How does godaddy or any of these players have authority to register domain names? Is there a governmental authority that grants that right? Do they pay a fee? Can anyone start a domain register service?

Please please please please please start using the detail area when posting these questions. They are wayyyyyyyyyy to long. For instance this one could have just been “How does go-daddy or any of these players have authority to register domain names?” and then the rest of that could have all been in the details.

Domain Name Registrar <- check that out, very handy information, I know it’s got a bit to do with ICANN as well which oversee a lot of the domain and IP stuff on the internet. Country level domains however are usually sorted by a seperate company based within that country and so they regulate whether you can have a domain or not (certain countries won’t allow ccTLD’s to be registered for certain uses and those outside the country, that’s in a seperate wikipedia article here: ccTLD , these companies are designated by IANA who also oversee top level IP and DNS stuff under ICANN. Enjoy reading)

mikey7183 I find this question a little disingenuous. It is virtually the same as the one you asked four days ago here. You got the answer about who the authority was. You got the answer that they accredited the domian name registrars like godaddy, etc.

Did you simply not bother to read the answer links that provided all of the information you need? I for one do not appreciate having my time wasted this way.