[jleader]

Many TLDs already have restrictions, and are not 100% "open for the public". There's been controversy about whether .job is enforcing its restrictions correctly; .edu is strictly limited to US accredited 4-year secondary educational institutions; .gov and .mil are "owned" by the US government; many ccTLDs have restrictions, for example .cn at times has required registrants to have a business license in China, etc.

[keithpeter]

In the UK, .ac.uk is reserved to colleges and universities, .gov.uk to local and national government &c.

What happens about .books.uk &c? Should be fun.

http://icannwiki.com/index.php/Kieren_McCarthy

McCarthy worked for ICANN for a bit, and now he appears to be running some conferences and a web site

http://news.dot-nxt.com/author/Kieren%20McCarthy

[Navarr]

This is a bad example only because .ac.uk is technically a second-level domain, and anything under it would be a third-level subdomain of .ac.uk

Technically speaking, of course.

[keithpeter]

I take your point fully. Just musing on the country codes being appended to the same words as the new top level domains, just to create more confusion.

In the UK some smaller private colleges that are not eligible for .ac.uk register web sites with the .ac country code.

[Navarr]

I understand, but I believe as others have pointed out that ICANN would deny said applications.

And if the spammers/scammers have enough money to afford the infrastructure necessary for a TLD, I think we may have a bigger problem.

[keithpeter]

My understanding is that books.uk is just a second level domain. It would have to be Nominet who questioned the application, and there are countries that appear to take a liberal view of the use of their country code. Have I misunderstood?

[Navarr]

Ah, I missed that point. I just.. see that as a non-issue.

Though someone COULD use books.uk like a domain, I don't see people confusing it with .books websites.

If they do they have the wrong expectations from ccTLDs