Asked by: Toby Perkins (Labour - Chesterfield)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, if he will take steps to ensure that people who purchase domain names are doing so to use them for legitimate purposes and not simply to sell on at profit.
Answered by Lord Vaizey of Didcot
The Government has no plans to intervene in the management of the UK registry in this way at this time. Nominet, who operate the UK registry, are a private not-for-profit company with a public purpose objective and any changes to the way in which the registry is managed is done so through a multi-stakeholder approach. The Government supports the multi-stakeholder approach to the way the internet is managed. There is an active secondary market for domain names and Nominet has robust procedures in place to ensure brands and trademarks are adequately protected.
Asked by: Toby Perkins (Labour - Chesterfield)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what steps he is taking to ensure that the system for registering new .uk domains with Nominet is accessible and straightforward.
Answered by Lord Vaizey of Didcot
Nominet is responsible for managing the UK registry and any policy changes, such as the introduction of new .uk domain names, is done in full consultation with its stakeholders, which includes the Government. The Government favours this multi-stakeholder model approach to internet governance. The processes for .uk domains are fully transparent and Nominet has justified their policy position when publishing the response to the consultation on second level domain names.
Asked by: Toby Perkins (Labour - Chesterfield)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, if he will carry out an international comparative assessment of the ease of registering for the new .uk domains as a UK business.
Answered by Lord Vaizey of Didcot
The Government has no plans to carry out such an assessment. The UK registry is one of the most open, trusted and competitive in the world and Nominet consulted extensively before the introduction of the new .uk domain names, including with the Government.
Asked by: Toby Perkins (Labour - Chesterfield)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what representations he has received on Nominet's policy of first offering the new .uk domain names to the holder of the equivalent .co.uk domain.
Answered by Lord Vaizey of Didcot
The Government responded to the Nominet consultation regarding .uk domain names and supported stronger protection for holders of .co.uk domain names in order to protect existing brands and avoid consumer confusion. Officials subsequently met with officials from Nominet to discuss Nominet's revised approach following consultation responses from all stakeholders.