The international body in charge of domain names on the Internet, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), may relax the currently strict rules on domain names.

Currently, "top-level domains" (TLD) are restricted to ones like .com, .org and .gov -- or country codes like .uk or .fr. Under a new proposal the ICANN votes on this week, lots more domains like .mac, .xxx or .bbc could be approved. Any string of letters would be theoretically possible, but there would be an approval process in place to prevent any abuses of the system. Also, domains in different character sets like Arabic and the various Asian languages would be possible.

The head of ICANN, Paul Twomey, told the BBC the new domain system would revolutionize the Internet. "Like the United States in the 19th century,we are in the process of opening up new real estate, new land, and people will go out and claim parts of that land and use it for the various reasons they have. It's a massive increase in the geography of the real estate of the internet."

Twomey also touched on how it would be paid for -- currently domain names like TheStandard.com can be purchased for as little as $6 a year from the various domain registrar's on the Net. These special TLD's are expected to cost at least several thousand dollars. "We are doing this on a cost recovery basis," said Twomey.

Look for big companies to get first crack at domains like .Apple and .Intel to prevent copyright quarrels, but ICANN has thought of this too -- "If there is a dispute, we will try and get the parties together to work it out. If that fails, there will be an auction and the domain will go th the highest bidder."

I want to register the TLD .FAIL -- all domains would lead to a permanent Fail Whale, like Twitter does most of the time. I'd make millions -- right?

More news, commentary, and predictions from The Industry Standard:

• Special Feature: Where are they now? The Industry Standard tracks down 10 dot-coms from the Web bubble of the late 1990s
• Special Feature: The Industry Standard's Top 25 B-to-Z List Blogs
• Special Feature: 10 'Net services that will succeed (and 10 that will probably fail)