Iskrica for Dummies

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has attempted to block a Vatican bid to create new web addresses ending in .catholic, arguing that it “cannot demonstrate that it possesses a monopoly over the term ‘Catholic’”.



By Christopher Williams, Technology Correspondent

3:10PM BST 14 Aug 2012

The objection is one of more than 160 sent by the Saudis to ICANN, the body in charge of web addresses, over its plan to allow hundreds of new “top-level domains” to supplement .com, .co.uk and other existing suffixes.

“Many other Christians use the term 'Catholic' to refer more broadly to the whole Christian Church regardless of denominational affiliation,” the Saudi Communication and Information Technology Commission said in its complaint.

“Other Christian communions lay claim to the term "cCatholic" such as the Eastern Orthodox Church and the Oriental Orthodox Church.”

"Therefore, we respectfully request that ICANN not award this."

The Vatican's Pontifical Council for Social Communication, which already controls .va, paid the $185,000 fee to bid to create .catholic earlier this year, saying it was "a recognition of how important the digital space is for the church".

GOOD NIGHT