According to a blog post om sex.ie, the registry for .ie (ireland) country code, refuses to allow the registration of the domains porn.ie or pornography.ie on the basis of morality.

The author of the post claims he has been trying to register the domains for about four years. but each time the registry for the .ie extension, the Irish Domain Registry (IEDR) refuses his application because “the proposed domain name must not be offensive or contrary to public policy or generally accepted principles of morality.”

The author went as far as to bring legal action against the registry to force them to register the domains, however, the court ruled against the author.

The Author appealed.

The appeals court agreed the IEDR was wrong in stating the words porn and pornography are offensive however, the appeals court let stand the registries decision not to issue the domains saying:

“””The Respondent is a body carrying out functions of a public nature, and is the only body that administers the public resource that is the .ie Internet domain. It would appear therefore that there is no other candidate for the role of arbiter of public policy in respect of the .ie domain space except the Respondent itself.

“””In the absence of any other source of public policy and while the logic may appear cyclical, the public policy that this tribunal must apply is the policy of the Respondent. It would not be appropriate for this Appeal tribunal to take upon itself the role of arbiter of public policy.  It follows that this tribunal must also conclude that the registration of either or would be contrary to the public policy governing the .ie domain space as found in the Respondent’s policies.”””

It wasn’t that long ago that the sole registry of .com domains was Network Solutions and they refused to register any domain which contained one of the “7 dirty words” made famous by George Carlin.

Bottom line, as we have discussed before when you register, or attempt to register a ccTLD, you are subject to the laws, rules and regulations of that country which could be drastically different than the US, for better or worse.