The .scot domain is going to be nothing more than a backdoor internet tax

I’m still not sure about the upcoming explosion of top level domains and turning it into a free for all with whatever suffix you can think of. And the news that there’s a push for a Scottish domain from Dot Scot Net, with support from Holyrood and Alex Salmond:

The time is ripe for the worldwide family of Scots to have their own domain, reflecting an online community defined by a shared commitment to Scottish identity, culture and economic promotion.

Really? You think I’m going to switch from EwanSpence.com to EwanSpence.scot to reflect an online community? My community is the online community, and that means .com.

All over it feels like a shakedown from the new registrars who’ll be administering this, preying on companies and individuals who will not be looking at .scot as a potential new venture or business but as a defensive measure to stop others taking the name they already have. Tunnocks (the confectionary company) are going to have very little choice, they’ll need to make the effort to get tunnocks.scot (otherwise someone is going to say they didn’t try to defend their trademark, and that starts an even bigger headache for them).

And I’ll put good money they’ll simply point the domain to their regular website. That would be the same good money they’ll feel forced to spend because of this crazy land-grab, and every VC will focus on if you have a good dot com in any case.