A country can simply change its name without major conflict. The people still exist. Law and order never breaks down. But it becomes a "new" country.

That could result in existing TLDs going away.

One possible example would be Scotland voting to peacefully leave the UK. It's very possible the UK would change its name after that, since it's not really the union of those two kingdoms anymore.

If there's ever a need to change the British flag I hope the government takes the opportunity to incorporate the Welsh flag. It's easily the best flag in the UK if not Europe as a whole!

Interestingly Eswatini (formerly Swaziland) still uses the .sz TLD.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eswatini

> One possible example would be Scotland voting to peacefully leave the UK. It's very possible the UK would change its name after that, since it's not really the union of those two kingdoms anymore.

It's the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Scotland is part of the former bit (Great Britain) alongside England and Wales.

It's a union of three kingdoms, or 2-and-a-bit kingdoms:

   England and Wales (927)
 + Scotland (1707)
 + Ireland (1802)
 - most of Ireland (1922), leaving only Northern Ireland

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland would probably change its name if Scotland seceded, but perhaps to the United Kingdom of England and Wales and Northern Ireland. The official ISO code (GB) would change (EI? EW?) but the reserved code (UK) need not.

Theoretically Northern Ireland could join the Republic of Ireland and Wales and Scotland could both go independent, and then it’s definitely not a United Kingdom. What happens to the millions (?) of .co.uk websites?

You can still buy Soviet Union TLDs (.su). Does this mean .su owners will lose their domains in 5-10 years? Seems like there should be some kind of grandfathering clause.

Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia, USSR have all disappeared in my lifetime. Austria disappeared briefly in my grandparents’ lifetime. Somaliland’s legal existence was extinguished in ~1966 and the international community is not letting its practical existence get in the way of refusing to recognize it.

Wars of conquest, civil wars, dissolution and change happen.

ccTLDs tend to be subject to much more baroque terms. For example, restrictions on citizenship, residency, or "genuine connection", restrictions on content and speech and other legal requirements.

For example when UK left the EU then all UK registrants of .eu domains were made to relinquish them. No grandfathering. This kind of nonsense doesn't occur on .com

.eu is not a ccTLD, because the European Union is not a country.

Yes, .eu is a ccTLD. "EU" appears in ISO 3166-1, a list of codes for countries and other geographical purposes, under the Exceptional Reservations category. TLDs in use on the basis of an entry on ISO 3166-1 are known as "country code top-level domains," even if the use of the word country is ambiguous or administratively incorrect.

For example, no one (well, perhaps we should say few) would argue that the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is not a country, yet it operates ccTLD .uk which is not a country code assigned to a sovereign entity. GB is the country code for that country; UK is an exceptional reservation.

> For example when UK left the EU then all UK registrants of .eu domains were made to relinquish them. No grandfathering. This kind of nonsense doesn't occur on .com

Do you happen to have a source that supports that claim? I've registered .eu domains in the past and I never had to even offer any proof of citizenship or residency or anything of the sort. I searched for the domains, clicked on "buy", and that was that.

The parent is correct, in theory .eu requires residency or citizenship in order to register a domain[1]. After Brexit holders of .eu domains that did not meet the criteria lost their domains[2].

And the .eu is not the most restrictive ! I am a French citizen but live outside the EU, so I can't get a .fr domain (at least, again, in theory - haven't tried in practice) but I could get a .eu one.

[1]: https://eurid.eu/en/register-a-eu-domain/rules-for-eu-domain...

[2]: https://eurid.eu/en/register-a-eu-domain/brexit-notice/

Your registrar isn't doing the necessary due diligence then - mine made me send them a scan of either passport/ID or residency permit.

https://eurid.eu/en/register-a-eu-domain/brexit-notice/

Yeah, if .ca disappears it means I probably have a bigger problem.

I think .ca is one of the safer TLDs if you’re Canadian.

The country yes, the TLD not as much

For example .uk - If one day we decide to ditch the monarchy and become a republic I imagine this might change back to .gb

Everything would probably be grandfathered in of course being a reasonably populated TLD, and .gb would probably be wayyy less popular because it kinda sucks as a character combo, but it's a possibility.