If you have scoured the Nominet .me.uk rules, you may have stumbled upon a point
of confusion. Firstly the rules state:
"Any entity may register in the .me.uk
SLD provided the registration complies with the Nominet UK terms and conditions,
the Rules and the rules for the .me.uk SLD, in each case as amended from time to
time."...but then they go on to state:
"There shall, without exclusion, be a
sufficient demonstration of an abusive registration if the registrant is not a natural
person and cannot demonstrate that they registered the domain name with the agreement
at the time of a specific natural person, and that the domain name was a reasonably
faithful representation of that person's legal name."
Intrigued by the apparent
contradiction in the .me.uk rules about whether it is necessary for an applicant
to be a "natural person", and having noted the large percentage of registrations
by companies, I took it upon myself to phone Nominet this afternoon and asked them
to clarify the rules.
They claim at the end of the day any entity including companies
are allowed to register me.uk names.
The rules *intend* that the domains are used
by individuals, although by their own self admission, Nominet say this is just a
guideline, not an enforced rule. Hence it has little meaning at the registering level.
People
can however make a complaint if their name is taken by a company. Each complaint
is looked into on an individual basis and weighs up the rights of the two parties.
Um and it costs £750. So basically there is a huge grey area here.
However at least
they didn't arse around with a Sunrise period - many individuals have got generics,
but then it would be a bit stupid having a Sunrise period for a name intended for
natural people.
About the names apparently squatted by Nominet - these are names
which more than one applicant applied for in the beginning and it was unclear which
applicant was first. They are to be issued to one of the applicants imminently, and
are therefore not available.