[oauea]

Wouldn't someone from Gibraltar be able to buy and lease it to Google?

[kortilla]

Yeah, but Google wouldn’t want any part of that type of arrangement. Better to let it go un-associated with the country than to depend on some other party that can extort at renewal time.

[hsbauauvhabzb]

Can’t Domain name providers do pretty much the same thing? You’re only leasing a domain after all...

[thelean12]

They generally have a reputation to uphold so others don't just get up and leave.

Some rando leasing it to you can do whatever they want without worrying about any of that.

[csomar]

There are 30k people in Gibraltar and probably most of them use the .com or .uk domain.

[permo-w]

.co.uk