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What you're missing is that there's nothing _really_ being taken away here, so there's nothing a real court could do. All that's happening is that a committee who owns a handful of computers has decided that they're going to make a certain string of characters xyzsucks.com equivalent to a certain string of numbers (1.2.3.4) on their machines. And for whatever reason, the rest of the computer-owning world just goes along with it, blindly putting the same information on _their_ computers. Why? Who knows. Perhaps people just don't realize they have a choice.

In theory, you could personally give the domain right back to the original owner by running a DNS server and pointing xyzsucks.com to whatever computer you want. Only people who talked to _your_ DNS server would have it go to the right person, but it's a start.

A better alternative is to promote the use of open root servers, which pretty much allow for xyzsucks.[anything] (i.e. you are not limited to .com, .net, .org). The way to really attack this insanity is to cut it off at the source. It would be hopeless for a company to try to combat xyzsucks.alt, xyzsucks.www, xyzsucks.pac, etc. The trouble is, people aren't aware that by simply typing a few numbers into their computers they could have access to .[anything], and that if everyone took the 30 seconds or so to do this, we wouldn't have any of these problems any more. And as a bonus, domain names would be free, at least for those not suckered into buying one of the "popular" ones.

Links on how to change the world in 30 seconds:

Alternate name servers (Linux, Windows, etc)

Windows Quick Instructions

And then there's the Open Root Server Confederation who has instructions for setting up your own root zone using DJBDNS or BIND. Highly commendable! And you get a whole slew of new TLDs in the process...

And then there's the Open Root Server Confederation who has instructions for setting up your own root zone using DJBDNS or BIND. Highly commendable! And you get a whole slew of new TLDs in the process...

And then there's the Open Root Server Confederation who has instructions for setting up your own root zone using DJBDNS or BIND. Highly commendable! And you get a whole slew of new TLDs in the process...

And then there's the Open Root Server Confederation who has instructions for setting up your own root zone using DJBDNS or BIND. Highly commendable! And you get a whole slew of new TLDs in the process...

I Can Abandon ICANN, So Can You. Use the name servers of the Open Root Server Confederation.

I Can Abandon ICANN, So Can You. Use the name servers of the Open Root Server Confederation.

The .biz is good for those making money out of domain registration. As for the companies, they would get two domains for the price of two. I expect most companies to simply forward all requests to their .biz to .com.

At any rate this whole top level domain scheme is fraught with inconstancies. Why is it that everyone except the Americans are happy to use there national TLD ? And most of the .net websites do not belong to service providers or other network related companies. There are very .org sites that can actually be called organisations. We all know about .com.

As one poster suggested earlier, .sex would probably have been a grand idea. It would have made life a lot easier for the net nannies. Also, they should've made it illegal for any p0rn site to register under any other TLD.

.info names are going to appear soon. I wonder who is going to use the .info TLD. I would hardly expect it to be by companies in the domain (pardon my pun) of information provision.

This is just another way for somepeople to make money.

Then again if you want to use really wicked TLDs you can always use an alternative DNS heirarchy like ORSC

Who could do it? That's easy! The Open Root Server Confederation, for one. Try googling inclusive namespace

As I said in a previous comment on a similar subject, I Cann Abandon ICANN, So Can You!

That's the most profound effect your people can do for the least amount of effort. While I coordinate the ORSC root zone, I'd be happy to see you guys point to any of the alternatives (although obviously I think the ORSC one is better).

Start from there. The rest will come naturally.

http://support.open-rsc.org/How_To

http://free.tibet

rich@rd.sexton

If not, you should!

To further define At-Large membership, the ALSC recommends the following:

• Each individual who holds a domain name be given the option of becoming an At-Large member and paying a membership fee;
• Individuals who hold multiple domain names are eligible for one At-Large membership (and one vote in an At-Large election);
• Entities, such as ISPs, that may conduct batch registrations should be asked to alert the domain name holder of the opportunity to become and At-Large member; and
• To further focus At-Large membership on individual domain name holders, sub-registrations should be ineligible.

Simon was aksed by Jon to write the replacement for RFC1591 and did so. There has never been any debate on the techncial merits of any of this stuff, in the IETF or otherwise, nor can there be as long as some guys step up and say "we're in charge"

Right after Simon published son-of-1591 and set up the shared registry mailing list, Don Heath (ISOC) met Bob Shaw (ITU) and Albert Tramposch (WIPO) at an OECD workshop and strong-armed Jon into the IAHC debacle which was in turn shut off by the US Government and has risen, phoenix like, from the ashes as ICANN, albeit in a more maccinated and Byzantine guise.

There have been a core (pardon the pun) group, that Simon is one of, that have worked together since the beginning of all this and independant of the I* organizations as they show up, then fall off, the radar. Today this group uses ORSC as a nexus. The genesis of this can be seen on the NEWDOM mailing list archives.

We think we have a good blend of techies, lawyers, average users and a couple of bona fide net.gods (Brian Reid and Einar Stefferud); indeed if you look at the early ICANN stuff you'll see the US government tell ICANN to talk to ORSC; they didn't listen to our principles and they stopped calling. Oh well.

Wanna try an aternate root? Try ours, we think it's the best.

I'd give you urls to our websites but they suck, we really do need to work on them. Instead we've been working on building a pretty decent root server network, deploying tlds, registries and a new improved whois service (code is free, just ask) and working on alliances.

So if you want to see pretty alt root websites, look at everyones elses. They've spent a lot of time on them.

At ORSC we believe no one company or entity should be in control of the root. We see it as a producers cooperative run by people working in collegial manner. We don't believe in press releases, we do believe in quietly resolving collisions in new domain space both at the tld and sld level. Every day the alternative namespace has a few less collisions. By the end of the year there's a very good chance there will be one unified alternative namespace regardless of how many root server clusters there are.

I believe we are at a critical point in the politics of DNS on the net, and if there is some degree of unity among all the independant roots so you always get the domain you think you shold get when you type something into the location line of Netscape we would all be better served.

So poke around alt.root land. Look at whose a jerk and who seems cooperative and hitch your wagon to their root. There are good guys and bad huys on both sides of the DNS wars, find out who they are. But most importantly:

TAKE BACK THE INTERNET.

Search engines don't work!
was that a little fast for you? sorry, I will say it again.

Search engines don't work!
Google think they are doing very well, having nearly 10% of the possible sites indexed, and sorted by number of other sites linking to them. that is 1 site in 10. How about the other 90%? are you going to make 100% coverage by search engines mandatory, or at least offer to fund this? and once they reach 100%, we will be having the same argument again about how search engines are "bad" because they rank one site above another.

I am not saying I approve of Verisign's latest example of how they will shit on the entire internet to squeeze a few extra pennies out of us - or the domain arguments, or the new TLDs. however, the main thing to remember is that they are the *default* root server. if enough of the ISPs start to use alternate roots (and new.net has signed up some already, not to mention that ORSC and Pacific Root have been around for years) then maybe they will realise a mandate from the US government that the US government doesn't even realise it has given, might not guarantee they are even in business two or three years from now... but at least they can fall back on selling certificates that say "microsoft" ;)
--

Use the Open DNS Root servers that people have been setting up ever since they have become disgusted in the way that they have seen things progressing. check out this place for more info.

Visit the OpenNIC to find out how.

Other fine HOWTOs are found at ORSC's.

--

And to answer your question, no, the issue was never resolved. ICANN very clearly decided to simply ignore the existence of alternate roots and prior claims to TLD strings. (though they are inconsistent in this stance. Their decision not to approve a new .web TLD was clearly related to the existence of a prior claim by Image Online.

Yet another example of heavy handed authoritarianism on the part of ICANN, and yet another reason for all of us who care about the DNS as a public resource to dwitch our DNS to an alternate root system. Visit the OpenNIC to find out how. It's easy.

Claim your namespace.

Open Root Server Coalition is the only choice, of course!

And people wonder why we haven't adopted alternative roots. As bad as NSI is, conflicting TLD's would be worse.
-russ

but couldn't someone... say, like slashdot? just as easily take over the DNS root by soliciting major companies to look this way for domain name information instead of ICANN? And if so, why don't ya?

Check out YouCANN.org and find out about non-ICANN top level domains (TLDs).

Many of those independent TLDs are organized into the Open Root Server Confederation, whose website has a lot of information about how the system operates.

There's nothing intrinsically special about Network Solutions's DNS servers. All that annual registration fee pays for, really, is a couple lines in a BIND configuration file. You could get your DNS from the ORSC's servers or anywhere else if you choose.

The hard part is getting all those institutions using Network Solutions' DNS to query the ORSC's DNS as well.

What do we need root servers for anyway? Secondary the root zone from the DNS provider of your choice and primary "." for yourself. Vote with your nameserver.

http://support.open-rsc.org

The ORSC "How To" page shows how to resolve the .BIZ domain (you do know how to use dig, right?):
http://support.open-rsc.org/How_To/

Or you can use SetDNS:
http://www.open-rsc.org/setdns/

The root zone file containing .BIZ (and also containing an ICANN board member's TLD) can be found here:
http://dns.vrx.net/tech/rootzone/db.root or
http://www.superroot.org/root.db

The following "spoofed" addresses also work:
http://www.icann.org&search=gtld&type=all@12017761 667/root.db
http://www.internic.net&search=gtld&type=all@12017 761667/root.db

FYI, the ORSC web site was written in 1997 to meet the US Gov's submission process criteria for the "new corp" (which is now known as ICANN). You are correct, the ORSC site does need to be updated. Instead of a pretty web site there is over six years of consensus and running code in the ORSC root zone. This is preferable to vaporware and marketing drivel driving banner ad counters.

--
Clowns Rule!

The ORSC "How To" page shows how to resolve the .BIZ domain (you do know how to use dig, right?):
http://support.open-rsc.org/How_To/

Or you can use SetDNS:
http://www.open-rsc.org/setdns/

The root zone file containing .BIZ (and also containing an ICANN board member's TLD) can be found here:
http://dns.vrx.net/tech/rootzone/db.root or
http://www.superroot.org/root.db

The following "spoofed" addresses also work:
http://www.icann.org&search=gtld&type=all@12017761 667/root.db
http://www.internic.net&search=gtld&type=all@12017 761667/root.db

FYI, the ORSC web site was written in 1997 to meet the US Gov's submission process criteria for the "new corp" (which is now known as ICANN). You are correct, the ORSC site does need to be updated. Instead of a pretty web site there is over six years of consensus and running code in the ORSC root zone. This is preferable to vaporware and marketing drivel driving banner ad counters.

--
Clowns Rule!

Until then, I think the best way is to open it up to everyone and get the registries to allow mass voting on what new TLDs are added. WIPO can handle the problems with trademarks.

Another point I feel worth mentioning, is that the problem also lies with the fact that WE are not taking advantage of the alternative DNS systems out there. If we make a mass migration over to alternative DNS systems, ICANN will lose its clout. This should send a message to any future organization or government that would like to manage DNS. Check out and support:

Open DNS Technologies

AlterNIC

ADNS

Open Root Server Confederation

Name.Space

There's more too.

Chris

Open DNS Technologies, Inc.

199.166.24.1 (ns1.vrx.net)
205.189.73.102 (ns2.vrx.net)

If you're using a real OS, just plug them into /etc/resolv.conf.
If you're stuck under Windows they even have a program that changes them for you.

I've been using them for over a year without any problem whatsoever.

Who exactly is fragmenting the net? The .BIZ referenced above predates the one that applied to ICANN by FOUR YEARS.

If I decide one day I'm sick of spam from Taiwan and take .TW out of the list of TLDS my server knows about I have in your opinion "fractured the net". So what? Is it really any of your business what I do with my machine? I'll make you a deal though: you don't tell me what to do with my computer and I won't tell you what to do with yours. You see the net is not controlled by a central authority, it's controlled at the edges by individuals with their own nameservers who each decide where to get their root level nameservice from.

To this end if some people want to support alternative root systems (as at least one ICANN board member does by running the ORSC root zone) is it really any of your business if he can see more domains than you can?

Big brother is not watching me. I'm sorry if that bothers you.

Who do we talk to around here to point http://slash.dot and http://slash.news at this site? If anybody can figure that out send mail to Simon@higgs.com.

.BIZ was first deployed by Karl Denninger around 5 years ago. I think he charged $25 or something. Karl subsequently sold MCS.NET and these days Leah Gallegos runs .BIZ. I think she charges about $6 with the idea that that's wholesale and anybody can be a "registrar" for somebody else or just grab domains for themselves. The URL is HTTP://WWW.BIZTLD.NET .

The .BIZ TLD resolves in many of the popular alternative root clusters: ORSC, TINC, PacROOT

Being outside the ICANN/US Government system means it's not subject to dangerous foolishness like the horribly flawed UDRP and silly-assed "sunrise" provision.

.BIZ was first deployed by Karl Denninger around 5 years ago. I think he charged $25 or something. Karl subsequently sold MCS.NET and these days Leah Gallegos runs .BIZ. I think she charges about $6 with the idea that that's wholesale and anybody can be a "registrar" for somebody else or just grab domains for themselves. The URL is HTTP://WWW.BIZTLD.NET .

The .BIZ TLD resolves in many of the popular alternative root clusters: ORSC, TINC, PacROOT

Being outside the ICANN/US Government system means it's not subject to dangerous foolishness like the horribly flawed UDRP and silly-assed "sunrise" provision.

Examples of the "other" domains:
http://www.commandments.god/
http://www.405.mov/
http://www.bbc.news/
http://www.cnn.news/

ICANN Cannot

There is plenty of room for everyone.

What do you mean "if"? This is why we have the Open Root Server Confederation

And the protocol specifier has nothing to do with DNS lookup. You'd still use http:// whether you were going to frolic.org or free.tibet or google.search

There isn't much to be done about forcing propogation of an alternative DNS. It is a chicken and egg problem. Unless it is in use, there is no interest in supporting it, and there won't be a great attraction to use it unless it is widely supported.

The answer IMHO is to start with specialized use TLDs where it is not so important that the whole world be able to resolve it. Ideally, the domains registered will have a big 'cool factor' so that people will WANT to configure for it, and will pester their providers to support it for them. The next wave of domains would be those who already have a domain in a 'standard' TLD but want the 'cool factor' of an alternative TLD.

I agree that it is very important thet the TLDs remain consistant. The best way to do that is to include the 'stabndard' TLDs by reference (forward lookups to the NSI root servers), and to make sure that each alternate TLD has some sort of consistance mechanism in place and that it works. An inconsistant TLD won't stand a chance of becoming popular.

Hopefully, there will be public DNS servers that get configured to support the various alternative TLDs. ORSC is doing a pretty good job of that one so far.

As far as officially setting up new TLDs, that won't solve the problem at all. Those will still fall under NSI and ICAN'T and have all of the problems the current ones do. (Many corperates registering under com,net,org,biz,shop,sux,tm,md,dds,dvm,etc).

This is YOUR internet. You can cast your vote today by how you configure your DNS settings.

Thousands of new domain names in a variety of new top level domains resolve here. The recently reported .GOD domain names resolve, as well as all the old .WEB names. Users of this alternate root include Gordon Cook (Cook Report on the Internet).

For more information, check out:

http://support.open-rsc.org/How_To/
http://www.superroot.org/

This is YOUR internet. You can cast your vote today by how you configure your DNS settings.

Thousands of new domain names in a variety of new top level domains resolve here. The recently reported .GOD domain names resolve, as well as all the old .WEB names. Users of this alternate root include Gordon Cook (Cook Report on the Internet).

For more information, check out:

http://support.open-rsc.org/How_To/
http://www.superroot.org/

Isn't it what the open root server confederation is about?

Competition? See The Open Root Server Confederation as well as This Comment, Above. Exactly what you're looking for.

First off, I hate to break the bad news to everyone, but that Great New *TLD that just popped into your head? It's been thought of before. By lots of people.

New *TLDs are nothing new, and indeed have been being debated, tossed around, fought over, proposed, implemented, and torn down for the better part of the last decade or so.

CmdrTaco didn't think of .god, .dot, and probably not even .rob. Neither did you, most likely. :)

For a listing of proposed *TLDs and their status, see http://www.earth-net.net/GTLD/database. html (gzipped text file)

Pay particular attention to Field 2, Root Server Providers. Check out the Open Root Server Confederation.

While we're on this subject, a quick redux to the .god TLD... zone files and current status of .god registry.

ANYONE interested in domain policy (and the politics are Quite Interesting in this realm... surf the domain-policy mailing list archives (hosted by InterNIC).

First, http://www.newdom.com/archive has almost-complete archives of the original IIIA list (also at http://www.iiia.org/lists/newdom) and the most important successors (ar.com and vrx.net/newdom.com).

You may also want to read http://www.newdom.com/archive/iana- meeting.html, about the incident that started the whole thing.

If you want to hear more from the "first group," the lists at http://www.open-rsc.org are still open, and people there continue to boldly beat the dead horse.

The gtld-mou ("second group") site is http://www.gtld-mou.org. You can find the archive to their discussion list at http://www.gtld-mou.org/gtld-disc uss/mail-archive.

The best example of the "third group" can be found at http://www.kenfreed.org. Ken also has a huge collection of useful links (including all of the comments collected by Esther Dyson except mine, for some reason).

The comments to the NTIA are scattered around their website, but start at http://www.ntia.doc.gov/ ntiahome/domainname/domainhome.htm.

The name.space people can be found at http://name.space, but in case you happen to be among the 99.999% of the net that can't resolve that name, they're also http://name.space.xs2.net.

And somewhere, I believe there is an archive of all of the crazy ideas of Jeff Williams.

Absolutely! Have a look at Open Root Server Confederation for one example. I have had my local DNS daemon configured to point to ORSC's namespace for a good while, and I have found it to work quite well. Just to add to the fun, my DNS also has .localnet for anything behind my firewall.

I have looked all over the various RFCs and found that the current root DNS servers ARE the root servers only because Jon Postal said so. That was before all of the NetSol/ICANN debacle. As it stands, neither NetSol nor ICANN even own the root servers or the networks they reside on.

The trick to making an alternate root DNS become commonly available is customer demand. If there are 'cool' sites that can only be accessed by the alternate root (or IP address), people will want that tld to resolve. If a less cool but informative site on .org tells them that their ISP can easily make it resolvable, they will pester them to do so. It costs the ISP nothing but a few minutes to do it, so why not?

Perhaps if we had a TLD server for .geek to get things started? Perhaps a colo in the Caribbean

If desired, all .geek sites COULD be mapped by the root server to .geek.org for the 'uncool' people still using the lame ICANN TLDs. :-)

IANL, but couldn't such a server/service maintain that all trademark disputes are a matter between the two parties and that the service will do nothing about it unless/until compelled to do so by court order? Could someone who IS a lawyer comment?

I have also considered a scheme where the records get updated throughe a protocol based on the dining cryptographers problem so that the admin/owners can honestly say they have NO IDEA who registered the domain.