Country Code TLDs

[postel@ISI.EDU (Jon Postel)]

Hello:

As a point of clarification, here is the IANA's statement about country
code top level domain names.

	~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

	The codes we use are those from the ISO 3166 standard.

	A country must recognised as such by the ISO (or by the UPU);
	the code used must be the ISO-3166 code (or if there is no code
	in the Standard, then the code used should be that which is
	reserved in the ISO-3166 Reserved Code Elements list as a UPU
	code).

	~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The effect of the extra stuff about allowing as a TLD something that is
both a ISO-3166 Reserved Code Element and a UPU code is to add 4
possibilities:

        AC = Ascension Island
        GG = Guernsey
        IM = Isle of Man
        JE = Jersey

This small extension of the rules by the IANA seemed to greatly offend
a very few people, and seemed to be no big deal to many others.  A key
point to keep in mind is that the IANA did not choose the codes or make
up the list, it extended the set of allowed codes to another list
provided by the ISO 3166 maintenance agency.

--jon.