RE: [registrars] Regarding rules that don't work going forward

["John Berryhill" <john@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

>  We had a rule that you couldn't
>register place names in .com.au.  

One can have jolly fun with the .info reserved geographic names here:

http://www.afilias.info/whois_search/reserved_names

For example, Afilias took this list quite literally, and the mis-spelled
"bosnaihercegovina.info" is indeed duly reserved, while the
correctly-spelled bosniahercegovina.info was (until a few moments ago)
available for registration.  

One ponders the government authority responsible for
"occupiedpalestinianterritory.info". "Palestine" or indeed
"Palestinianterritory" do not appear on the list but
"palestinianterritories" does.  Presumably, the GAC in its infinite wisdom
cannot spell "Bosnia", but put quite a bit of effort into determinining that
there is a singular occupied Palestinian territory, and a plural set of
Palestinian territories which are not occupied.  Perhaps the "occupied"
version, given the name, is to be reserved for the occupier, and not for
those occupied.

Meanwhile, the official name of one country "The United States of America"
didn't make the list at all, despite the apparent preoccupation with sorting
out various permutations of occupied or non-occupied Palestinian
territories.  We have quite a profusion of "Netherlands" and its
possessions, and no Holland.

Perhaps the most curious construct on the list is
"falklandislands-malvinas".  No Scotland, Wales, nor Northern Ireland, but
world order depends upon reserving a hyphenated name that neither the UK nor
Argentina would find acceptable for the territory in question.   Her
Majesty's "britishindianoceanterritory" attained the A-list cachet that the
Scots and Welsh did not manage to muster.  One recoils at what happens when
one's obsession for consuming sheep entrails diverts attention from
critically important domain name issues.

It is a pity that these random acts of stupidity in the exercise of
influence fail to bear the names of their authors.