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Copenhagen gTLD scuppered by government

Kevin Murphy, February 8, 2012, 13:13:57 (UTC), Domain Registries

Plans afoot to apply for a city top-level domain for Copenhagen have been killed off after the Danish government saw little public support for the initiative.
Peter Larsen, CEO of the would-be applicant and local registrar Larsen Data (GratisDNS), said that the application is effectively over.
In order to get a city gTLD, applicants need a letter of support or non-objection from the relevant government(s). But for Copenhagen, that letter will now not be forthcoming.
The Danish Ministry of Business and Growth proposed an amendment to the country’s domain name law in November that would have enabled it to give consent to the .cph bid, Larsen said.
But due to a “lack of interest” from the public, the amendment has been shelved.
“We have nowhere to ask for the letter of non-objection, and that is killing the .cph project very effective,” Larsen said in an email.
The governments of other European capitals, including Paris, London and Berlin, are in favor of city gTLDs and are backing applications.

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Comments (4)

  1. Rubens Kuhl says:

    They would need government support for København or Copenhagen, but why would they need support for CPH ?

    • Kevin Murphy says:

      I think a strict reading of the Guidebook could let them pass the geo-names check, even if they self-identified as a city gTLD, but there’s always the GAC to worry about.

  2. Kate Hutchinson says:

    I’m curious. Does anyone know what happens if a city TLD applicant got its City’s support but then it was revoked after the TLD was approved and active? The guidebook only covers support from the City for the application.

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