Libyan Register Clarifies Vb.ly Block

Over the previous week, there was a lot of talk about the .ly domain name, which is popular with URL shorteners. After one such service, vb.ly, got its domain registration removed, many were wondering what it meant for others, especially bit.ly, the largest such service.

Now NIC.ly, the registry for the .ly ccTLD used by Libya, has responded officially and has clarified the situation claiming that this was an one-off thing and that it removed the domain because of the 'adult'-oriented nature of the shortening service.

"vb.ly had a policy different than the other URL shorteners, not using filters and encouraging the use of this service for creating links to adult sites and other 'NSFW' links," NIC.ly stated.

"This use was deemed as unacceptable by our local internet community, regardless of whether or not the site hosts adult material or redirects traffic to 3rd party sites," it explained.

"Contrary to vb.ly’s claims, they were contacted on numerous occasions to investigate these concerns, and over the course of these contacts vb.ly has ignored our efforts and even changed their contact numbers," the register claims.

The domain's owners, Ben Metcalfe and Violet Blue, found out about the move when the links stopped working, they claim. With about 500,000 links shared with vb.ly so far it was a moderately successful shortener.

vb.ly was created to fill in the need for an 'adult-friendly' URL shortener. Most other shorteners have policies about adult content and, while they may not be enforced, it could mean trouble down the line for anyone using them to link to adult content.

vb.ly's owners claim that they were not contacted by the Libyan register and say they would have had no reason to ignore messages that are so important to the domain's existence.

NIC.ly's statement clears the air a bit. It claims that general URL shorteners who have policies for adult content are not threatened since they don't contravene with Islamic law.

However, the register does have an issue with domains shorter than four letters. It won't issue these short domains to companies outside of Libya anymore. Still, it does not seem that existing three-letter domains are threatened, though it's not a certainty.