Memo to domain name industry - SORT IT OUT

juliaroberts.com, madonna.com, playboy.com, sex.com. Just when you thought you'd had your fill of domain name controversies another one comes along to join in the fun.

But this time it's got less to do with intellectual property and everything to do with liability.

Icann may not be an organisation that inspires great devotion, or even interest, in most internet users but the domain name body has a habit of hitting the headlines.

This time it has run into trouble with Europe's country-code registries, the people who manage domains like dot-de, dot-fr and dot-uk.

In order to wrest back control of the domain root server from the US government Icann is charged with establishing agreements with each individual country.

It is not an easy task at the best of times but the organisation has run up against a brick wall in the form of UK registry Nominet and some of its European chums.

In return for paying Icann for managing the root server Nominet wants a service contract. And the idea of creating liability has Icann running for the hills.

Icann CEO Stuart Lynn told silicon.com: "This is not a liability driven business. All that's about is lawyers who want to sue each other."

Right now the deadlock seems unbreakable. On one side Nominet want to put the domain name system on a professional, commercial footing. On the other, Icann argues that the system has worked well as it is for years, and if it ain't broke...

Historically the root server has been run extremely efficiently by a group of dedicated volunteers and no one could criticise their hard work.

But with an increasing amount of money being spent on domains - not to mention the vast sums associated with ecommerce and other site activity - maybe the time has come to change all that.

Whatever the outcome, nothing can be done until Icann, Nominet and other registries worldwide put away their handbags and start talking sensibly to one another.

The internet grew up in 2001. It's high time the domain name industry followed suit.