> There is a risk that if handed back another country might try to claim it for themselves
I really don't get this. What exactly is the risk? If they don't need it why do they need to make sure no one else gets it?
I really don't get this. What exactly is the risk? If they don't need it why do they need to make sure no one else gets it?
Risk 2: Economic loss. People selling .gb domains might take away from .uk revenue.
Risk 3: Political fallout. Perhaps Chagos Islanders somehow get control .gb and demand that the UK give up .io in exchange. There's plenty of geopolitics that could get brought up.
Risk 4: opportunity cost. Perhaps later some major use for .gb arises, but by then it's too late.
These are all pretty small risks, but this is the kind of thing they may have in mind.
For example, imagine your recovery email address for something important is bob@something.gb. If 'gb' is ever reassigned to someone else, they can now get access to anything ever registered at a gb address.
This is the reason things like gmail accounts are never recycled to another user. Early services like hotmail would recycle accounts, but it has since become an 'obviously bad idea'.
Also it looks official, I'm sure plenty of people would fall for gov.gb if the site looked official enough.