Re: Rights to operate
They are deligated to whoever the people ruling said country.
Few ccTLDs have been delegated to governments. Most were set up before governments were aware of the interwebs.
In other words, in our case, the UK government determines who gets the .UK contract.
What contract? AFAIK there is no contract between ICANN and the UK government about .uk or between the UK government and Nominet.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
