MEDIACOM-RELEASE-INTERNET-SOCIETY-OF-NZ
The Internet Society of New Zealand has lifted its ban preventing registration of seven "offensive" words as domain
names in New Zealand.
ISOCNZ Chair Peter Dengate Thrush says the move which comes into force at midnight tonight (that is from 1 June) comes
after ISOCNZ sought wide public feedback and received very little opposition to the move.
"From a philosophical point of view ISOCNZ does not see itself as an appropriate body to set or impose standards of
public decency, and at a practical level there are thousands of Domain names being registered each month and physically
checking each registration is simply not practical," he says.
Mr Dengate Thrush says the New Zealand register is now sixteenth in the world as far as name registrations go and in the
top three on a per capita basis.
"The seven words are basically Anglo-Saxon biological terms and banning them does not take account of what may be seen
as offensive to different religions, foreign cultures or seen as blasphemy."
The same words could also be registered once translated into foreign languages, as the ban only applied to words in
English.
Mr Dengate Thrush says applications will be actioned by New Zealand domain name registry Domainz on a first come first
served basis.
He does not know whether or not there will be a rush after the stroke of mid-night on 31 May or not.
For Further Information Contact:
ISOCNZ Chairman
Peter Dengate Thrush
Phone: 04 4998959 / 021 499888
RELEASED BY MEDIACOM
MD2206-266/ALO/EML
31 MAY 2000