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Government moves to nationalize .me
The government of Montenegro says it has set the ball rolling on the creation of a state-owned entity that will eventually manage its local ccTLD, .me.
The ccTLD, which enjoys over a million of registrations largely due to its friendliness to English speakers, is currently managed by a joint venture, doMEn, primarily controlled by GoDaddy and Identity Digital.
In a statement issued by the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister for Economic Policy, the government said (machine translated from the original Serbian):
Launching the process to establish a state-owned company that will manage the national .ME internet domain represents an important step towards returning the management of one of the country’s most valuable digital resources into the hands of the state.
In this way, we are strengthening Montenegro’s digital sovereignty, ensuring greater control over a strategic resource, and creating the conditions for a larger share of the benefits arising from management of the domain to remain in the country and be directed towards its further development.
The move squares with government policy documents published in May which indicated that Montenegro wants to take greater control over its TLD, at the same time putting the squeeze on revenues that today primarily flow to its American managers.
The May statement strongly suggested continued involvement of doMEn, at least as part of a transition process to state ownership, with the government taking more than 50% of the profits from the estimated €10.1 million ($11.75 million) .me brings in annually.
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do you think this has been sped up after people blaming montenegro for the T.ME wrongful takedown?