.se
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 |
|
| Introduced | 1986 |
|---|---|
| TLD type | Country code top-level domain |
| Status | Active |
| Registry | NIC-SE |
| Sponsor | II-Stiftelsen |
| Intended use | Entities connected with Sweden |
| Actual use | Very popular in Sweden |
| Registration restrictions | Third-level registrations have varying rules depending on which second-level name they are beneath; second-level registration rules have been liberalized |
| Structure | Registrations permitted at second level and at third level beneath various second-level labels, including ones for the counties of Sweden |
| Documents | Conditions for registration |
| Dispute policies | Alternative dispute resolution (ADR) |
| Website | IIS |
.se is the Internet country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for Sweden. The top domain is operated by NIC-SE, but domains must be registered through one of the approved registrars. Only the first payment goes to the registrar, the rest go to NIC-SE, and it's not possible to pay for more than a year at a time.
Prior to April 2003, the rules governing domains under the .se top domain were highly restrictive. Only companies, associations and authorities registered nation-wide were allowed to register a domain, and it had to be very similar to the registered name. Individual products were not eligible for separate domain names, even if they were registered trademarks. Individuals could register one (and only one) domain with the suffix .pp.se (pp is an abbreviation for "privatperson", "private person"), and companies and organizations registered in just a single county were eligible for domains with a <county letter>.se suffix. The restrictive rules made alternative top-domains popular for entities that needed to register domains not allowed by the Swedish rules; .nu and .com were common. Some companies started subsidiaries named after a product just to have an internet domain with that name.
With the new rules, any entity or person may register any number of domains, subject to few restrictions. As of October 2003, NIC-SE started accepting registrations of internationalized domain names, containing the letters å, ä, ö, ü and é. On 6 September 2007, a total of 250 characters became available, supporting names in all of the legally recognized minority languages of Sweden.
