I read the Wikipedia article and found this interesting:
Domain names in .io may not be used, “for any purpose that is sexual or pornographic or that is against the statutory laws of any nation.” If this requirement is breached, “NIC.IO reserves the right to immediately deactivate the offending registration.”
So this means that Itch is already in violation of the rules and can lose its domain name at any time?
It's about domain names. Literally. Not about the purpose of the websites hosted on that domain. If it were about the website, it would be rather impractical to adhere to every nation's laws. Itch is illegal in Russia for it's lgbt-friendlyness alone.
You can have names that are offensive, sexual in nature or even illegal in some countries. Try insulting persons with a phrase and register that as a domain name. That sort of thing.
Though I have trouble of the concept of a porno-graphic name. Does this mean certain emojis or what ;-)
Well, if you’re going for the stupidly literal interpretation, then it doesn’t say that the domain name may not be sexual or pornographic. It says that the domain name may not be used for a sexual or pornographic purpose. So that means what, exactly? Tattooing the domain name on your private parts? Screaming the domain name during sex? Styling the domain name using pornographic characters?
Or maybe it just means hosting a pornographic website under the domain name, since that’s the major use of domain names that requires actually owning it.
It literally talked about the domain names. Interestingly the quote is outdated. They changed that section since it was quoted on the wiki. When I try to look up definitions, domain seems to be the synonym of domain name. If I were to refer to the services provided under a domain, I would not use the term domain. We refer to Itch.io as a site and not as a domain. A domain is the adress of a house and not the house itself.
Prohibiting names would make a lot of sense and restrictions about naming are useful. There are defamatory sites that have the defamation in their domain name. And insulting polititicans is illegal in many countries.
What they actually mean is unknown to me. Because they obviously do not make use of that policy in the sense of that vague catch it all phrasing. "statutory laws of any Nation" includes countrys like Russia and China. Itch is banned in those countries. And outright illegal in Russia because of lgbt laws. So it is either: they ignore that rule or it does not apply.
It’s about domain names. Literally.
That’s an unusual interpretation….
Maybe it would help to read the rules from the source.
For comparison, there’s the mail policy.
In the event that any .IO domain is used either directly or indirectly for the purpose of directing unsolicited electronic mail{…}
The meaning of “used, directly or indirectly” is not about what letters are in the domain name.
So this means that Itch is already in violation of the rules and can lose its domain name at any time?
Yes.
That’s been a concern on the internet for years. There have been sites using other geographical domain names suddenly shut down, everything on them deleted, because the ruling government over the top domain within their responsibility.
Many indie publishers wouldn’t recover if that happened here.
For the record: Why hasn’t the rules been enforced or changed? The .io top domain was for a geographical area that’s been politically contested this whole time. The UK and the US military have claimed to control the British Indian Ocean Territory, but neither have legally and openly asserted the right to enforce the rules of the .io domain.
It’s been uncertain where the money for the domain registrations has been going. I’d personally like to know if the UK has enforced on .io sites its own rule to save a copy of every work of literature published in the UK or its territories. Are Itch.io ebooks added to the British Library automatically?
Anyhow, now the UK is reportedly handing control, very slowly, to the displaced people of the contested islands.
No one knows what that will mean for .io sites.
for the record, only the .io TLD will disappear (like .so, .nato, .yu, .dd, and more disappeared), itchio servers can still get a new domain name that is not a .io, and “reattach” their servers on it.
BUT, it would be way better to, instead of be in front of a fait accompli and rush things, plan ahead of time, and communicate while slowly migrate over a new domain.
for itchio team: it’s not you alone, game devs / studios also need time to update their websites links, api calls, and a lot more, and the sooner the better.
Plus, there’s another point of weakness for Itch.io in the rules.
- MANDATORY RULES FOR THIRD LEVEL DOMAINS
4.1 An applicant must be resident in the British Indian Ocean Territory.
Third-level domains are what our creator pages are made of; for example: falsfiction.itch.io.
I’m not an Indian Ocean resident. Pretty sure Leafo isn’t.
Side note: The last I’ve seen, the US federal government claims .com, .net, and .org are in its jurisdiction to regulate despite those not being geographical codes. They aren’t necessarily safer while the US is held by a volatile force that is antagonistic to creatives and small businesses. Maybe that situation will get better soon….
