<nettime> vanity.fi for presidential candidates in Finland

[Toni Alatalo <antont@netppl.fi>]

Finally there's a good reason to become a candidate in the presidential
elections in Finland - you can get a .fi vanity domain!

Otherwise the policy, now that the goverment controls the fi-root, is
really strict: only names in the official company or organisation registry
can get a domain - for example trademarks don't (yet) officially weigh a
thing. But now the Telecommunications Administration Centre (operating
under the Ministry of Transport and Communication) has announced an
exception stating that the representatives of political parties or other
presidential candidates can get a personal domain for their campaign!

The recommended forms are:
firstnamelastname.fi
nameinshort.fi or
nickname.fi

Unfortunately the names are registered for maximum period of one year. 
(of course, if you win the race, you can perhaps change the law ;) 

To become a candidate outside the parties you need to collect a list
20,000 names. To a disappointment for most of you I think Finnish
citizenship is required as well (and that's quite difficult to get) :/

So far I'm unaware of anyone having such a domain and couldn't find any
discussion about it in the national media (that I haven't been following
really..) .. the officials have informed politicians about it, I only
noticed the announcement accidentally when checking other stuff.
Admittedly it is easier to register a company with your name (can you
think of anything more boring?-) but thought this is fun news anyway :)

~Toni


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