Los Angeles Gets Own TLD

DM420 writes "On June 9th, Los Angeles officially becomes the world's first city to have its own Internet domain.Great to hear since one day I hope to be an owner of my own TLD and this is a step in the right direction. ;) The registry is located at www.la and further details at DMnews.com" Looks like an Irish firm made a deal with Laos to use the .la TLD. Looks to be on the pricier side of domains, though.

Article

[Phroggy]

Wait wait wait, "officially"? Isn't the .la TLD still officially assigned [iana.org] to Laos, and they've just cut a deal with some company to promote it as a Los Angeles TLD, just like the TLDs of Western Samoa, Tuvalu and Belize are promoted as "Web Site", "Television" and "Business" respectively? Does the City of Los Angeles even know about this?

Seriously, this isn't worthy of a news article. It's just a country trying to make money and a company trying to make more money by trying to trick people into believing that anyone cares. If ICANN had assigned a TLD to a city, THAT would be news.

Re:Article

[MikeFM]

These deals always strike me as lame. I can understand why poorer countries do this but I count the companies that cut the deals among the cheesier entities online.. right after spammers and porn sites. Do we really want to advertise for these clowns?

Re:Article

[Phroggy]

These deals always strike me as lame. I can understand why poorer countries do this but I count the companies that cut the deals among the cheesier entities online.. right after spammers and porn sites. Do we really want to advertise for these clowns?

I agree. This is the second completely retarded article [slashdot.org] I've seen in 6 hours.

They're trying to promote "hooker.la" and "coke.la" as "premium names" for $100. It doesn't get much sleazier than that.

Re:Article

[1u3hr]

And even beter, look at the source of the FA: The Online Newspaper of Record for Direct Marketers [dmnews.com]. They sound like a group we'd all like to help promote their scummy plan to deprive a whole fourth world country of their domain (yes, I know they bought it, so did 18th C slavers when buying their merchandise). So now there's a "yahoo.la", etc, etc. That really fills a need.

Re:Article

[MikeFM]

Remind me to get crapo.la. The perfect name for the perfect TDL. :P

Re:Article

[outsider007]

namb.la

Re:Article

[sharkey]

namb.la
You're a Brando look-alike?

couldn't agree more.

[Vellmont]

I find it rather sad that this gets posted as news on slashdot, given that slashdot is supposed to be run by geeks. I'd expect this from my local newspaper, but CowboyNeal should know better.

Having said that, what happens when the people of Laos decide they want to use their TLD? I know it's a small mountainous country with very little technology, but I just heard a story yesterday about how the small country of Bhutan just got cable TV (a country where Buddhist monks outnumber soldiers). Point being it'll probbably happen eventually.

Re:couldn't agree more.

[claar]

Said Vellmont:
I find it rather sad that this gets posted as news on slashdot, given that slashdot is supposed to be run by geeks. I'd expect this from my local newspaper, but CowboyNeal should know better.

Said CowboyNeal:
Looks like an Irish firm made a deal with Laos to use the .la TLD.

I think it was fairly clear.. the submitter is the only one who used the word "officially", unless you count the headline -- and headlines are just attention-getters that are rarely factual (and usually fairly effectiv

Re:couldn't agree more.

[Another AC]

Having said that, what happens when the people of Laos decide they want to use their TLD?

Actually, Laos reserved a bunch of .la domains for use within the country.. com.la, net.la, mil.la, gov.la, and about 140 more.

I believe they're getting something in the range of 20% of all revenues from the domains.

Maybe they can use the money to pay for those laonix [slashdot.org] pcs..

Re:Article

[ergonal]

I agree with everything you've said, but one wonders about how much of a slice the Laos Government is actually getting? I hope the % they're getting is a lot higher than that of your regular RIAA-affiliated artist.

Re:Article

[SEE]

I hope the Laos Government is getting totally screwed. Laos's government is one of the sixteen Most Repressive Regimes [freedomhouse.org] on Earth.

Re:Article

[Archie Steel]

It's also one of the poorest. A good case can be made that if the country hadn't been bombed back to the stone age by the U.S. during the Vietnam War (for no really good reason, either, since the U.S. lost anyway), then perhaps they'd have a nicer country to live in. War and widespread destruction will damage a country's social fabric, you know...that kind of environment can sometimes be good breeding grounds for totalitarian regimes.

I do hope that Laos is getting a good deal out of this, but I also hope that Laotians in general will benefit from some of it.

In the meantime, check out the Jhai foundation [jhai.org], they do some pretty good stuff. The chair of the Jhai foundation actually participated as part of a bomber crew during the Vietnam war. Having brought pain to this part of the world, he now wants to make amends by bringing peace and the internet to Loatian villagers. He's also part of Veterans for Peace and a really decent guy.

In any case, it'd be some sweet irony that one of the poorest nations on Earth would get some money for selling TLDs to one of the richiest part of the world... :-)

Re:Article

[Archie Steel]

Tens, if not hundred of thousands of Laotian civilians were killed in U.S. bombing runs over Laos. I'll bet ya they weren't all right on the Ho Chi Minh trail, whose strategic importance was later minimized by the U.S. government itself. You may think that thousans upon thousands of civilian killed, entire communities being wiped out by carpet bombing, doesn't have an effect on a country's development. I tend to disagree, and so do most sensible people.

The U.S. "war effort" in SE Asia was a misguided and u

I agree

[WIAKywbfatw]

You couldn't be more right. But if someone's going to call .la the TLD for Los Angeles, then perhaps they should also consider these other "city-specific" TLDs, most of which have been around far longer than the Laotian domain: .au - Austin, Texas, USA (actually Australia) .ca - Cardiff, Wales (Canada) .be - Berlin, Germany (Belgium) .br - Baton Rouge, Louisiana, USA (Brazil) .br - Brussels, Belgium (Brazil) .lv - Las Vegas, Nevada, USA (Latvia) .no - New Orleans, Louisiana, USA (Norway) .pa - Paris, France (Panama) .pe - Perth, Australia (Peru)

Just blows the "Los Angeles is first" argument out of the water doesn't it?

Re:I agree

[AvitarX]

Noone I know calls Austin, Texas au the same can be said for every single one of the cities you listed.

OTOH,
LA is a very reconizable term for Las Angeles, At least it is here in the US.

A few of the ones you listed would work for states here. But if I said I was going to AU to visit a family I would get a retarded stare.

Holy see, Batman!

[yerricde]

If ICANN had assigned a TLD to a city, THAT would be news.

Two words: Vatican City [vatican.va]. Two letters: va [checkurl.info].

As pointed out by CanSpice [slashdot.org].

Re:Holy see, Batman!

[Phroggy]

Ahh, but ICANN didn't assign .va to Vatican City, the IANA did! It's a ccTLD, not a gTLD, and was assigned before ICANN existed (ICANN was created in 1998; the .va TLD was assigned in 1995). And yes, it would have been news, in 1995.

Re:Holy see, Batman!

[Cplus]

The Vatican is a country. It may be in the shape of a city, but it is entirely an independant entity and the smallest in the world. It's population is under a thousand, it's official language is latin, it has it's own currency, and a radio station [radiovaticana.org]. Don't know why I know all of this.

Re:Holy see, Batman!

[Erik Hensema]

The vatican doesn't have it's own currency, though it does have a country-specific side on their euro coins, as every euro country has. But since there are so little of them (vatican euro coins), they are almost all in the posession of collectors.

Re:Article

[sumbry]

Wait wait wait, "officially"? Isn't the .la TLD still officially assigned to Laos, and they've just cut a deal with some company to promote it as a Los Angeles TLD, just like the TLDs of Western Samoa, Tuvalu and Belize are promoted as "Web Site", "Television" and "Business" respectively? Does the City of Los Angeles even know about this?

Not only is this old news, but it's years old. This company has been registering .la TLDs with the Los Angeles spin for *years*.

Other city TLDs

[1u3hr]

If ICANN had assigned a TLD to a city, THAT would be news.

Singapore .sg
Monaco .mc
Hong Kong .hk
Macau .mo
Gibraltar .gi
Kuwait .kw
Vatican .va
Luxembourg .lu
Saint Helena .sh

Of these, most are indpendent city-states (or village-states), except for HK and Macau, which were European colonies and are now Chinese ones, Saint Helena, and Gibraltar, British colonies.

A more deserving city does not exist

[mao che minh]

I can't wait to see the logo for the official city site, a wonderful college in honor of such an amazing city: A pimp strolling down the av', jack-slap cocked and ready, aimed at a cowering hoe..... The blurred image of a 1990 Honda Civic racing through Watts - gang bangers adorned in blue dew rags and wielding automatic weapons hanging from the windows, teeth capped in magnificent gold..... A heavily armed police officer forcing a terrified black youth to the pavement amidst a flurry of panic - night stick held high and proud, ready to strike.

A finer city does not exist, and a no city deserves it's own domain more then the great Los Angelas.

Hey hey

[Raul654]

Don't you know an urban warfare training ground when you see one?

Re:A more deserving city does not exist

[cruppel]

LA College? I think they have whole Universities there.

On the other hand, that scene you described would make a fine collage.

And .uk = ucky?

[NumberField]

This isn't a Los Angeles domain anymore than the .TV domain is for TV stations. (FYI, it's for the island of Tuvalu, which gets a bit of revenue by letting VeriSign control its domain.)

Using this argument, I guess the .uk domain is reserved for ucky food?

LA?????

[Got-Tea-Rolls]

Won't this be confusing when the state of Louisiana gets its own domain?

Re:LA?????

[Phroggy]

Won't this be confusing when the state of Louisiana gets its own domain?

Not at all, because Louisiana already has .la.us, and .la will be quickly forgotten. :-)

Re:LA?????

[commodoresloat]

It already is la.ca.us. Take a look.

Now, Louisiana needs to hijack the TLD from Norway, so that its finest city also has its own TLD!!

Pr0n connection?

[slagdogg]

Given that most of the world's porn comes out of the Los Angeles area, I'm pretty far from surprised.

Re:Pr0n connection?

[pommiekiwifruit]

Not most of the world's watchable pr0n. My vote goes to Prague ;-)

Should they be promoting this?

[pgpckt]

From the www.la page.....

Premium Names

coke.la $100.00
hooker.la $100.00
pharmaceutical.la $100.00
consultancy.la $100.00

Could raise some "red" flags.

Re:Should they be promoting this?

[Phroggy]

Note that this TLD has absolutely nothing to do with the City of Los Angeles; the city probably doesn't even know about it.

Re:Should they be promoting this?

[cscx]

hooker.la $100.00

Yeah but .la is really Laos.

Me so horny! Get it...remember...the war? Nevermind... :D

Re:Should they be promoting this?

[Kris_J]

Could raise some "red" flags.

Red lights more likely.

Re:Should they be promoting this?

[1u3hr]

the last 50 registered .la domains [www.la]:
fucknut.la, gilligan.la, sip.la, motels.la, hotbodies.la, agent.la, boob.la, dotcom.la, professionals.la, techsupport.la, friends.la, boyfriends.la, transexuals.la, fags.la, classifieds.la, nguyen.la, intercoo.la, main.la, main-street.la, postproductions.la, 90210.la, dirtysluts.la, zil.la, specialfx.la, mediatemple.la, jump.la, hel.la, teens.la, easylistening.la, microsoft.la, milf.la, thisdomainsucks.la, exit.la, wrestling.la, lazoo.la, disney.la, lay.la, phantom.la, standup-comedy.la, kenpo.la, decoro.la, areo.la, wann.la, designs.la, guess.la, limited.la, filmeditor.la, musica.la, allure.la, concerts.la

A classy neighbourhood (or should that be 'hood)

Sounds lucrative

[Mannerism]

In related news, Cambodia has changed its name to Nymbodia and applied to ISO for a new digraph.

Look closer

[bcwalrus]

On the right hand column at www.la, it lists the recently registered. Guess what? The first one is adultsonly.la, the second one is adults.la.

Great.

So much for my Diablo fan page...

[Longinus]

...keke.la is already registered :(.

Better yet

[John Jorsett]

www.We'reBrokeSoWe'reRaisingYourTaxes

oola.la

[baba]

Darn, it's already taken.

Re:oola.la

[TiMac]

Well...you could always offer to buy it from them for more moo.la

Oh....I crack myself up :)

Open NIC Open Source TLD's

[Lord Prox]

Just a quickie to plug OpenNIC [unrated.net]. It's nifty, like www.yournamehere.geek. Or even create your own TLD altogeather. Someone should tell LA about this. I already emailed the mayor of Long Beach (just south of LA) but she is an idiot. Talked to her a few times, then helped another canidate with his campagne aginster her. I'm just getting off topic hre aren't I. The point being I am having a tough time getting any local govt to listen to reason to open source/alternate IT/anything not sole by a big name crop.

Drives me insane. Sorry for the rant.

Re:Open NIC Open Source TLD's

[Lord Prox]

And yet your personal /. link is a .net - so nifty you're trying to talk local governments into adopting it, not nifty enough to use yourself. What to make of this, I don't know.

A valid question, with a valid answer...

1. Starting your own TLD isn't quite like a domain. It is a significant commitment to that TLD and all the domains that might register in it. That is more work than I wanted to do for the sake of ego. In addition there is a ratifacation process before you can reg the TLD (to ensure it will be put to good use of name space and prevent TLD squatting)
2. I have thought of reg'ing a domain in the .geek TLD... responsibilities for that are much less. (I would only have th be responsible for the hosts and running the authoritive DNS for that) 3. An entity like the City of Long Beach would have the resources and use for a full TLD, coupled to the fact that they are trying to attract tech business away from neighboring SoCal cities it would be a good choice for them (at least I think so) and it would be a big boost for OpenNIC as well.

Mabey it would be good. Mabey not. There may be technical considerations I am not aware of or other things (non-technical) as well. It was a suggestion.

Note: My earlier reference to the mayor O'Neil being not-so-bright was not based on this matter. Rather on several other interactions I have had with her. Including her reference to the city of Long Beach as being land locked. We have (I think) the second busiest port in california and a request for suggestions to help with the cities budget problems, to which I suggested GNU/Linux, OpenOffice etc, that fell on deaf ears. As well a few financial mini-scandals involving a retirement funds and street lights.

At last we have the fact that supporting OpenNIC is going to irratate ICANN. I don't like tyrants, I thinking that ICANN is looking more and more like that.

Look out...

[eidechse]

New York is gonna be pissed.

bah

[Wakkow]

What crapo.la. It can be yours for only $50! Too bad I don't have that much moo.la to spare.

Sorry.. That was really bad.

Why not under .us?

[unsinged int]

Cities should not have TLDs. There's too many of them. At the very least they should be under a .us domain or, even better, under a .ca.us domain.

Re:Why not under .us?

[psykocrime]

Cities should not have TLDs. There's too many of them. At the very least they should be under a .us domain or, even better, under a .ca.us domain.

Why are there too many? Why should there even be a limit on the number of TLD's? If you really think about it, what significance does a TLD really have? It's just one small part of a globally unique identifier...

I mean, yeah, nominally the TLD's mean something... but in practice, whatever geographic or functional distinctions are supposed to exist between the TLD's, are ignored. Take my own website [cpphacker.co.uk] for example... it's registered in .co.uk, even though I live in Chapel Hill, NC, USA, not Great Britian. They (the registrars) don't seem to enforce many (if any) restrictions on TLD's, so why worry about them?

As long as it's unique, I don't see any reason why I shouldn't be able to have a domain like:

phillip.rhodes.loves.elisabeth.shue

or whatever.

Re:Why not under .us?

[The Monster]

Why are there too many? [TLDs]

For the same reason why you have directories on your hard drive. There's no reason in theory why you must have them, but a hierarchical delegation of namespace prevents unfortunate collisions. It allows grouping of files based on software packages - dare I say that the Windows scheme of \Program Files\Vendor Name\Product Name is actually pretty decent, because it has a clear delegation of authority, and only sucks because typing long names with spaces at a command line is u

Most recently registered:

[lpret]

adultsonly.la
adults.la

That's classic. God bless America...

Soon every city will have its own domain

[Faust7]

Won't that be nice? I'll be able to readily tell websites in Burnt Scrotum, NM from those in Navel Lint, IA. I'll never know how I got along before.

woah woah woah

[CanSpice]

The Holy See [vatican.va] (Vatican City) has its own TLD, .va, and it's a city. I think the calls that Los Angeles is the first city with a TLD are a little premature.

Re:woah woah woah

[cscx]

Sorry to break the news to you, but the Vatican City is a country, too.

Just like Australia is both a country and a continent.

Re:woah woah woah

[CanSpice]

And The Holy See is a city as well as a country, so it is a city that has a TLD. It had a TLD before this .la thing came along saying Los Angeles is the first city with a TLD. I fail to see your point.

Re:woah woah woah

[cscx]

Oh, heh, yeah... sorry, I'm tired.

Re:woah woah woah

[deadsaijinx*]

yep, the papel state is the only country you can walk around in an hour

Re:woah woah woah

[dpp]

Sorry to break the news to you, but the Vatican City is a country, too.

But it is still also a city, so the original poster has a point, even if he is being buttock-clenchingly pedantic! The www.la [www.la] website says:

"Los Angeles is the world's first and only city to receive its own unique Internet address; .la."

where from what you're saying they should strictly have said "...first and only city that is not also a country..." :-)

Re:woah woah woah

[HeghmoH]

And doesn't Singapore have a TLD?

I think it would be better to say that Los Angeles is the first city that is not also its own independent country to have a TLD. Although lots of jokers are going to argue with that part about not being its own country.

Hong Kong

[The Cydonian]

Hong Kong, which is a city under the People's Republic of China although with a slightly different visa regime, has its own TLD.

Re:woah woah woah

[1u3hr]

I think it would be better to say that Los Angeles is the first city that is not also its own independent country to have a TLD.

Hong Kong (.hk), Macau (.mo), both in China. And LA of course DOESN'T have a TLD, .la belongs to Laos, and it could revoke any of these at any time. The .la names just being sold by some cheesy direct marketing company, nothing "official" (in the implied sense of being endorsed by the city of LA) about it.

Re:woah woah woah

[Triumph The Insult C]

No. Holy See is it's own country [cia.gov], comprised of one city, Vatican City.

Re:woah woah woah

[commodoresloat]

In other news, the Pope has been in consultation with the Governor of Virginia about selling the TLD.

Re:woah woah woah

[RedWizzard]

What about Hong Kong (.hk)?

Be ahead of the Christmas rush

[the_Bionic_lemming]

register Falalalalalalaaalaaa.la

What happens when these countries get wired?

[astrashe]

What's going to happen when these countries who sell out finally get wired? What will they do for domains?

Re:What happens when these countries get wired?

[yerricde]

Several developing countries have sold pretty much their entire second-level domain space to interests in developed countries. These include Laos, Niue, Tokelau, Tonga, and Tuvalu. I'm guessing that those countries have reserved *.com.??, *.net.??, *.edu.??, and *.org.??. Or they could charge non-residents much more than residents, as for example the Bahamas NIC [cob.edu.bs] does.

Re:What happens when these countries get wired?

[Imperator]

If they want those domains back, they'll simply take them. Country TLDs can do whatever they want subject to the laws of that country.

And I won't be shedding any tears over it either. This is similar to the rape of poor countries for raw materials and natural resources that the locals are not developed enough to exploit themselves. Once the country is ready to take over, they usually just nationalize that industry. The foreigners who made a killing (no pun intended) off local labor and land whine, and sometimes the rich country will step in with coercion.

For an example, google for United Fruit and Guatemala. It's that sort of shit that caused 9/11 and continues to cause widespread hatred of America.

Re:What happens when these countries get wired?

[mark2003]

It's not Loas saying anything - that would indicate some kind of democracy in action. It's some wealthy autocrat getting a kickback...

So it's not rape, but it is still selling something you perosonally don't own in the first place.

Not the first city after all

[worst_name_ever]

I wonder how they can claim that L.A. is the first city with its own TLD, when the Vatican [vatican.va], which is a city as well as a country, has had its own TLD for a few years now...

Now, "First city with a TLD and drive-through breast augmentation" - that I would believe.

Re:Not the first city after all

[dhovis]

You could make the same argument for Singapore [www.sg].

Re:Not the first city after all

[Phroggy]

Now, "First city with a TLD and drive-through breast augmentation" - that I would believe.

What?!? They don't do that in the Vatican? Damn!

Harness the TLDs

[mnmn]

That gave me a shocker, thought ICANN is being controlled by the Republicans now. Such deals between countries and companies is becoming and thats all fine if more than half of that countrys population agrees with it. I wonder what happens if after the next election (or revolution) in Laos, the next leader asks for their TLD back.

I still doubt many people will actually use it, as most of .tv and others are used for port and cheap personal site hosting. More formal pages in the US just use .com and ones up

Your TLD.

[DarkHelmet]

Great to hear since one day I hope to be an owner of my own TLD and this is a step in the right direction. ;)

Due to the fact that you fantasize about things like this, let me guess...

.nerd

Heh.

Re:Your TLD.

[Neon Spiral Injector]

I don't know if you remember, but CmdrTaco, has day dreamed out loud about having his own TLD. He wants, ".dot".

So it would be: ech tea tea pea colon slash slash slash dot dot dot.

Recently Registered

[sabNetwork]

Hahaha this is a great feature. Check out the type of domains that are already being taken.

TRASH: 16
(including porn, hair-transplant, breast/penis enlargement, lasik surgery, and other spam)
CORPORATE: 37
(companies such as FOX trying to reserve their trademarks under every TLD possible)
DICTIONARY/GENERIC: 28
(dictionary words and other obvious domain name real estate such as "1.la")
OTHER: 137
(names that I didn't recognize or didn't fit into these categories)

Wow, I have too much time on my hands.

domains I want are reserved or registered, already

[Artifex]

I wanted "la.la," of course.

Just imagine:

• [e-mail] would be a great address to give when I have to give one to tech support drones,
• my private streaming music server could be at falalalala.lala.la.la,
• I could start a fan site, [pbskids.org]
• 
  etc.

Hm... a.la, ah.la and al.la are already registered, too. so I can't start that e-biz project, Mumford's Sandwich and Magic Shop [angelfire.com], either.

This sucks!

Re:domains I want are reserved or registered, alre

[Soko]

Given that the pr0n industry is pretty much centred in LA, how about oooh.la.la?

Meh. I'm wondering what all of the hoop.la is about...

Soko

Re:domains I want are reserved or registered, alre

[Artifex]

Given that the pr0n industry is pretty much centred in LA, how about oooh.la.la?

French amateur porn site, maybe: "J'ai votre tour d'Eiffel dans mon pantalon, bébé!"
(I gots yer Eiffel Tower... in my pants, baby!)

I'm wondering what all of the hoop.la is about...

Nope, sorry, a basketball site won't work.
I thought about it, but you know what they're like... nothing but .net.

Somebody better come clean...

[milkmandan9]

Who stole slashdot.la?

Definitely not the first city

[jsse]

Los Angeles officially becomes the world's first city to have its own Internet domain

What about .hk? Hong Kong is a city of China(before that HK is a British colony city) and has its own TLD for years.

WTF!!!

[SkewlD00d]

What about .la.ca.us ? It seems silly that some Laoatian biz people can sell out their own countrymen, so now what's the point of the TLD system? I think ill buy iraq's tld (.iq) for some smarty-pants mensa sites.

Re:WTF!!!

[SEE]

Er, don't worry about Laotian "biz people" selling out their countrymen. Worry about the Laotian government's of torture and repression [freedomhouse.org].

Toronto: .to

[Kenshin]

For years and years and years "TO" (t-o) has been Toronto's nickname, so quite often you'll see some business around here use Tonga's .to TLD.

I'd say we beat LA to the punch.

.LA is a SCAM.

[SlashChick]

Oh, man. .LA domains. Where do I begin?

Some background: .LA has been around for several years. Here [i-dns.net] is one of the initial announcements, dated February 2001.

I have a client who bought one of the initial .LA domain names. He paid $150 to the then-registrar of .LA domains for 5 years of service.

Last December, he got a notice stating that the contract between Laos (the official holder of .LA) and the domain registration company had expired. The letter said, in part, "On 11 December 2002 ICANN announced its decision to re-delegate the ccTLD .la to the Lao Government, specifically the Lao National Internet Committee (LANIC). DotLA and Sterling were not aware that this change was being contemplated by ICANN or IANA, and we were not contacted by ICANN/IANA for our comments either before or after ICANN made its decision."

The letter goes on to explain that ICANN changed the official name servers for .LA to an as-yet-unnamed company. My client's domain name continued to work, but he knew he was borrowing time.

Suddenly, Dreamhost (the current .LA registrar) waltzed in and paid a handsome sum of money to become the official .LA registrar. Of course, they chose not to honor my client's 5-year registration, and demanded that he pay MORE money or have his domain name cease to work.

This has been a frustrating 6 months. My client has since registered a .biz domain, which is controlled by ICANN and not by any specific company. This means that there is no "official" registrar for .biz domains, and that there aren't going to be any disputes over who owns the TLD.

After the $150 that has been wasted by my client for a "5-year" registration, what's to say that Dreamhost won't also get into a dispute and dump .LA completely? At that point, all current .LA domain name holders would be in the same position as my client -- forced to change their web address because the company can't get it together, and losing money in the process.

.LA is a mess. I would not recommend registering a .LA domain until the whole mess stabilizes a bit.

Oh you know it's your fav site

[Sophrosyne]

So who's going to buy http://www.goatse.la and www.goatsecx.la ??
Come on, I know you want to you!!

This is old, old news...

[MsGeek]

The .la domain has been on sale for two years now. And they have been charging that buttreamious $100/yr price for all that time. I wanted msgeek.la right when it was announced that the domains would be available. Then I found out the cost. :P

I got msgeek-la-ca.us instead. Not sure what I will do with it, but it's mine, all mine.

BTW they were marketing the .la tld at Louisiana too. Like neworleans.la and hotjazz.la and cajun.la and mardigras.la and so on. I wonder if they gave up on that.

Now we can pull a Serpentor

[KoopaTroopa]

Cobra.lalalalalalalalalala!

This I command!

No need for this

[codeonezero]

City of Los Angeles, already uses www.ci.la.ca.us [la.ca.us], which I believe is way better that www.la or whatever. They also have www.cityofla.org [cityofla.org]

A much better TLD for businesses in Los Angeles would be to have something like www.business-name.la.ca.us

Also aren't TLDs like www.la for countries?

Frankly as a resident of Los Angeles, I am insulted by this. In fact I should be getting a discount since I'm in LA!! :)

Also do they even check if you're actually in LA?

I don't know if Mayor Hahn and the city counci

some of the names are already taken...

[thanq]

breast-implants.la
plastic-surgery.la
hair-replacement.la
tittiesandass.la
tittyandass.la
botoxcosmetic.la

Apparently LA is hard at work to hold up its image...
I bet that once they decide to have a TLD .nyc, well see something along the lines of...

laywers.nyc
sueyourass.nyc
eytonycomovahhere.nyc

This is what I see

[zakezuke]

I see a bunch of money grubbing bastards flocking to the .la domain just to peforming that age old tradition of cybersquatting.

Now don't get me wrong... I think it kicks ass in theory. Say what you will but L.A. is indeed a large media center, and is just dandy for popular stars of the silver screen to have their own place to promte them selves. Let's face it, your got comercial, then you've got L.A. it self, taking comercial to a whole new level(TM)(TM)(TM)(TM)(R)(C)

But I also see it as mostly looking

Godzilla!

[maliabu]

can't believe no one mentioned Godzil.la yet, although it's already registered.

but wait, zil.la is still available, so you can still have http://god.zil.la/ and this is a better choice because (1) you have a god in your URL, (2) zil is 3 characters, and is more rare than 6 characters domain names :)

Invalid Domain names

[Igmuth]

On the front page of www.la [www.la] they have the following site listed:

café.la $100.00

However when you click on it to register it throws an error message becuase of the 'é' not being a valid character
I would feel sorry for any company if they actually registered that domain since almost noone would be able type the 'é' to visit their site.

(Yes I know there are ways of doing it, but most people couldn't figure it out)

ATTENTION

[Anonymous Coward]

*** !!! ***

If you sign up for a domain name, type in some random number for the "Money Order #" method, the domain will appear to be REGISTERED! When you whois, it will say that it's been registered! This is a serious issue; even if the domain is in fact not registered until it's manually processed, people can not register that domain until its rejected (if indeed that happens, what are the chances that the registration actually goes through?)

Use this knowledge at your own risk.

Re:Why do they need top domains?

[Phroggy]

Why do we need more top level domains?

This isn't a new TLD, it's an old one that's been sold.

Personally, the new TLD I'd like to see is "movie", as in www.spider-man.movie or www.matrix.movie or www.lotr.movie. It should be available to movie producers only (not just Hollywood studios, but independent and foreign as well).

Every movie has a web site now, and none of the URLs are consistent at all. If they had a .movie TLD, maybe they could quit polluting .com?

Re:Why do they need top domains?

[bfree]

Sorry but if you are silly enough to try and protect your domain by buying up all the TLDs then you already had the .la and if you don't buy them all why would you suddenly buy the .la now just because one company is trying to promote the domain?

Re:Why not?

[Phroggy]

It's a separate country...or maybe even a planet. ;)

Do you mean Los Angeles or Laos?

Re:I know the wheels are turning already..

[carpe_noctem]

how about:

stfu.la

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Re:What's next?

[cruppel]

"What's Next?" you asked... IPv6 [ipv6.org] is next.

Re:pffbt.

[CaptainCarrot]

If by "used for Tuvalu citizens" you mean "pull some money into a dirt-poor country [odci.gov] so that maybe the economy will grow and everyone can afford running water and electricity someday" -- then yes.