OPERATORS of the new ".biz" internet suffix have placed more than 50,000 domain names on hold after a California court ruled they might be running an illegal lottery.
More than 200,000 other names were being activated as scheduled, said Doug Armentrout, chief executive for NeuLevel Inc.
NeuLevel continues to deny any wrongdoing, and the Los Angeles Superior Court has yet to issue a final decision. But a judge found enough evidence to issue a preliminary injunction against NeuLevel.
The ".biz" suffix is one of seven new top-level domain names approved last year by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) to relieve overcrowding in names ending in ".com".
NeuLevel, under its contract with ICANN, held an early application period during which a business wanting a ".biz" address could submit an online request with an application fee of a few dollars. For multiple submissions for the same name, one is picked at random.
The system was designed to make the process fairer. Under a first-come, first-served system, used for traditional suffixes like ".com", internet users with fast computers and programming knowledge have an advantage because they can create software to automate registration.
News source: The Associated Press
