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Actually, some are non-profit organizations supported simply by the participation of their members. I am personally a member of the OpenNIC* alternative DNS organization, which is dedicated to creating a democratic namespace where issues are voted upon by the membership while avoiding as best is possible collisions with other roots, and providing chartered TLDs to avoid namespace crowding and legal disputes by setting a standard for the types of domains that can reside in a particular TLD. We also peer TLDs with cooperating organizations such as PacRoot and AlterNIC. And we have both root servers (query terminators) you can use as zone masters for your own servers, and caching nameservers you can put in your DNS config / resolv.conf

I'd suggest checking out some of these things. PacRoot now has an Inclusive Root plugin for Windows, though I don't know too much about it yet. Also, I've written a patch** for the GNU C Library to allow users to specify alternate resolv.conf files in their environment, making it easier to use alternative roots on a per-user or per-process basis. A lot is being done to make moving away from ICANN and into community-operated roots as easy as possible.

* A number of pages on the main OpenNIC site are a bit dated; more current info can be found on our scoop site.

** My README seems to be missing, but the patches are there, compressed and uncompressed, as well as a couple precompiled libc.so files and some statically-linked fileutils in case you want to try popping in a binary, though I don't know how feasible this is, I've only compiled from source on my system. Also, I've provided 2.2.4, but I recommend 2.2.3 as it is more stable in my opinion. I'll put up an index.html as I have time.

You should also check out OpenNIC if you're interested in giving ICANN the finger... they're trying to stitch together the (often colliding) namespaces proposed by various alternative-root organizations into a single, sane, democratically-governed namespace. I haven't heard anything from them in a while, though.

I use OpenNIC's root servers, which also recognize Pacific Root's earlier claim to .biz, so I have the same "problem."

Maybe I will find it inconvenient, but this problem was created by ICANN's arrogance and defyance of the will of the people. It's their problem, not mine. You can turn it around too: this will be inconvenient for people who are duped into buying .biz domains, because some people will not be able to reach them. Maybe the amount of business they lose won't be enough to matter. Or maybe they will decide it does matter, and sue their registrars for fraud. Whatever; it's their problem.

I think the Right Thing to do is to keep installing DNS servers that use alternate roots, and go ahead and balkanize .biz so that it's useless to everyone. Scorched earth. Because if ICANN doesn't suffer political damage as a consequence of their defiant act, then they will just repeat such acts. Maybe next time, ICANN will collide with .geek or .parody. It's all about power and their insistence that There Can Be Only One.

OpenNIC is a user owned, international Network Information Center alternative to the
traditional Top-Level Domain registries. OpenNIC was started in 2000 as a reaction to the growing concern about the lack of democratic control within the ICANN. The best thing you can do to help this initiative is to point your root-nameserver(s) and/or your resolving configuration to the OpenNIC nameservers. You'll still be able to resolve all the traditional ICANN TLD's, but you'll also have access to the new TLD's. Also check out this FAQ document.

1) figuring out how to move the Windows95-style taskbar from the left side to the bottom, and 2) figuring out how to change the layout of said task bar. Things like that should not be that difficult.

Why just last night, when i was adding OpenNIC's root server to my home sytems, I had to change the IP addresses of my client's DNS servers...

On my Windows PC, i had to find 'network settings' by clicking start, settings and then control panel. Where I had to then click the "Network" icon. I then had to choose TCP/IP from a list and choose 'properties'. Once there I had to click "DNS settings", then choose and click the 'remove' button for all the IPs there, then type in each new one followed by clicking the 'add button'. Phew, ill tell you it was a daunting task...

On my GNU/Linux laptop i edited the file at /etc/resolv.conf with a simle text editor and restarted the named process.

it sure was alot easier with GNU/Linux, I dont know how anyone figures out how to fix Windows when it isnt working...

I've learned more from the OpenNic developers about how to set up DNS, than I would from any how-to. So if you wanted this Sureal experience say about a year ago, all you had to do was put one of the OpenNic Dns servers in and pointed yourself to http://www.opennic and you would have had the same experience.

Signing as anonymous because my l/p no longer seem neccessary.

SuperDuG

It also adds to the problem of running out of domains, since the number of domains is limited (until people get past .com, .org, etc...).

...tip sets, like those found in William Gibson novels. As long as we're switching to a different way of talking to our boxes, why not make it something that's a lot more portable and flexible? Yeah, the new interface would be a bit of bitch to learn (now just what gesture do I do for 'q'?), but I think that you could do a lot with a system like this.

For example, the keyboard and the mouse could become the same unit. This would probably be the easiest part of the new interface to learn; after all, how hard is it to point? Even if it was more complicated than that I would be happy to figure it out if it would keep me from having to do that annoying keyboard-mouse-keyboard switch that some programs require.

As for the learning problem in general, we already have keyboarding classes. They'd just have to start teaching the new tech (tip sets) over the old (keyboards). The new generation would laugh at the old until we and our ridiculous habits died out and then keyboarding would join the ranks of punch cards and paper terminals.

Why do I think that tip-sets would be better than your trusty keyboard? Well, what I'm thinking of is gaming. You can go from one game to another and (usually) not have to think about what button does what. Somehow the concept of "My guy needs to jump now." goes straight from your mind to your hands, without passing through any state of "So what button is jump?". I would think that a well-engineered gesture-system would be the same thing. The letters that you wish to enter would go straight from mind to hands. Not that the keyboard doesn't do the same thing, but if your hands are shifted over a bit you'll get all screwed up, whereas the tip-sets are wherever your hands are. You could "type" with your hands lying by your sides or behind your head or whatever. You could also control the mouse pointer from this position, though who knows: maybe tip-sets would bring about an interface that didn't involve a pointer. (Nah.) Also, it would bring us one step closer to a VR environment, something that I believe has a certain amount of potential; especially given the graphics power of today's computers.

Okay, I'm beginning to ramble but the bottom line is that tip-sets are cool and probably more efficient and ergonomic than keyboards and mice.

----------
OpenNIC. Because it's just better, that's why.

I think the most popular alternative registry is the one run by OpenNIC. Chances are that if an alternative registry were ever to gain populace that would be it.

www.opennic.unrated.net

Furthermore, dot-god.com works and dotgod.com doesn't. I think it's a message from God...whoever ( he | she ) is. ;-)

-dave

The lesson here is: Don't buy .biz domains. They already collide with OpenNIC's .biz domain, which means that if OpenNIC gains any popularity, your domain name may not function.

How much are you willing to bet that the internet will still be following a pigheadedly self-serving organization like ICANN five years from now?

If not, you should!

We are not breaking the old DNS. We agree completely with ICANN on the importance of the stability of the inclusive namespace. We absolutely will not touch a TLD or domain that is outside of our purview.

Our root.cache file is here (or here). See for yourself. There are no .us domains in it whatsoever.

The OpenNIC claims only 5 TLDs. We have over 500 registered members - growing fast - and many more users.

Finally, pointing resolve.conf at ANYONE gives that party control of what you see. I think the OpenNIC is more worthy of user trust than any other root, including ICANN/VGA. This is because the entire organization is governed by the vote of its members, much like the Debian people. So nobody's cutting deals behind the scenes.

Get it straight, Cleatus. You're embarassing yourself.

"Scooby Doo is essentially about casting the light of reason
on corruption cloaked in mysticism" - Scrymarch

DebianLinux.Net

OpenNIC is a user owned, international Network Information Center alternative to the traditional Top-Level Domain registries.

OpenNIC was started in reaction to the growing concern about the lack of democratic control within the ICANN.

The best thing you can do to help this initiative is to point your root-nameserver(s) and/or your resolving configuration to the OpenNIC nameservers. You'll still be able to resolve all the traditional ICANN TLD's, but you'll also have access to the new TLD's.

DebianLinux.Net

OpenNIC is a nice alternative to ICANN's tyranny. It's complementary to the existing structure, too. (New TLD's don't conflict, so you can use both at the same time.) Wouldn't you like a .geek website?

Yes, this bothers a lot of us. Not only internationals, but laisez-faire capitalists as well. :) I recently discovered OpenNIC, an alternative DNS root that looks like a good idea if you don't want ICANN and the U.S. government deciding what your Internet looks like.

We do things entirely democratic at opennic --- which is one of the problems that we have with ICANN, in that they are not democratic, and are not even playing by their own rules.

A single namespace is required. Each root zone operator can decide what TLDs to publish delegations for. But ICANN confuses the namespace with their own version of the root zone file. So do you.

What happens when this new organization puts in an entry for slashdot.org that points somewhere else?

What happens when the sole root operator decides slashdot.org is subversive, and yanks the domain altogether?

Now, I do agree that ICANN should be moving faster in granting new domains. They've had a hard time creating policies, and frankly creating policies that work for a VERY diverse group of people is extremely tough.

But they are creating policies for moneyed interests, not a diverse group. The operators of the other roots are operating on behalf of a diverse group, precisely because they are themselves a diverse group.

But people should try to understand the TECHNICAL issues instead of just bashing on ICANN as a new form of government.

But they are trying to be a new form of government. They are trying to assert authority where none has been granted to them. Their charter calls for them to create technical policies aimed at maintaining internet stability. Yet they themselves loaded a colliding .biz TLD, which has now created a fractured namespace. They are responsible for introducing ambiguity, not Atlantic Root. Their .biz has been in operation since before ICANN was chartered, and ICANN's board knew it when they approved the plan to usurp it.

If ICANN is a governmental agency, then the previous registrants and registry under the pre-existing .biz are entitled to compensation under the doctrine of emminent domain. Yet nothing of the sort is forthcoming from ICANN. This is not governance, this is not stability, this is capricousness and tyranny.

It may interest you to know that OpenNIC has recently called for a vote to determine which .biz to carry in the root zone they operate. Atlantic Root's .biz is winning by a wide margin. The same sort of deliberations are taking place in other root-zone-operating organizations.

• "I've found people want democracy, but they're often unwilling to do the work, whether it's looking at voting records or taking the most basic measures to protect their own privacy," said Ms. Dyson, who serves on a committee that is trying to increase public representation in Icann. "Frankly sometimes you don't need democracy, you need a market where people understand what's being offered and choose what they want."

Claim your namespace.

Perhaps its time more people focused on ideas like OpenNIC.

An interesting note is that AtlanticRoot Network Inc. list the phrase "The .BIZ TLD Registry tm" indicating that .BIZ is a part of a registered tradmark, given ICANN propensity to strip domain names from anyone who strays even close to a trademark, they are in a real delimma over using .BIZ and possible setting a prescidence toward ignoring trademarks as having priority over domain names.

Hopefully ICANN will see this as a case of "When your up to your nose in shit, you keep your mouth shut". It would be a real bummer to go into court and have your own prior cases used as prescidence against you.

Claim your namespace.

Here's a "what if?" :

What if everyone out there who thinks large corporations stealing others' domain names is crap, and who runs a nameserver, decides to tell AOL to piss off, and put in DNS pointers to aimster's site for www.aimster.com anyway? There's no law that says I *have* to listen to the root nameservers.

Then, anyone who wanted to see the uncorporatized Internet could just stick on of these namservers in their /etc/resolv.conf.

Couldn't we use OpenNIC to do something like this?

Yeah, I know, it's far to idealistic to think enough people would do this for it to actually work, but I find it a neat idea in theory anyway. :-)

-Wintermute

Claim your namespace.

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.

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.

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.

The solution to the problem is not, as some people have suggested, doing away with domain names altogether. Neither is the answer to establish IP guidelines for all of the Inclusive Name Space.

Rather, the solution is to establish an Inclusive Name Space which has a few very simple rules relating to the introduction of new top-level domains. The inclusive name space will consist of a set of top-level domains, each of which has a charter. That charter defines the kind of IP rules which will apply within that TLD. .edu is a good example. It has an explicit charter allowing registration of domain names only by 4-year post-secondary educatiobnal institutions. While some errors have been made in the application of this charter (see www.exeter.edu. e.g.), for the most part it has made .edu a meaningful TLD. You can type [university].edu and get where you are going.

Further, within .edu, some institutions have something like a prior right to their names. Therefore, harvard could not register stanford.edu, since this would be prohibited by the charter. When was the last time you heard about a domain name dispute in .edu? They are mostly in .com, because it is 1/2 chartered (it is supposed to be for commercial organizations after all, at least it was originally) and 1/2 general (NetSol, since they were out to make a buck, sold domain names to anybody who wanted one, so you got a lot of non-commercial orhanizations and individuals in there). This ambiguity is why we have so many problems with .com, .net and .org.

This is why we need new TLDs, and we need new chartered TLDs. And this is what the OpenNIC is all about. We already have a few new strictly-chartered TLDs (.oss for open source projects, .bbs for BBS things, web-logs and the like, .geek for geek-related pages, .parody for parodies). Within these TLDs, IP considerations are more or less non-existent. McDonalds could never register mcdonalds.oss, unless the open-sourced their cash-register software or something. :^P

There is a place for generic top-level domains. These should be operated on a first-come first-served basis, however. For everything else, we need strictly-chartered TLDs. And this is precisely the difference between the OpenNIC and other TLD operators. We believe in strict charters. Everyone else (including ICANN/Verisign/etc) seems to just want to sell a bunch of names and get rich. There's nothing wrong with that, of course, in principle. But it's no way to run a namespace.

Claim your namespace.

2) The objection that is always brought up when the possibility of alternative root systems is mentioned is that nobody supports them. As someone said a few comments above, "when AOL supports it, then I'll buy it". But I want to make several points. First, for many purposes one does not need every joe sixpack out there to be able to access one's domain. Community sites like /. or k5 have a dedicated, stable body of readers. All they need is for THOSE READERS to be able to resolve their alt domain name. This is very different from ecommerce sites, like amazon, who need universal resolution. Many applications get by fine without universal resolution. Second, it is very easy to operate sites on two domain names at the same time. An example: the JEdit project, and open source programmer's editor, can be seen at both www.jedit.oss (.oss is the OpenNIC TLD for open source software projects) and at jedit.sourceforge.net. It makes no difference. There are many more examples, including the Linux Dreamcast Project, LAngband, TODD, dj in a box, and more. And since .oss domain names are FREE, why not use both?

In short, for all of you who don't like ICANN, and who don't think new.net is any better, support and use the OpenNIC.

Claim your namespace.

Alternate roots are a reality and a necessity. We just gotta figure out how to gain support.

For the Technologicaly Impared see www.alternic.org also for another example see www.OpenNIC.unrated.net for an alternative to the two more traditional network information centers.

It good to see the courts actualy deciding in favor of something logical for a change three cheers from me at least

Especially since places like OpenNIC and AlterNIC don't exist.

Yup, already doing it. OpenNIC.

Like USENET, DNS needs a .ALT top level domain

OpenNIC already has the .null TLD, which is similar to the alt.* hierarchy of Usenet. The .parody domain could cut down on reverse domain name hijacking by parody targets.

When is ICANN going to realize that DNS is not rocket science? And when is the internet citizenry going to realize that they DO have a choice in their namespace? I mean, do you just accept all the defaults when you install an OS or an application? Of course not, you choose the options that are right for your needs and purposes. The choice of namespace should be the same way.

My 2 cents.

Claim your namespace.

Claim your namespace.

You want an expanded namespace? You can have one now. Join the OpenNIC, or another of the alternative DNS systems. It's really easy.

OpenNIC

ORSC

Quite whining and waiting for some damn megacorp to do something. Do it yourself!

Claim your namespace.

If you don't like ICANN, solutions exist. Vote with your resolver.

Claim your namespace.

• the OpenNIC

• ORSC

• PacRoot

New.net arrives on the scene with venture funding and ignores pre-existing claims. They can expect no support from the alternative namespace communities.

Claim your namespace.

OpenNIC is an additional root server that claims "DNS" to stand for "Democratic Name System." But for it to actually work, both your computer and your mail server have to have OpenNIC listed in resolv.conf (or whatever the NT equivalent is). I haven't had any success in getting Hotmail to support OpenNIC.
All your hallucinogen are belong to us.

Yes, this would be a good way of doing things...see OpenNIC...this is exactly what they do. Add a new server into resolv.conf, and you can resolve the tld's that they've created.

I thought it was pretty decent, and the proper way to circumvent ICANN's stupidty.

-Ben

And you can check it out here.

It infuriates me when people lash out against Stallman because they think he goes too far or they think he misrepresents them.

If you think he is too stubbornly stuck on Freedom then you're entitled to your opinion but it is stupid to attack him for his opinion. He has made a great contribution to our society. What good comes of attempting to discredit him and his work? To do so reveals your own malignance. I challenge you to go make your own contribution.

If you think Stallman misrepresents you then don't attack him. Instead, make your own opinion heard. He is defending his code and his rights. He is defending the rights of all of us who believe in the freedom of speech. He is defending all those who subscribe to the philosophy of the GPL. If you don't like Free Software then go promote your own Open Source software or your proprietary software. Don't stoop to Ad Hominem arguements to promote your ideas. Again, it only exposes your own lack of character.

"...when people have to tell you you're being oppressed, something is most definitely amiss. "

Maybe you don't feel oppressed using proprietary software. I think most people who don't write code don't feel too opressed. But most people also intuitively know they should be able to copy and distribute software freely. That's why most people will make an "illegal" copy of MS Word or Windows for their friends. They don't have to hate Microsoft, but they know that a proprietary software copyright holder should not have the right to tell you what you can (and can't) do with your copy.

Stallman is a generous, honest and brilliant man. Instead of attacking him, I challenge you to emuate him.

-R
------
Tired of ICANN despotism?
Go OpenNIC!

your bag over your shoulder and get on board with an alternate root.

OpenNIC, where D in DNS stands for "Democratic," is your alternate root. Its TLDs include .oss (free software) and .parody (self-explanatory). And it runs just fine alongside ICANN's root.

Or you could just use some BIND exploit to root the root nameserver :-)

Claim your namespace.

Claim your namespace.

Our solution is for the TLD to be owned and managed in a democratic fashion by domain registrants. We feel that domain registrants will have an interest in enforcing their charter. Over time, these community-policed namespaces will come to be more trusted and useful than the .com/.org/.net ghetto and similar uncontrolled namespaces. Kind of like moderated as opposed to unmoderated usenet groups.

We already operate several such TLDs, including .parody (charter is obvious) amd .oss (for open source software-related material). We also peer or are discussing peering the namespaces of other roots, including ICANN/NSI, ORSC, PacRoot, TINC and AlterNIC.

If you're really interested, become an OpenNIC member, register a domain name or propose a new TLD, or help out however you like.

Claim your namespace.

The Opennic URL should have been this.

Too much coffee....

Claim your namespace.