Mr Zen Ltd

In the news this week there has been much comment from ICANN about the derestriction of Top Level Domain names (.com / .co.uk etc) heralding the much talked about .xxx as a 'red light zone' for the internet.

You would have thought that brand owners would be happy about this change, allowing them to register their brands in which ever way they like, but it's not that simple - in fact it is a pain.

Brand owners will have to register the domains (of which there will now be an unlimited number) which will cost them more money. Also, because there is no regional element to the TLDs, what are local brands going to do? What if there is another brand in a different country who wants the same domain? You only have to look at www.apple.co.uk to see that it's going to be another mine-field for brand owners, and more money for ICANN.

Let's get to the real reason then - people have already bought their domain names, and ICANN needs to improve it's revenue figures...