Can a particular TLD limit domain owners rights to create subdomains?
I didn’t think so, but I recently noticed that the .tv domain has in its terms of service a provision prohibiting anybody from providing subdomains to any other party — if you have the domain that.tv, you’re not supposed to let anybody else put up a site at this.that.tv. This seems to be contrary to the rules of RFC 1591, which state “There are no requirements on subdomains of top-level domains beyond the requirements on higher-level domains themselves. That is, the requirements in this memo are applied recursively. In particular, all subdomains shall be allowed to operate their own domain name servers, providing in them whatever information the subdomain manager sees fit (as long as it is true and correct).” In other words, once a domain at any level is assigned, the entity who has been assigned the domain has complete power over deciding policy regarding who can get a domain beneath it at the next level. That’s how the hierarchical domain name system was designed. That .tv sees fit
