Dutch church bids for sex.eu

Seconds too late

By Jan Libbenga • Get more from this author

Posted in Bootnotes, 13th December 2005 09:54 GMT

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A Dutch Full Gospel Church was seconds too late to bid on sex.eu, the most sought after domain name using the European Union's own top level domain.

The church Volle Evangelie Gemeente Rehoboth in Eersel, close to the Belgian border, was one of the first applicants for the domain name, according to the database of EURid, the European body responsible for registering .eu domain names. The church offered several hundred euros to obtain the domain name for a website where sex would be promoted "the way God wanted it", according to Chris Vermeulen of the church.

Sweden's Yellow Register On Line AB - which also applied for travel.eu, music.eu, buy.eu, dvd.eu, search.eu, online.eu, sell.eu and find.eu - was the first applicant for sex.eu. Third was an optician from Lilbourne, UK. Andrew Ian MacNab applied for sex.eu several times, each time changing his name slightly. In total there were 232 applications for the domain name.

The application is still pending. Trademark holders and public bodies are the first to apply for registrations during the so called sunrise period, which started last Wednesday. Holders of company or business names will have to wait until February 7.

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