With the slew of new domain name extensions becoming available, a few of them have started to better define their terms of use and in the case of .us, they say you not only have to be a US citizen or legal permanent resident, with a primary residence in the United States, but they also say you can only use a .us domain name for business use, educational purposes, governmental purposes, etc.

Notice it doesn’t say entertainment or adult? That’s because when it comes to the .US domain name extension, that’s a big fat no-no.

To ensure that these requirements are met, Neustar frequently conducts “spot checks” on registrant information. Neustar was awarded the contract to administer the .US domain name extension in 2001.

.US also doesn’t allow the person to use domain name privacy. They want to make sure that

To prevent anonymous registrations that do not meet these requirements, in 2005 the National Telecommunications and Information Administration ruled that registrants of .us domains may not secure private domain name registration and that their contact information must be made public. Registrants are required to provide complete contact information without omissions.

I only mention this because it’s only a matter of time before other domain name extension owners could very well start making their own rules such as no porn. So far to my knowledge that hasn’t taken place but there has been talk about it, especially with the .me, so do be careful and consider that when registering a domain name in the future. That cute .ext may sound like a good idea, but will it be taken away from you one day because you are in porn?

Just be careful.