligence

Sponsored byWhoisXML API

Brand Protection

Sponsored byCSC

IPv4 Markets

Sponsored byIPv4.Global

DNS

Sponsored byDNIB.com

Cybersecurity

Sponsored byVerisign