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.