| Introduced | 1988 |
|---|---|
| TLD type | Country code top-level domain |
| Status | Active |
| Registry | NIC.LY |
| Sponsor | General Posts and Telecommunications Company |
| Registration restrictions | Third-level sub-domains have varying restrictions |
| Structure | Registrations have been made directly at the second level as well as at the third level beneath various second level labels |
| Documents | Regulations |
| Website | nic.ly |
.ly is the Internet country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for Libya.
Contents |
A .ly registration is the process of registering top-level country-code domain name for Libya. The registration is sponsored by the General Post and Telecommunication Company. The .ly domain extension, introduced in 1988, is administrated by the registry LYNIC. This domain is mainly for the use of the general public of Libya.
The NIC.LY team appoints recognized registrars to offer .ly domain names, and these registrars perform all the domain registration tasks on behalf of the NIC.LY. Libya Telecom & Technology (ltt.ly) is one of the pioneers that offer .ly domain extension to companies and organizations. Sub domains are also allowed for .ly domain name at both the second level and third level beneath various second levels.
According to the registration site, "any .LY domain names may be registered, except domains containing obscene and indecent names/phrases, including words of a sexual nature; furthermore domain names may not contain words/phrases or abbreviations insulting religion or politics, or be related to gambling and lottery industry or be contrary to Libyan law or Islamic morality."
The GPTC registers domain names on a first come, first served basis. Applicants may apply for multiple domains with a registration fee of $200 for each domain. Before registration, the domain name, company name, trademark registration and other legal documents must be provided. In addition, the .ly domain names being registered should not violate any rules set forth by the registrar. Domain names may be registered for a minimum of two years.
The official website for .ly registration is http://www.nic.ly. Applicants may also register domains through official registrars list here http://www.ltt.ly/en/agents/l.php?service=2&city=1 After completing the registration process, an email will be sent to the applicant's billing contact address. The .ly domain name will become active within 12–24 hours of that email notification.
The second-level domains which are officially open to third-level registrations are:
IANA originally delegated registration authority for .ly to Khalil Elwiheishi at the Alshaeen for Information Technology[1] in April 1997.[2].
During the weekend of August 20, 2011 at the start of the 2011 Battle of Tripoli, the main nic.ly registration site was apparently defaced by hackers on the side of the National Liberation Army[3], though other sites such as bit.ly remained unaffected[4].
Many Libyan domains were reserved for English words that end with the suffix "ly", such as brief.ly, name.ly, sil.ly, sincere.ly. As the annual fee for .ly domains remains high ($75 a year) there are still plenty of domain names left available on the domain prime market as well as some popular ones that can be bought on the domain secondary market - the result of the domain name speculation.
Many popular URL shortening services are registered in the .ly domain: bit.ly, a service that was formerly the default choice for Twitter; ow.ly, a service used by default by the HootSuite, a Twitter client webservice; and 3.ly. Brief.ly allows to shorten multiple URLs into short ones and open them in tabs on one page.
In October 2010, the domain of "sex-positive" URL shortening service vb.ly, which was registered in 2009 by Violet Blue and Ben Metcalfe, was seized by the Libyan web authorities for not being compliant with the law of Libya. A Libya Telecom spokesman stated to Blue: "Pornography and adult material aren't allowed under Libyan Law ... Therefore, we removed the domain."[5]