Before jumping into the ccTLD game, remember that these domains, being country codes, are subject to rules and conditions placed on them by the host country.

For example both Canada (.ca) and the European Union (.eu) have presence requirements for domain holders.

China (.cn) regularly shuts down sites which violate state rules against porn and political thought.  Government action can be taken in these countries just on domain names.

In the US you can register bushsucks.com but don’t expect to do that with a .cn using one of their leaders.

Today the government of Vietnam laid out some rules for their .vn country code.

Most importantly, according to the Law of Information Technology Department, of the government of Vietnam,  domain names are a national information resource. Therefore, domain names are still under the administration of the law and not allowed to be traded or exchanged.

The head of the government group running the .vn registry for the country explained it this way:

“”””In terms of domain names, it is necessary to distinguish national and international domain names. According to general international rule, shared international domain names such as ‘.com’ or ‘.info’ are commercial goods.”””

“””However, national domain names are under the management of functional agencies that must follow the State’s policies. Almost all nations regard national domain names as information resources in order to ensure national security on the Internet. National domain management does vary between countries.””””

Exactly.

While most countries do not have restrictions on ownership of domains, some clearly do.  Failure to educate yourself on the rules of the host country before you jump into ccTLD’s can lead to an expensive education.