CDR: Transvestite TLD ;-)

[George at Orwellian.Org]

http://interactive.wsj.com/articles/SB975376877752666821.htm
#    
#    November 28, 2000
#    
#    VeriSign Invests in dotTV,
#    Enters Marketing Alliance
#    
#    By NICK WINGFIELD
#    
#    Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
#    
#    VeriSign Inc., a leader in handling registrations for ".com" 
#    Internet addresses, Tuesday announced it is investing in a small 
#    firm that controls Internet addresses ending in ".tv".
#    
#    VeriSign, Mountain View, Calif., is the largest investor in a 
#    $28 million round of venture capital raised by .TV Corp. 
#    International, a closely held firm in Los Angeles that goes by 
#    the name of dotTV. International cable concern UnitedGlobalCom 
#    Inc., investment firm Munder Capital Management and other 
#    investors contributed to the funding, according to dotTV 
#    executives.
#    
#    VeriSign, through its Network Solutions subsidiary, also plans 
#    to begin allowing registrations of .tv Internet addresses on 
#    the Network Solutions Web site. Network Solutions also will store 
#    .tv addresses in a collection of 13 industrial-strength computers 
#    around the world that handle look-ups of Internet addresses.
#    
#    Network Solutions is the world's largest registrar of Internet 
#    address or "domain names" ending in .net., .org and .com. VeriSign 
#    and dotTV don't plan to disclose the financial terms of their 
#    marketing alliance, though VeriSign is expected to get a cut 
#    of the $50 annual fee dotTV charges customers for registering 
#    .tv domain names.
#    
#    The marketing deal could be a big boost for tiny dotTV, which 
#    wants to establish .tv as an alternative domain name aimed at 
#    Web companies that feature hefty doses of multimedia programming 
#    on their sites. An oversight body called the Internet Corp. for 
#    Assigned Names & Numbers, or Icann, hopes to finalize a plan 
#    by the end of the year to create a number of new Internet address 
#    suffixes, including ".info," ".pro" and ".biz".
#    
#    In the meantime, dotTV was able to license rights to the ".tv" 
#    domain name from Tuvalu, a small Pacific Island nation for which 
#    the suffix is an abbreviation. Under its agreement with dotTV, 
#    Tuvalu receives a minimum of $4 million a year during the next 
#    10 years, according to dotTV executives. Tuvalu also owns about 
#    20% of the company and has a seat on the dotTV board.