Is there risk to registering a domain using extension from another country?

Question

I live in the United States. Lets say I want to register a domain name using a domain extension from another country like say for example, Bangladesh (.com.bd).

I know that some countries require a physical residence in that country in order to be able to use their domain name, but not all do.

What I'm wondering, is there any type of risk of loosing your domain name in the future due to law changes if I registered a domain like this? I know it's kind of hard to answer since you don't know if some country would pass some crazy weird laws regarding domains in the future, but I figured I'd ask anyways. I wasn't sure if laws regarding domain name ownership change all the time in countries around the world very often or not...

As long as I meet the current requirements for that country is there a good chance that everything would be fine? Or is there a big risk that I could loose it someday and isn't even worth registering?

Answer 1

The main risk is that you become subject to the laws of the country the domain service is provided by. The Libyan domain 'vb.ly' registered by Ben Metcalfe and Violet Blue for a URL shortening service was famously shut down, for example, because the content hosted on it was seen by Libyan authorities to contravene Sharia law.

Beyond that, two other things to look out for, which also apply to any domain registration:

1. Make sure the domain registrar doesn't charge a 'transfer out fee' to move the domain to another registrar (read the terms and conditions).
2. Make sure you're offered a control panel to manage your whois information, edit domain records, and generate transfer keys without third-party intervention.