Re: [ga] is ICANN or is ICANN not?

[Kim Davies <kim@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi Roberto,

Quoting Roberto Gaetano on Saturday January 27, 2007:
| 
| This is where we start to disagree. Actually, I should say, this is where I
| start having doubts. Maybe somebody might not appreciate if the .uk will
| disappear tomorrow, just because the code in ISO-3166 is GB. I bet that
| there will be so much international pressure that IANA would only have the
| choice to reintroduce it.

UK is actually a valid ISO 3166-1 code. It is what is known as an
"exceptionally reserved code element", which allows it to be used by
users of the ISO 3166-1 standard.

The only codes that are marked as unusable by the standard, which are
still in the root zone today, are SU, TP and YU.

| I am not convinced of this. I buy the argument that ICANN (actually IANA)
| should not decide which is a country. However, to drop instantaneously what
| was a country until yesterday is a different matter, that does not require
| the same latitude of decision.

The language from the ISO 3166 MA is that users of ISO-3166 should stop
using codes for retired countries "ASAP". Time is given for an orderly
transition, so there is no need to instantaenously drop a domain.
Instead measures should be taken to decommission the codes usage in a
reasonable period of time. 

Traditionally this has meant freezing the domain so no new registrations
can be made, and providing a migration path for registrants to the
relevant new jurisdiction(s).

kim