In other domain news, The U.S Commerce Department has banned the sale of proxy registrations for the .us top-level domain. Proxy registrations allow domain owners to keep their identity and contact information out of the WHOIS database. The domain is purchased by a registrar on behalf of a client, who pays a fee for having their details remain unpublished.
The decision has been vigorously contested by Go Daddy, which has registered more than 23,000 private .us domains through its Domains By Proxy business unit. Go Daddy and other registrars fear the .us restriction could set a precedent that could later be expanded to other top-level domains.