Post by Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe on Jan 7, 2007 21:37:55 GMT -6
10000 Chinese Domain Names Vanish Amid Web Chaos
Beijing (AFP) Jan 05, 2007
Nearly 10,000 Chinese website operators have lost the use of their .com Internet addresses due to telecom problems caused by last month's earthquake near Taiwan, state media reported Friday. The quake, which severed major international telecommunications lines, caused thousands of .com domain names held by Chinese users to vanish from world registries, the Beijing Times reported, citing domain registry sources.
Lingering disruptions to overseas Web connections also have prevented them from accessing the overseas registries to re-register the names.
"So far, a large number of domain names held by businesses have been snatched by overseas investors, causing businesses to suffer losses," the newspaper said. It provided no examples.
Source: www.spacemart.com/reports/10000_Chinese_Domain_Names_Vanish_Amid_Web_Chaos_999.html
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I don't see how they lost the domains. ICANN issues .com domains, and it's not like only one server contains all the data.
I think the repressive Chinese government is messing with it's citizens in issues of control and content.