The companies and/or owners of those services do operate under a certain legal aegis, though. It’s not like they are stateless.
I just happened to read the text on a food product; it had text in three languages, and the www.* domains listed in the three texts were in the ccTLD for each country. No .com was mentioned anywhere.
Domain names should never change and be easy to remember whereas legal ties to countries are often complex (i.e not 1 to 1) and subject to change.
Should I really have to remember going to apple.ie because that's where the Apple shop happens to be legally based at the moment? Or should it be apple.eu because consumer protection is an EU matter? Or apple.us because that's where Apple's headquarter is located?
And when a company gets sold to a different country, should all their URLs have to change?
Multinational companies should be the exception, not the rule. “Designed by Apple in California”; will Apple ever stop being a U.S. company? Why would “apple.us” not be appropriate?
A company is an entirely legal construction, and, as such, is entirely bound to the laws of a certain country.
The companies and/or owners of those services do operate under a certain legal aegis, though. It’s not like they are stateless.
I just happened to read the text on a food product; it had text in three languages, and the www.* domains listed in the three texts were in the ccTLD for each country. No .com was mentioned anywhere.