Vietnamese Internet agency faces digital dilemmas

[slaughterbeck]

VietNamNet - Vietnam National Internet Centre (VNNIC), the body responsible for allocating domain names in Vietnam, has been threatened with lawsuits as it refused to register "sensitive" domain names.

Luat Gia Pham's application for the domain names buoi.com.vn and Ion.com.vn was rejected as the names could be misconstrued as either common fruit or as male and female genitalia.

VNNIC also refused to allocate more explicit domain names like sex.com.vn or xxx.com.vn registered by another company.

The centre explained that these names were often associated with pornographic content and do not fit with local ethical standards.

But the applicants reasoned that VNNIC should not take sex-related meanings of the suggested domain names into consideration.

Even for explicit names, the applicants argued that the names themselves were not bad or good but the content will decide.

In fact, the rule on allocating domain names has not anticipated ambigious words but has ruled out vulgar names. The latest incidents are extreme cases where people can understand VNNIC's concern.

But VNNIC should update their domain name allocation principles to avoid other cases in the future where the line between normal names and offensive names is more difficult to draw.

It is also time consuming to apply for a domain name with VNNIC with physical visits and a waiting period of at least 20 days while people can register online and can get their names instantly if they register their names overseas.

The cost of obtaining and maintaining a domain name in Vietnam is also higher compared to other countries.

Source: Vietnamnet

 

[lorddomain]

You are right... $200/domain is too high. It may be impossible to invest in .VN

 

[Kate]

Are 'sex' and 'xxx' reserved keywords under .vn ?
Every registry usually has its own list of reserved terms that cannot be assigned. However a registry should not be able to disallow names that it doesn't like arbitrarily.