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Loophole found in Internet Domain Naming

kyndig writes "Just what is the 'spirit of internet naming?' ICANN can tell you, as they are the naming experts. In a recent CNN article, ICANN states EnCirca Domain Register is violating the spirit of internet naming by reselling .pro names. The report states that in early 2000, ICANN allowed 3rd level domains (foo.bar.pro) to be sold. Later, ICANN allowed 2nd level domains (foo.pro) to be sold for .pro as well. The restriction to this selling was that a user must have the 3rd level domain first. There are no reseller checks or usage enforcement other than the request to own a 3rd level domain from ICANN. EnCirca president plans to continue reselling 2nd level .pro domains, unless ICANN places a restriction on doing so."

230 comments

  1. linux pro by linuxbeta · · Score: 0

    how long till linux.pro is gone

    1. Re:linux pro by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      When it whores itself out to the corporates.

    2. Re:linux pro by coppice · · Score: 3, Funny

      Yes, but oldest.pro is still available :-)

    3. Re:linux pro by Dysan2k · · Score: 1

      It's gone now.. appearently by:

      Administrative Contact:
      Paul Flatt (CT1407-RSC) Paul Flatt
      14222 E Fox Lake Rd
      Detroit Lakes, None, 56501
      US
      abuse@thewhois.net

      on March 2, 2005.

      --
      -What have you contributed lately?
    4. Re:linux pro by flatt · · Score: 1

      So sue me. ;)

    5. Re:linux pro by wo1verin3 · · Score: 1

      windowsxp.pro is still available...

    6. Re:linux pro by Koguma · · Score: 0
      No it aint. I just got it. ;-)

      Now I'm the oldest pro. ;-0

  2. Why? by Penguinoflight · · Score: 3, Funny

    Well, i've asked the same question. The simple answer is that bar doesn't make any sense alone. foo.bar is the only way to complete a thought.

    Why does this stuff get posted? There is no opinion on this, nobody mentioned that ICANN generally sucks, and who wants a .pro domain anyway?

    --
    "And we have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the World"
    1 John 4:14
    1. Re:Why? by youngerpants · · Score: 1, Troll

      .pro domains are in great demand by prostitutes the world over

    2. Re:Why? by ThePilgrim · · Score: 2, Funny

      and who wants a .pro domain anyway?
      Me Me! I'm a professional! I want a pro domain! I want to show how professional I am. Please give me a pro domain. Give me one! Now! Me. Pleeeesssssss!!!!!!!!

      --
      Wouldn't it be nice if schools got all the money they wanted and the army had to hold jumble sales for guns
    3. Re:Why? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Wouldn't it be nice if schools got all the money they wanted and the army had to hold jumble sales for guns

      Well for one thing, we'd all be highly educated speakers of German since 1945... at least the non-Jews of us...

      And what the hell is a jumble sale anyway?

    4. Re:Why? by cshark · · Score: 1

      I do.

      I've wanted a .pro domain since I heard they were going to be made available. Shortly afterward, I was told that it would only be for medical professionals and people involved in legal practices, both of which have no interest in anything but .com domains.

      So I wrote a letter to ICANN and the register I was trying to work with at the time and I heard nothing. Although, looking at third level domains, I see an interesting addition, ".eng.pro." It's nice to know someone at ICANN was listening, or that other software engineers were complaining too. Either way, it works.

      Now, speaking of this registrar, some fun facts: .pro domains cost less than .whatever.pro domains.
      Their shopping cart is broken, and will not add items.

      There don't seem to be any breaks on multi-year registrations as there would be with other registrars.

      I wonder how difficult it would be to transfer a .pro domain if I was unhappy with this registrar's service. To date, I think I've only seen three or four other regis doing it. Not that it matters, I'm sure that there are more.

      --

      This signature has Super Cow Powers

    5. Re:Why? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Why? That demographic seems to be well represented in other TLDs. (NSFW)

    6. Re:Why? by u2pa · · Score: 1

      i'll take a .bar.pro domain please :)

      --
      Officially: "No comments"
    7. Re:Why? by rob_squared · · Score: 1
      "and who wants a .pro domain anyway?"

      Professionals, of course.

      --
      I don't get it.
    8. Re:Why? by butterwise · · Score: 1

      Why does one reply? It only encourages...

      --
      If a baby duck is a "duckling," why would anyone want to eat "dumplings?"
  3. ICANN sure can tell you. by nenolod · · Score: 3, Insightful

    The problem is that nobody seems to care about what ICANN has to say. Which is a shame. But I mean really, ICANN isn't going to be able to fight a corporation so they should probably quit with these little nitpicking events they have, as they always wind up to be a waste of bandwidth and nothing more.

    1. Re:ICANN sure can tell you. by C10H14N2 · · Score: 2, Informative

      Actually, it is quite simple for them to fight. Unless they keep a record of the company attempting to launch the new tld, barring getting everyone to manually modify their DNSs, the TLD won't be visible or will only be visible to a small number of people.

      I can't be bothered to dig up the story, but awhile back there was a company selling a "driver" for a new TLD that basically redirected your primary DNS lookup to their servers and, voila, *.whatever worked. People bought domains under it only to realize that the rest of the world couldn't get to their sites. It lasted about twenty seconds.

      What gets me about these perennial arguments is that there is NOTHING stopping someone from setting up an alternate root server system. Honestly. Say you could pitch AOL and, say, Verizon that *.SomeTLD was the hottest property. They'd have to add ONE FSCKING LINE to their root server hints. Okay, you'd probably want to be as redundant as the current root server system, so it would take 13 lines. THAT'S IT! You'd have something insane like 75% of the US market connected from making two phone calls.

      No, really, it IS that simple. The fact that no one has convinced any of the major providers to do just that is evidence that ICANN, like it or not, is something people want--and by "people" I mean people who have the ability to replace ICANN overnight, but choose not to.

      In short, get over it, folks...

    2. Re:ICANN sure can tell you. by cshark · · Score: 1

      A side note:

      People have tried variations on this. .web domains

      new.net (through spyware)

      The Inclusive Namespace (claims to be the first .biz registry, and appears to have an alternate root server as described in the parent post.)

      They all seem to have failed.

      AOL has an interesting service happening with keywords, however it's not exactly an open system. Keywords are either owned by AOL or rented out to sponsors (as detailed in their media kit).

      --

      This signature has Super Cow Powers

    3. Re:ICANN sure can tell you. by nenolod · · Score: 1

      Erm. No. You obviously have no idea how the root server system works. Not all of the servers are maintained by ICANN (only one, which is rarely used, most resolvers just use the verisign cluster), therefore ICANN has no actual say, just influence.

      A majority of the root servers are maintained by VeriSign and the government. The others are maintained by various ISP's and Universities, with only one maintained by ICANN, which could easily be removed without any problem -- the network is overly redundant.

      You are right though, it would only take a few phone calls to launch a new TLD, but calling ISP's would be the stupid way of doing it, especially when the root servers themselves would take less effort and provide more overall value.

      No, ICANN doesn't matter. These people do, however.

    4. Re:ICANN sure can tell you. by budgenator · · Score: 1

      If your talking about Pacific Root, yes they were in fact the original dot BIZ registar, and did host their own alternative DNS servers. I personaly have used them before the ICANN inclusion of the .BIZ into their gTLD system.

      I don't think there is anything to stop AOL from resolving keyword.aol.net to their keyword system either.

      --
      Apocalypse Cancelled, Sorry, No Ticket Refunds
    5. Re:ICANN sure can tell you. by aztracker1 · · Score: 1

      If ICANN warned the .pro tld admins that they would be *removed* from the root dns servers if they didn't clean up their act, refund 2nd level tld's at least 50% that didn't qualify under their agreed permissions in ?? days.

      They'd probably listen then.

      --
      Michael J. Ryan - tracker1.info
    6. Re:ICANN sure can tell you. by C10H14N2 · · Score: 1

      My point was that ICANN is where coordinated decisions are made about what goes into the root servers--and that's a fact. OBVIOUSLY they don't physically run all the root servers--that wasn't my point anyway, but thanks for the pedantic flame.

      The point was if you want to "fix" (read:fsck-up) the currently agreed to use of those servers, you're going to have to go through ICANN. At the end of the day, you get rid of ICANN and you'll end up having to create another ICANN to fill the space.

      However, if you want to set up a whole new set of servers and get people to use them, there ain't nothin' stopping you except for the proven fact that no one wants that. You need root servers in this system, but the current ones are, from a structural point of view ignoring history, arbitrary.

      Besides, if you make a great distinction between ISI, IANA and ICANN (you know, half the acronyms at root-servers.org), well, back at 'ya, buddy. If you don't know why, well, I suggest you go walk over and visit each of them.

    7. Re:ICANN sure can tell you. by Morlark · · Score: 1

      I still do use them. One of the major reasons that ICANN introduced their .biz TLD was to put these people out of business, and I think that is morally and ethically reprehensible.

      --
      Santa's suicide mission go!
  4. ICANN doing something right? by bmw · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I normally don't agree with ICANN's position on many things but it seems to me that they could be taking the right stance on this. I'm not sure I would prefer tighter restrictions on domain names and TLDs but wouldn't it be nice if everyone stuck to a consistent naming convention? Imagine something a lot like what we have with newsgroups.

    1. Re:ICANN doing something right? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I completely disagree. If people want to name their sites one way, and they can convince people to visit with their particular naming convention, more power to them. The only issue is when names, whatever their form, are used to deceive endusers as to what site they are visiting. For this deception to be meaningful, the website at the name actually has to be designed to further the deception. And, when this is the case, guess what ICANN, basic trademark law already covers the wrong. ICANN and network solutions should end their incestuous relationship. Neither group has any credibility.

    2. Re:ICANN doing something right? by Morlark · · Score: 1

      Depends how you define deception. Like when every newly started company and their dog wants a .com domain. And how many of these are transnational companies? Practically none. That is a deception, whether people realise it or not.

      --
      Santa's suicide mission go!
  5. DNS? by Poromenos1 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Bah, who needs DNS anyway? Real hackers memorize IP addresses! All you need to know is 216.239.57.99, really.

    --
    Send email from the afterlife! Write your e-will at Dead Man's Switch.
    1. Re:DNS? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      who needs DNS anyway?

      People using name-based virtual hosting for HTTP :)

    2. Re:DNS? by afd8856 · · Score: 1

      What about namebased vhosts?

      --
      I'll do the stupid thing first and then you shy people follow...
    3. Re:DNS? by Poromenos1 · · Score: 2, Insightful

      who needs DNS anyway?

      People using name-based virtual hosting for HTTP :)


      I have the solution right here!
      name.120.45.15.23. There, all solved!

      --
      Send email from the afterlife! Write your e-will at Dead Man's Switch.
    4. Re:DNS? by SorcererX · · Score: 5, Funny

      The scary thing is... I didn't even need to look up that ip to know it was google

      --
      Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.
    5. Re:DNS? by 0x461FAB0BD7D2 · · Score: 0

      There's another conspiracy for them google-watch people.

    6. Re:DNS? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Good luck following any links...

      Or do you just use the cache?

    7. Re:DNS? by Freexe · · Score: 1

      It was only ever going to be google or goat.se

      --
      "In a time of universal deceit - telling the truth is a revolutionary act." - George Orwell
    8. Re:DNS? by Richard_at_work · · Score: 1

      Id love a Firefox extension that allowed you to specify a vhost to get when using an IP address to visit a site - it would make testing websites locally before uploading them to a remote site so much easier than altering local DNS for each location change. Just a little box next to the address bar which means 'send this vhost header' or whatever. Been meaning to look into writing one, but havent had the time.

    9. Re:DNS? by Simon+Garlick · · Score: 4, Funny

      IP addresses are for n00bs. REAL hackers memorize MAC addresses.

    10. Re:DNS? by GuyWithLag · · Score: 1

      Ermmm... that's what /etc/hosts is alla about...

    11. Re:DNS? by orangesquid · · Score: 2, Informative

      When you type http://foo.bar.pro/sucks.html into your browser, firefox connects to foo.bar.pro, requests /sucks.html, and sends another header which says the full url requested is foo.bar.pro/sucks.html.

      You can override hostnames from DNS in /etc/hosts if your search order is files before bind. That's how a lot of people block the servers where ad banners are stored.

      If you run a local apache and specify virtual hostnames like foo-test that point to the disk tre /web/foo.bar.pro, and add 127.0.0.1 foo-test to /etc/hosts, then you can go to foo-test in your browser and you'll get the foo.bar.pro test site hosted locally.

      Hope that answers your question.

      I would like to play with vhost within firefox, though, just because I don't like modifying /etc/hosts and sometimes my server's DNS is having problems but I'm more focused on altering a few webpages on a vhost of mine before fixing the DNS (I know, backward priorities, but still)

      --
      --TheOrangeSquid Is it any wonder things seem so awry? We swim in a sea of confusion and don't have to think to survive
    12. Re:DNS? by GuyWithLag · · Score: 1

      /etc/hosts predated DNS, and was ath that time the authoritative source for nameaddress mappings, and usually takes precedence on hostname lookups.

      The grandparent (as I understood it) wants a mechanism by which to redefine (locally) the nameIP mapping for a specific site, which is possible using /etc/hosts. The browser will still send a Host: header with his expected hostname, no change there.

    13. Re:DNS? by Quixote · · Score: 1

      Real hackers memorize their neighbors' (wireless) MAC addresses ... ;)

    14. Re:DNS? by Richard_at_work · · Score: 1

      Thats part of the problem, I want to be able to access BOTH my test site and my live site at the same time. I dont want to be editing the /etc/hosts file each time I want to switch sites and I dont want to change hostnames (eg dev.foobar.com) for the sites.

    15. Re:DNS? by vginders · · Score: 2, Insightful

      IP addresses are for n00bs. REAL hackers memorize MAC addresses.

      You won't get very far beyond your LAN with those.

      --

      Serge
    16. Re:DNS? by caluml · · Score: 4, Funny
      bash-2.05b$ ping 00:32:fc:14:0a:3c
      ping: unknown host 00:32:fc:14:0a:3c
      bash-2.05b$
      It doesn't work :(
    17. Re:DNS? by Cobralisk · · Score: 1

      And I typed it in to see which.

      --
      Waiting for ad.doubleclick.net...
    18. Re:DNS? by gnuman99 · · Score: 1

      Ur a n00b. REAL hackers memorize IPv6 addresses.

    19. Re:DNS? by stud9920 · · Score: 0

      how do you connect to a particular virtual host if you have only the ip address ?

    20. Re:DNS? by zzen · · Score: 1

      So that's why the IPv6 didn't catch on. Now I see...

    21. Re:DNS? by blane.bramble · · Score: 1

      So, setup www.name.com so that it points to live and www2.name.com so it points to dev. Setup both names as aliases on both sites. Now you can test both. When the site goes live, point www2 at the live IP.

    22. Re:DNS? by spectral · · Score: 1

      in binary. none of that hex crap.

    23. Re:DNS? by jonadab · · Score: 1

      That's because ping is braindead. You won't have this problem if you construct the echo-request packets yourself. (Okay, so the packets do have to have the IP addresses in them -- but you can send them directly to a certain MAC address.)

      --
      Cut that out, or I will ship you to Norilsk in a box.
    24. Re:DNS? by haagmm · · Score: 1

      well, if you go to the google ip, and then click the "news" link it doesnt work because http://news.216.239.57.99/ doesnt exist.

    25. Re:DNS? by pope1 · · Score: 1

      You follow HTTP/1.1 and put the Vhost you want
      in the "Host: " header.

      Example:

      telnet> o localhost 80
      GET / HTTP/1.1
      Host: www.example.com

      --
      /* * pope1 */
    26. Re:DNS? by rtz · · Score: 1
      IP addresses are for n00bs. REAL hackers memorize MAC addresses.


      So that's why the real hackers are gone, they never leave their local subnet.
    27. Re:DNS? by Richard_at_work · · Score: 1

      Yes, which part of 'I dont want to change hostnames' did you not understand?

    28. Re:DNS? by stud9920 · · Score: 0

      So you do need the hostname. Why bother with the IP ?

    29. Re:DNS? by DaveJay · · Score: 2, Funny

      REAL hackers can whistle into a 300 baud acoustic coupler modem and make ASCII porn come up on the screen. Word.

    30. Re:DNS? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yes but all of the rest of them do.

    31. Re:DNS? by blane.bramble · · Score: 1

      You don't have to change host names. You do have to enter a slightly different one into the browser so that it knows whether you want to access the live to dev system. You *do* want to be able to access them both don't you?

    32. Re:DNS? by rajinder · · Score: 1

      it's true! ... made my life much easier knowing that every site I go to has the exact same MAC address as my default gateway...

      00:32:fc:14:0a:3c bitches.
      recognize.

      --
      - It is simple to make something complex, and complex to make it simple
    33. Re:DNS? by RobNich · · Score: 1

      REAL hackers can whistle into a 56Kbaud modem and make JPEG porn come up on the screen, embedded in an HTML page. Frontpage.

      --
      Hello little man. I will destroy you!
  6. ICANN is a disaster. by bigtallmofo · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Nothing they do makes sense to me. It seems like they're just creating new TLDs willy-nilly and giving control of them to new companies apparently without the ability to enforce any of the controls they've created. What exactly is the purpose of all these new TLDs?


    --
    I'm a big tall mofo.
    1. Re:ICANN is a disaster. by nenolod · · Score: 1

      There is no purpose to these TLDs. It's all bureaucratic crap. The fact of the matter is that it is the root server admin group (primarily VeriSign, that's why they got away with sitefinder for weeks while ICANN continued to complain) that actually has the power to create and maintain TLDs. Which is why nobody really cares about anything ICANN has to say, especially when everything they say tends to be ridiculously stupid.

    2. Re:ICANN is a disaster. by dubdays · · Score: 2, Funny

      I, for one, feel that the .XXX TLD is a very high priority!

    3. Re:ICANN is a disaster. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      we should never have let foreigners on our Internets. It's all been downhill since then.

    4. Re:ICANN is a disaster. by JPS · · Score: 1

      I guess it'll never happen ! Otherwise, companies could easy filter access to these sites based on domain extensions, making them much less valuable... :)

    5. Re:ICANN is a disaster. by artemis67 · · Score: 1

      Based on the volume of indiscriminately-sent porn spam that is emailed everyday, the likelyhood that the porn industry would willingly subject themselves to a .XXX TLD that would allow them to be easily filtered is close to zero.

      I'm not saying that the industry wouldn't use .xxx -- they would. But they would also keep all of the .COM addresses, particularly the ones that are intended to fool people into accidentally surfing to them (e.g., whitehouse.com).

      I mean, fer cryin out loud, there was a porn guy a couple of years ago who was using domains that were mispellings of DISNEY sites. Do you honestly think that people like that will play by the rules and convert all of their .com's to .xxx? Absolutely not.

      Besides, has anyone actually survey the porn website industry to see if they are WILLING to convert from .com to .xxx?

      I'd love to see .xxx work, but censorship and the internet go together like oil and, uh... something that doesn't mix with oil.

    6. Re:ICANN is a disaster. by CharlieHedlin · · Score: 1

      For this reason I wouldn't be surprised if governments try to force it, and regulate speach outside of it.

      So what if only a few people can read the free speach.

      Fortunately I think it has already been tried and failed.

    7. Re:ICANN is a disaster. by Tassach · · Score: 1
      Exactly the point. Blacklisting doesn't work, and you'll never get the pr0n merchants out of the general TLDs.

      An actual WORKABLE solution is to have TLDs like .KIDS and .TEEN. To get one of these TLDs, you have to SIGN A CONTRACT saying you will abide by the contractually-imposed content restrictions, and perhaps even POST A BOND which would be forfiet if you broke the terms of the contract.

      This wouldn't solve the problem completely, as it still requires client-side or proxy-level enforcement, but it does make it easier.

      --
      Why is it that the proponents of "one nation under God" are so eager to get rid of "liberty and justice for all"?
    8. Re:ICANN is a disaster. by hunterx11 · · Score: 1

      To be fair, whitehouse.com is not so named to fool anyone. It was the name of a "family values" activist in Britain.

      --
      English is easier said than done.
  7. I wonder how useful all these domains are. by Amiga+Lover · · Score: 4, Funny

    I wonder how useful all these extra tlds are. I've worked on a helpdesk for a .org and a .edu, and one of the REALLY common problems we get is a call from users complaining they can't get on. Invariably, they're typing "www.foo.edu.com" or "www.foo.org.com".

    I bet there's a lot of "why can't I get to lawyer.pro.com??" going on.

    1. Re:I wonder how useful all these domains are. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

      I hate calls like that. Invariably, you ask them what they are typing, and they tell you "www.example.org". Then you ask them to tell you exactly what letters and buttons they press. They tell you "w w w . e x a m p l e . o r g and enter".

      You finally end up going to see them, and yep, they are typing "www.example.org.com". And when you ask them to tell you exactly what they are doing, they don't read out the ".com" even though you can plainly see they are typing it.

      It's a similar retardation to whatever makes people say "an error message" when you ask them what's on the screen, no matter how many times you ask them to read out what the error message says, they always reply "something about an error", and you have to repeat exactly the same question five times before they understand that you want them to read out the error message.

      Imagine if people did that with cars.

      "It doesn't work."

      "Does the engine start?"

      "It doesn't work."

      "Do any lights on the dashboard light up?"

      "It doesn't work."

      "Does it make any funny sounds?"

      "It doesn't work."

      Finally, you figure out they left the keys in the house and can't open the door.

    2. Re:I wonder how useful all these domains are. by WD_40 · · Score: 1

      Once I got a call from a cow-irker complaining that her monitor "didn't work." She said, "I've already checked to make sure it's plugged in."

      I never believe when someone says that, so what I tell them to do is unplug it and "blow the dust off the plug" as a psychological trick to get them to actually unplug and re-plug the cord. That still didn't fix this user's problem, so I paid a visit to her desk. I observed that the power light was not illuminated, so I pressed the power button and low and behold her monitor turned on and functioned perfectly.

      She proclaimed, "I swear I tried that!" I just said, "OK" while trying not to sound too annoyed and left.

      Since I'm on the subject of help calls, one more quick one:

      I was called to the engineering office because one of the monitors was on the fritz (hmm... I'm beginning to see a pattern here.) I saw that the screen was black except for a thin, very bright horizontal line in the middle of the screen. I guessed that the raster gun was probably stuck, so I balled up my fist and gave it a good hard whack on the top, which instantly restored the picture.

      One of the other engineers started laughing heartily and said, "He Fonzied it!"

      --

      "With sufficient thrust, pigs fly just fine." -- RFC 1925

    3. Re:I wonder how useful all these domains are. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

      The retardation lies within the computer programmers who refuse to admit this: The average user does not understand nor care about hierarchies. To them, the 'www' and '.com' are not separate parts of a hierarchy, they're decorative parts of the name, just like the 'Mr.' in 'Mr. John Doe'.

    4. Re:I wonder how useful all these domains are. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Exactly. Had a manager I needed to boot from CD on a mac. told him to insert the CD, and hold down C.

      booted to the HD

      I told him to try again, but make entirely sure he was holding down C on the keyboard. no go, still booted to the HD. He assured me that yes, he was holding down C all through the boot process.

      after 5 minutes of this I went around, asked the guy to do it in front of me - to hold down C while booting.

      He rebooted, and tapped C. Once. for a fraction of a second, then turned away from the computer to look at something else.

      When I demonstrated it by holding down C, and it did boot to CD, he was all "but I did that"

      No ability to follow simple instructions.

    5. Re:I wonder how useful all these domains are. by gregfortune · · Score: 1

      In that case, pro.com is probably worth a pile of money...

    6. Re:I wonder how useful all these domains are. by budgenator · · Score: 1

      so I balled up my fist and gave it a good hard whack on the top, proper nomencalture is important, that should read "Field Expedient Manual Fine Tuning" on the invoice

      --
      Apocalypse Cancelled, Sorry, No Ticket Refunds
    7. Re:I wonder how useful all these domains are. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Not understanding hierarchies is one thing. Not being able to read words from the screen is another.

      I have no problem whatsoever with somebody who lacks knowledge of how something works. The people who are unable to read words written in their native language from a computer screen if they aren't used to seeing that message - well, I want to beat those cretinous subhumans to death with their keyboard.

    8. Re:I wonder how useful all these domains are. by WD_40 · · Score: 1

      Hah! Hang on, let me take copius notes here...

      --

      "With sufficient thrust, pigs fly just fine." -- RFC 1925

    9. Re:I wonder how useful all these domains are. by srmalloy · · Score: 1
      I bet there's a lot of "why can't I get to lawyer.pro.com??" going on.

      And even if they ever add the appropriate TLD, I don't think you're ever going to find a site at http://lawyer.pro.bono/ -- unless it's a pr0n site.

  8. who cares? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Have you ever seen a .pro website? Nobody uses .pro.

    If you want to verify someone's credentials, call the state licensing board.

    1. Re:who cares? by spot35 · · Score: 3, Funny

      maybe if it was .pron...

  9. .pro? by Underholdning · · Score: 3, Informative

    Am I the only one who's never seen a .pro domain?
    There's one cool thing about this TLD. You have to provide proof of your profession to buy such a domain. Now that's probably the reason why I've never seen a spam advertising a .pro domain.

    1. Re:.pro? by Mercano · · Score: 1, Funny

      No, your not alone, but you've given me an idea. /me goes to buy a spam.pro subdomain.

      --
      #include <signature.h>
    2. Re:.pro? by Strolls · · Score: 2, Insightful
      You have to provide proof of your profession to buy such a domain. Now that's probably the reason why I've never seen a spam advertising a .pro domain.
      In that case you may enjoy http://www.network.pro/. And I'm disappointed to find that instead of a directory of local hookers, http://sex.pro/ includes "favourite categories" links including life insurance & Christian dating. Well, where else would one look?

      It seems to me there's no point in pretending these are quality, respectable and accredited domain names if shenannigans like that is going on. *sigh*

    3. Re:.pro? by pklong · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Google is your friend as ever. Looks like nothing worthwhile is on .pro anyway...

      --

      Philip

      Signatures are broken

    4. Re:.pro? by Freeform · · Score: 0

      As mentioned somewhere, anyone can get a .pro about anything now. See bible.pro for proof.

    5. Re:.pro? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      the first widely recognised commercial spam was from two Arizona lawyers...

    6. Re:.pro? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Proof of profession is only going to stunt domain infustructure as it has done with the *.com.au in Australia where you must be a registered business or listed with ASIC (Australian Securities and Investments commision)
      You do know that when visiting a com.au name that they are most certainly a registered business however this cuts out all Hobbies based in australia ,all groups,all information etc.
      Not that Australians are that smart as to create communities and develope idea's and most are restricted from doing so by local regulations,but this name restriction is a loss to Australian people,mostly OOS and developers..

  10. Artificial shortage, artificial problems by ites · · Score: 5, Insightful

    As so often, a bunch of administrators have decided that they need to regulate the market, but are driven more by self-interest (justifying their jobs) than by interest in supporting a free market.

    It's Parkinson's Law: bureaucrats expand their work to fill their budgets. It's why half of my country's GDP goes to pay for civil servants.

    In the case of internet domains the only satisfactory long term solution is to allow any company to register a top level domain, with some rules to avoid abuse, and then to allow a free market for reselling, giving, using sub domains.

    Since the market has been restricted for so long, there should be a period in which existing domain holders and trademark holders can get "their" names without excessive conflict.

    All the rest - the "official registrars", the annual fees, the ICANN and their rules - it's just a tax on using the Internet for building interesting communications structures.

    --
    Sig for sale or rent. One previous user. Inquire within.
    1. Re:Artificial shortage, artificial problems by Chubby_C · · Score: 1

      It seems to me that it is too late to try to regulate with new domains intended for individual groups, i.e. *.pro People are now used to .com .net .org you cannot expect people's habits in regards to the net to change. People will use .com as that is what they have been using. The only way to implement new TLDs would have to been to have the forsight to implement them in the beginning or early on, such as .ca .gov etc., but that didn't happen so now they are trying to add confusion in order to essentially make more money.

      --
      - My question is: Can Slashdot be Slashdotted? -
    2. Re:Artificial shortage, artificial problems by The+Famous+Brett+Wat · · Score: 2, Interesting

      On the matter of artificial scarcity in the DNS, you may find my "Cornucopia" idea interesting. It's in the category of crazy ideas that ought to be considered, even if only to break people out of an established mindset. (Also at my site.) The basic premiss of the idea: "What if every domain name you wanted was available?"

      --
      proof, n. A demonstration that a conclusion is implied by certain premises and axioms.
    3. Re:Artificial shortage, artificial problems by DJCF · · Score: 1

      Dude, I'm loving your "Cornucopia" idea. Kind of brings the Net back down to the ideal it was always supposed to be - a level-playing field, where no address is more important than any other. daniel.g14 on the same level as microsoft.a12. I like it! Daniel

  11. The nature of the spirit of name restritctions by gihan_ripper · · Score: 3, Interesting

    An honest question here --- could someone please explain to me why the action of EnCirca is in transgression of the "spirit of name restrictions"?

    I don't see the problem myself, and would be grateful if someone could explain the situation.

    --
    Phoenix, Boston, Little Rock, see a pattern?
    1. Re:The nature of the spirit of name restritctions by Ford+Prefect · · Score: 1

      An honest question here --- could someone please explain to me why the action of EnCirca is in transgression of the "spirit of name restrictions"?

      I think the point is that before, you'd register megacorp.foo and you'd effectively get all possible sub-domains for free, i.e. www.megacorp.foo, hamstermatic.megacorp.foo, www.gerbilotron.megacorp.foo and so on.

      I assume what's happening is that if you register megacorp.pro, you'll need to pay for any additional sub-domains...

      Although I could very well be extremely wrong. :-)

      --
      Tedious Bloggy Stuff - hooray?
    2. Re:The nature of the spirit of name restritctions by Strolls · · Score: 1
      I don't see the problem myself, and would be grateful if someone could explain the situation.
      Well, instead of, for instance, a useful directory of local hookers, http://sex.pro/ includes "favourite categories" links including life insurance & Christian dating. Well, where else would one look? I assume this means that, say, http://clarisse.sex.pro/ is unavailable for registration?
    3. Re:The nature of the spirit of name restritctions by Arathrael · · Score: 4, Informative

      Had to read the link myself to understand it, the article summary is less than clear.

      Basically, the idea was you could initially only buy third level domains such as IAAL.law.pro, but you had to provide credentials to establish your professional status to buy them.

      ICANN then allowed second level domains to be sold - e.g. IAAL.pro - but you had to own a third level domain first and hence have gone through the credential-establishing process.

      EnCirca are selling second level domains to be sold without having a third level domain first, thus skipping the credential-establishing bit entirely, and this is bad.

      That's as far as I understand it anyway. Does that make sense?

    4. Re:The nature of the spirit of name restritctions by Quixote · · Score: 2, Informative
      The registrar itself should not be selling domain names; that's the "spirit" that's being violated here.

      It would be like Verisign taking control of all *.com domain names.... wait, never mind ;)

  12. Talk about confusing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    Later, ICANN allowed 2nd level domains (bar.pro) to be sold for .pro as well. The restriction to this selling was that a user must have the 3rd level domain first.

    So wait, you have to own foo.bar.pro before you can own bar.pro? That doesn't make sense. Or have they got it backwards, and you have to own pro before you can own bar.pro? That doesn't make sense either. Maybe they mean "first" as in the order of the address and not chronologically. That doesn't make sense either because I can just have the 'www' subdomain.

    What, if anything, is that sentence supposed to mean? I've set up plenty of domains, so I'm not ignorant, but the language used is simply so confusing I can't make heads nor tails out of it.

    Isn't it the editor's job to make sure summaries are readable?

    1. Re:Talk about confusing by l_bratch · · Score: 1

      It states "user must have the 3rd level domain first". This means that the user must have foo.bar.pro before they can have bar.pro. The "3rd level" part of the domain is "foo."

    2. Re:Talk about confusing by Col.+Blackwolf · · Score: 2, Informative

      Ok, the way I understood the article was that you had to own foo.bar.pro before you could get foo.pro. This is operating under the assumption that the type of professional is "bar" and the user is "foo", hence foo.bar.pro. bar.pro is owned by the registrar and can't be bought by an individual, as it is the "class" of profession.

      'Course, I could be totally of track. Most of what the ICANN does is so confusing and nonsensical that I'm surprised they even understand it (and I've yet to see proof that they do, so that's open to debate).

    3. Re:Talk about confusing by JustDisGuy · · Score: 1

      As I understand the parent to your post, in order to own foo.bar.pro someone has to already own/operate bar.pro, so you're not going to be able to pick it up anyway.

      The language is indeed quite confusing.

      --
      "Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity." - Hanlon's Razor
    4. Re:Talk about confusing by splatpig · · Score: 1

      You have to own foo.bar.pro before you can own foo.pro . bar.pro is reserved by the registry as a "professional" SLD.

    5. Re:Talk about confusing by MirthScout · · Score: 3, Informative

      Actually, I think I know what they are trying to say but it did take me a while to parse it...

      Originally you could only buy 3rd level names under .pro. Now they allow you to own 2nd level names that match your 3rd level name.

      So, if you own JohnDoe.lawyer.pro you can also buy JohnDoe.pro. But you still can't buy lawyer.pro since that is a profession name and is controlled by the registrar.

  13. Reasoning? by mopslik · · Score: 1

    ... a law firm called Smith Jones could get "smithjones.law.pro." ... ICANN later allowed second-level names -- such as "smithjones.pro" -- as long as the individual or firm already has a third-level name.

    Aside from profit (you pay for two domains if you want the 2nd level one), what was the reason for this restriction in the first place?

    1. Re:Reasoning? by Short+Circuit · · Score: 2, Informative

      Let's say you've got two individuals named John Dow. One's an IP lawyer, and one's a brain surgeon. Both of them have accrued enough fame in their circles that if you were to ask a lawyer and a brain surgeon who Jon Dow was, they'd both immediately have answers, but those answers were different.

      However, only one of them could get "johndow.com", leaving the other out in the cold in terms of easy-to-remember domain names. If one were to have "johndow.md.pro" and the other were to have "johndow.law.pro", it would be fairly clear which site was for who, and the domains would be easy to remember.

      I guess it simply never caught on.

    2. Re:Reasoning? by mopslik · · Score: 1

      I guess that makes sense. Myself, I would have thought that instead of using "johndow.law.pro" and "johndow.md.pro", there could have been "johndow.law" and "johndow.md". But then, the whole "pro" domain must have seemed like a good idea at the time.

  14. really? by tomstdenis · · Score: 0

    OMG OH no the sky is falling the sky is falling! ... and the reason we have limited TLDs anyways?

    I say if you want to host your own TLD you should be able to register with ICANN, pay the annual fees to the root server administrators and go on your way.

    Having .tomstdenis.

    Would be cool ;-)

    http://my_cv.tomstdenis

    oh think of the posibilities ;-)

    Tom

    --
    Someday, I'll have a real sig.
    1. Re:really? by TheRaven64 · · Score: 5, Informative
      The reason for a limited number of top level domains is that top level domain lookups require an access to the root DNS servers. There are a relatively small number of theses, and each DNS cache must know the IP addresses of them in order to function. With a small number of TLDs, most domain name lookups can cache the authoritative servers for them. When you look up a .com address, your DNS cache generally already knows where the authoritative server for .com domains is, and so it doesn't need to hit the root servers.

      This removes a single point of failure from the domain name system - every single root domain server can fail, and most people will only notice when they enter a TLD which doesn't exist (at which point they will get a DNS failure instead of an nonexistend domain error). Similarly, if the .com servers failed, then you would still be able to access .org domains (for example).

      --
      I am TheRaven on Soylent News
    2. Re:really? by tomstdenis · · Score: 1

      You could take this on as a risk of having your own TLD though...

      That and with all the cash money they would get they could build more mirrors around the world...

      Shutup, I want my own TLD !!!

      --
      Someday, I'll have a real sig.
    3. Re:really? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      http://i.got.my.first.std.from.tomstdenis/

      Yeah, think of the possibilities!

    4. Re:really? by tomstdenis · · Score: 1

      Well given that I own tomstdenis I would just pull "from" from the second level [or not register your domain in the first place]

      BURN!

      Tom

      --
      Someday, I'll have a real sig.
  15. What's wrong with this sentence? by RandoX · · Score: 1

    (from here.)

    Discussions continue among ICANN Board and Staff regarding the evaluation of five additional proposed sponsored Top Level Domains (sTLDs): .ASIA, .MAIL, .TEL, .TEL, & .XXX.

    1. Re:What's wrong with this sentence? by nenolod · · Score: 1, Funny

      The .XXX TLD is probably the most useful one out of those listed.

    2. Re:What's wrong with this sentence? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

      The .XXX TLD is probably the most useful one out of those listed.

      Sheesh. Hollywood puts out a crappy action flick and now people are clamouring to give it its own domain.

    3. Re:What's wrong with this sentence? by spongeboy · · Score: 2, Funny

      Well, this movie has had a TLD for years

    4. Re:What's wrong with this sentence? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      and just like ICANN, both movies suffer a low rating!

  16. Give it a few years by jfried · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Even now, people hardly remember domain names. They use google to find it because its easier that way.

    Give it a few years an people will be asking you, whats your google search string?

    But anyways its .pro, Frankly this is the first time I have heard about it. I dont think anyone will shed a tear for them.

    1. Re:Give it a few years by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Give it a few years an people will be asking you, whats your google search string?

      Yeah, because that should be easy to remember.

      You can look for us online, at "New York Stereos" -"NewYork Stereos" -"NY Stereos" -"lowest price" -Kelkoo -Pricewatch -free -scam -porn -pr0n -xxx ...

    2. Re:Give it a few years by Freeform · · Score: 1, Insightful

      The regularity with which Google redoes their search algorithim suggest that for sites with less than first tier popularity, this will not happen.

    3. Re:Give it a few years by Daengbo · · Score: 1

      I was at work yesterday when someone wanted to show me something on her email and typed hotmail.com into goole search to find the site. I just stared with jaw agape.

    4. Re:Give it a few years by LordKronos · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Give it a few years an people will be asking you, whats your google search string?

      That won't happen, for at least one reason. When you buy a domain, as long as you keep paid up, that domain is yours (aside from the slim chance of registrars screwing up and letting someone hijack it). Google (or any search engine) search strings, on the other hand, are only valid as long as someone doesn't manage to work their way to the top of the search results, above even your own company.

      Right now, Maxwell House can confidently tell their customers to go to their site at http://www.maxwellhouse.com/
      but what happens when they tell their customers to google for Maxwell House? This:
      http://www.google.com/search?q=Maxwell+House

      Instead you have to google for Maxwell House Coffee, but how long can that result be guaranteed?

      And of course, when Company X tells someone to google for their website, they have to hope and pray that, not only do they continue to stay the #1 result, but that if they do get displaced, it's NOT by the "Company X Sucks" website.

  17. .pron by Reignking · · Score: 3, Funny

    Can .pron be far?

    --
    One man's Funny is another man's Offtopic.
    1. Re:.pron by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Can .pron be far?

      I don't see why seafood requires its own domain...

  18. Question about DNS... by bluprint · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I thought the third level was essentially handled at the web server, is that not true? So, if you had foo.pro, you could set a link that went to bar.foo.pro, or make your webserver serve bar.foo.pro or whatever, but routers would always send requests to *.foo.pro to your IP address and let you work it out from there. Is that not the case?

    --
    A modern day witchhunt.
    1. Re:Question about DNS... by JonnyCalcutta · · Score: 2, Informative
      I thought the third level was essentially handled at the web server, is that not true?

      Basically, no. All levels are handled by DNS. You can use a wildcard, but you could also send, eg, foo.bar.pro to one IP and bar.bar.pro to another. You can also delegate subdomains to different nameservers - so you could delegate foo.bar.pro to your friends nameserver and they would handle all requests for *.foo.bar.pro. That, in effect is how registrars handle second-level domain requests - you query the registrars nameserver for foo.bar and it delegates the request to your nameservers.

    2. Re:Question about DNS... by v1 · · Score: 1

      If you want bar.foo.pro you have to get it from whoever owns foo.pro. They control the DNS records for foo.pro, which means they control DNS entries for *.foo.pro. This can be handled at the webserver basis if you point *.foo.pro at your webserver, but in the case where foo.pro is popular, someone will buy foo.pro and then resell all the variations of *.foo.pro, and direct each variation to someone else's web server. From there, the buyers could handle *.bar.foo.pro variations via their webserver.

      --
      I work for the Department of Redundancy Department.
    3. Re:Question about DNS... by Christianfreak · · Score: 2, Informative

      Routers don't automatically send it unless the DNS records specify a wildcard for the domain. Slashdot seem to do this (try foo.slashdot.org)

      It can also be specified explicitly, when you do that bar.foo.org can point to a completely different server. I do it this way since I have my hosting for various things all spread out. I could still use a wildcard but I don't really see the need.

    4. Re:Question about DNS... by MoralHazard · · Score: 2, Informative

      DNS is a hierarchy of names:

      - The root DNS servers know the IP addresses of the DNS servers for .com, .org, .edu, etc
      - The .com DNS servers (there are many) know the IP addresses of the DNS servers for google.com, yahoo.com, citibank.com, etc.
      - The google.com DNS server knows the IP addresses for the hostnames "www.google.com", "news.google.com", etc.

      IF there are any third-level domains under google.com (like corporate.google.com, yomama.google.com, etc) then there are two possibilities:

      - the google.com DNS servers know the IP addresses of DNS servers for the subdomains (each subdomain has its own DNS servers), OR
      - the google.com DNS server itself also acts as a DNS server for the subdomains, and knows the IP addresses of the hostnames in the subdomains.

      Unless you have shitloads of third-level subdomains, and tons of hostnames in those subdomains, it's not generally necessary to run DNS servers for the third-level domains. You could do it, but why make the effort of setting up and maintaining seperate servers for them unless it's necessary to handle a load of traffic?

      In theory, you can continue the hierarchy down through as many level of subdomains as you want. I've never personally seen/heard of an independent server for anthing beyond the third level, but they could certainly exist somewhere.

      Once you get past the first-level DNS servers (.com, .org, etc), the responsibility of running the DNS servers is in the hands of the domain owner. So Google (the google.com owner) provides IP addresses of its DNS servers to the .com servers, and sets up DNS servers on those IP addresses on its own. In the case of smaller domains, most hosting companies will provide DNS as a part of the hosting package.

    5. Re:Question about DNS... by bogado · · Score: 1

      Unless you're in Brazil or Uk where domains usually have 4 levels (www.yourcompany.com.br or www.yourcompany.co.uk).

      --
      []'s Victor Bogado da Silva Lins

      ^[:wq

    6. Re:Question about DNS... by Mr.+Slippery · · Score: 1
      I thought the third level was essentially handled at the web server, is that not true?...Is that not the case?

      Not quite the case. foo.net and bar.foo.net are both legitimate hostnames, handled by your DNS server. In DNS ,you may have foo.net be the CNAME for bar.foo.net (i.e., they're the same IP).

      You could also have DNS wildcarding, where *.foo.net all map to the same IP.

      You might have your webserver set up such that it's doing name-based virtual hosting, but that's an application level thing. It's the DNS that makes hostnames.

      --
      Tom Swiss | the infamous tms | my blog
      You cannot wash away blood with blood
    7. Re:Question about DNS... by Big_Al_B · · Score: 1

      Routers don't automatically send it unless the DNS records specify a wildcard for the domain

      Excluding corner cases like nameservers defined in router configs to resolve names within tftp, telnet/ssh, ping, and traceroute commands issued by admins from the router's CLI, routers have *absolutely* nothing to do with DNS!

      All DNS transactions are handled between DNS clients and DNS servers, or between DNS servers and other DNS servers.

      If your computer sends a DNS query for "foo.bar.com" to its nameserver and it gets an A record entry back, then "foo" is a host. If it gets an NS record entry back, then "foo" is a third-level domain, and the query gets forwarded to the nameserver for the "foo.bar.com" zone. This process could repeat through more domain levels until an A record is found, or until you get an error from the last nameserver queried.

      If your computer sends a DNS query for "oof.bar.com" and there is no "oof" host, third-level domain, and no wildcard entry in "bar.com", you will get an error. If a wildcard exists for bar.com, your computer will receive the A record entry associated with "*" in bar.com's zone.

    8. Re:Question about DNS... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You're confused about several items.

      1) Routers don't do anything with domain names. They maintain routing tables and forward packets, primarily based on destination IP address. There are exceptions for policy routing, or "multilayer switching", but *none* based on domain names.

      2) There is no level "cut-off" at which DNS servers refer a DNS request to any other type of server. You can have a "five.level.domain.example.com" and define "A records" (hostname/address binding) within it, "w3.five.level.domain.example.com", or define NS records (name servers) for more subdomains like, "onemorethan.five.level.domain.example.com".

      You can do this for as many subdomain levels as the DNS protocol allows (which I've forgotten...) Only after a DNS server returns a valid "A record" will a browser, for example, connect to an HTTP server that's been referred to by name.

  19. Wrong title by presroi · · Score: 5, Insightful

    There is no "Loophole found in Internet Domain Naming" as the headline says. The loophole lies in the Policy for a certain TLD. It has nothing to do with internet domain naming.

  20. etc by XO · · Score: 2, Informative

    I think that the point is, they wanted the 2nd level to be a generic description of what type of professional service the business provides.

    *shrug*

    does it really matter?

    --
    "Champagne for my real friends - and real pain for my sham friends!" http://ericblade.postalboard.com/
  21. Isn't .com enough? One domain .. by RedLaggedTeut · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I like your plan to have more top level domains, but it is ultimately pointless to have more, since trademarks make it hard to register similar domains under different toplevels anyway.

    Therefore, .com is enough, although I admit it is nice to have separate TLDs for nations and non-profits.

    One domain to rule them
    One domain to bind them
    One domain to bring them all
    And in the darkness find them

    --
    I'm still trying to figure out what people mean by 'social skills' here.
    1. Re:Isn't .com enough? One domain .. by ites · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Indeed, .com would be enough since trademarks mean anyone with a .com will try to get .net and .org as well.

      So, if everyone was under .com, you could just remove .com and get the same result - more or less what I am proposing.

      The current system just translates into lots and lots of registration fees.

      Take any business that operates in many countries. It is ridiculous for it to have to get domain names businessname.countryname. No-one wants to categorise companies or organisations per country.

      What it should be able to do is get countryname.businessname. Thus, we'd see names like "uk.itunes' instead of 'itunes.co.uk' (which incidentally was snapped up by a bright young thing before Apple could get it).

      The concept of national domains is anarchaic, and irrelevant. It's a totally useless concept and every popular country domain is one that is abused - e.g. .tv, .to, etc.

      Trademarks are entirely compatible with a freer scheme. Imagine two companies share the same name but operate in different markets. Easy - if you have a trademark, you are entitled to request a 2nd-level domain matching your name. I.e. two businesses with the same name, in different sectors, can share a TLD, with one or other acting as registrar for the other. The ICANN can be kept for arbitrage.

      We'd see the end of cyberquatting, stupid disputes, and fat fees for registrars just because one has to register an endless list of domains just to get adequate protection for a trademarked name.

      --
      Sig for sale or rent. One previous user. Inquire within.
    2. Re:Isn't .com enough? One domain .. by pecko666 · · Score: 1

      The concept of national domains is anarchaic, and irrelevant. It's a totally useless concept ..
      This is maybe valid in english speaking countries, but there are MANY countries where people preffer national domains, because they know that they will understand what is on that site (not everyone in the world speak english). If it is useles, then why there are national versions of such sites as Google or Hotmail ?? Did you realize that there is not only english language?

    3. Re:Isn't .com enough? One domain .. by jizmonkey · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Dude, you don't understand trademarks very well. If you look at say the corporate charter filings at the Sec. of State for California you will see dozens of companies with very similar names no matter what you put in. Multiply that by 50 states, then across the world. All of them might be entitled to a particular domain name. A trademark doesn't mean that you own a sequence of letters.

      Rather than having convoluted and arbitrary names, it's better to have domain names which map to the company which is most relevant to the consumer. Someone in Belgium can easily remember company.be, likewise company.co.jp in Japan. There are very few worldwide companies like Amazon and General Motors, and even they like to customize their web sites for the local markets. Amazon.co.jp is a totally different web site than Amazon.co.uk.

      In my opinion, pretty much none of the long TLDs are worth having; all they do is cause artificial pressure on artificially scarce real estate. Perhaps a few like .org or .int are - international organizations like the Red Cross and Amnesty International don't really have a presence in any one country. But it's lunacy to have that .org TLD open for any Tom Dick or Harry's vanity site.

      Maybe if .com had used registration restrictions like .co.jp it wouldn't be so polluted. But given worldwide differences in corporate law, it would make just as much sense to not have .com in the first place, to let each country manage its own TLD, like I already said.

      --
      With great power comes great fan noise.
    4. Re:Isn't .com enough? One domain .. by ites · · Score: 2, Informative

      Well, personally I'm tri-lingual (English, Dutch, French), but if I want Google in French, I go to google.com and then click "French". What I will never do is visit google.fr.

      I dislike and boycott sites that force a language choice on me - e.g. hotels.com, which since I'm in Belgium, forces me to choose either Dutch or French. So I go to the .co.uk page and get English, and pay in UKP. Stupid, stupid.

      Country domains are fine in countries with one non-English language. But that's a subset of the world. And it's far better to use the browser settings to choose the language for a user. If my desktop language is French, probably I want to surf in French too. But not because I go to a .be or .fr site, for crying out loud!

      --
      Sig for sale or rent. One previous user. Inquire within.
    5. Re:Isn't .com enough? One domain .. by ken+kenobi · · Score: 1

      The concept of national domains is anarchaic, and irrelevant. It is a perfectly cromulent concept.

    6. Re:Isn't .com enough? One domain .. by mechsoph · · Score: 1

      Not true. Trade marks are only valid within an industry. Consider Remy, which makes Cognac, and Remy, which makes starter motors and alternators. Even within .com then, there are name collisions. Ideally, .com should be separated based on industry.

      Incidentally, the two companies were founded by the same family once upon a time.

    7. Re:Isn't .com enough? One domain .. by Secret+Agent+X23 · · Score: 1
      I like your plan to have more top level domains, but it is ultimately pointless to have more, since trademarks make it hard to register similar domains under different toplevels anyway.

      Since the article talks about .pro domains, that makes sense in this context. But overall, business isn't the only reason for registering a domain name. I registered my last name as a .net for personal use. I have no reason to care if someone else registers the name under a different TLD.

    8. Re:Isn't .com enough? One domain .. by Shalda · · Score: 1

      If .com were all that's needed, why not do away with it entirely? That would open up the entire top level domains, now wouldn't it? Let's take this a step further. How about we completely open up the TLDs. How about we also make them expensive enough to discourage the average guy from registering one. Lets say, $100,000/year. This money can be used to fund the root servers. This would also take a lot of pressure off the root servers since they no longer need to host the entire .COM namespace, they only need to know a couple thousand TLDs. Each TLD would be responsible for maintaining their own root for that domain. Sure, we'd see things like .IBM and .Microsoft. We'd probably also see things like .beer and .pr0n. Probably even a few cases of .IHaveLotsOfMoneyAndAintAfridToSpendIt. We'd probably also see things like .SafeForKids and .Jewish and even .RepublicanParty. And I'm fine with that. We'll have every TLD that's worth $100k/year, but since this might actually work and make sense, it'll never happen.

    9. Re:Isn't .com enough? One domain .. by Tadu · · Score: 2, Informative
      The concept of national domains is anarchaic, and irrelevant. It's a totally useless concept and every popular country domain is one that is abused - e.g. .tv, .to, etc.
      Dude, .de is one of the biggest TLD at all - it is approximately as big as .org and .net combined. And no, it's not abused. In fact, I expect from a German company to be reachable under company.de if they want to be taken seriously.
    10. Re:Isn't .com enough? One domain .. by ites · · Score: 1

      I'm unsure what you mean by the "size" of a TLD. Number of domains? Number of people surfing in Germany?

      When we had a lot of downloads of our free softare, something like 20% came from .de.

      But I don't think this necessarily means that the domain extension .de is the cause - it's surely more to do with the size of the German population and the fact that all German ISPs have a .de domain.

      I've nothing against national domains. Fine, if this matches a specific sense of identity. Like the alt.de. newsgroup hierarchy. Excellent.

      But this is simply not a suitable model for the rest of the world. Why should I, running an international company from Brussels, be forced to choose between .be and .com, neither suitable for what I want, which is a host of services and names under a single, well-protected, name. .de is huge, I'm sure, but it's hardly a vindication of the current TLD policy.

      --
      Sig for sale or rent. One previous user. Inquire within.
    11. Re:Isn't .com enough? One domain .. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      WTF? Country domains aren't there to resolve your language preference. They're there so that, .e.g. T&T Supermarkets in Canada can register tandt.ca without fear of being sued by T&T Weapons and Explosives in USA.

    12. Re:Isn't .com enough? One domain .. by Tadu · · Score: 1
      I'm unsure what you mean by the "size" of a TLD. Number of domains?
      Yes (what else could it be?).
      But I don't think this necessarily means that the domain extension .de is the cause - it's surely more to do with the size of the German population and the fact that all German ISPs have a .de domain.
      It's certainly nothing to do with population - the USoA have a huge population as well, yet .us is virtually unused. The fact that all ISPs might have a .de domain is also not the cause - it's an effect. Which is that .de is a well-established, respectable TLD due to sensible registration rules and prices.
      I've nothing against national domains. [...] But this is simply not a suitable model for the rest of the world. Why should I, running an international company from Brussels, be forced to choose between .be and .com, neither suitable for what I want, which is a host of services and names under a single, well-protected, name.
      Are you an company with dependencies in other countries? Go for .com. Are you a Belgian company, organization, private person? Go for .be. And there'll also be .eu. And - you can go for all three of them! So where's your problem?
      .de is huge, I'm sure, but it's hardly a vindication of the current TLD policy.
      Well, .de is essentially an example of a national TLD done right (and .tv is one of a TLD done horribly wrong). Essentially, geographic TLDs are the way to go. .com, .net, .org are pretty much dysfunctional - simply because everyone can register domains there. Of course, the broken rules for .us were the reason for that...
  22. I prefer law to vaguries by Magickcat · · Score: 1

    "Spirit of the Internet" be damned. What business people need are laws and contracts.

    No need to get all mushy if their legal department dropped the ball.

    --

    Si tacuisses philosophus mansisses. If you had kept quiet, you would have remained a philosopher.

  23. The purpose of all the new TLDs by wowbagger · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The purpose of all the new TLDs is "To allow domain registrars to make more money."

    That is why every little movie simply must have its own .com domain, rather than having a virtual directory under the domain of the publisher - e.g. paramount.com/drecky_summer_movie/

    That is why Joe's garage on the corner down the street must have JoesGarage.com, or at least JoesGarageAtFifthAndMain.com, rather than joesgarage.ict.ks.us.

    Domains get cheaper the further down the heirarchy they get - domain registrars cannot charge as much for *.lawyers.com as they can for *.com.

    Unlike physical items like land or gold, new TLDs can be created ad infinitum, so the registrars "figger" (they don't "figure" or "reason" or "think" - that is beyond them) they can get ICANN to keep creating new TLDs and they can continue to make the same amount of money forever.

    Of course, that has worked out so spectactularly well in the case of .biz - after all, I know that when I see a .biz domain I feel great trust for the domain holder, as we all know that .biz mean business, and that anybody with a .biz must therefor be trustworthy!

    .
    .
    .
    .

    Excuse me, I had to replace the sarcasm fuse in my keyboard.

    1. Re:The purpose of all the new TLDs by SamSim · · Score: 1
      Unlike physical items like land or gold, new TLDs can be created ad infinitum

      Actually, you can do this with money. They tried it once. It was called hyperinflation.

    2. Re:The purpose of all the new TLDs by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The biggest problems with domain names and URLs is this: people don't understand all this hierarchy shit, and computer geeks don't understand that people don't understand. To you and me www.universal.com/crap_movie/ reads almost like a sentence, but to the average user it looks like a single name in some foreign language. The average user has a hard time already understanding that most of the time you can skip the 'www' part of the domain, or replace it with something else. They don't understand the hierarchical nature of domain names.

      Hierarchy comes naturally to geeks but is foreign to the rest of the people. There is a reason the average user puts every friggin thing on the desktop and not in ~/my_docs/categoryx/subcategory1/etc/xxx. And for the same reason, the average user can only remember www.xxx.com with nothing before and nothing after.

    3. Re:The purpose of all the new TLDs by Intron · · Score: 1

      Its also kind of cool to create your own top-level domain. If you use bind, set up authoritative zones for root and your own zone, delegate all of the other tlds to the real servers, point your name resolution to the new server and you can have .mike (within your own LAN, anyway). Amaze your friends!

      --
      Intron: the portion of DNA which expresses nothing useful.
    4. Re:The purpose of all the new TLDs by Secret+Agent+X23 · · Score: 1
      That is why every little movie simply must have its own .com domain, rather than having a virtual directory under the domain of the publisher - e.g. paramount.com/drecky_summer_movie/

      The problem here is that if people type the URL in (as opposed to following a link) they have to know that Paramount is the studio. That's the sort of thing that I'm not likely to remember because I don't give a rat's ass. Of coure, that's just me, and maybe I'm not typical, but I'm sure I'm not the only one.

      Also, assuming someone remembers Paramount, they still have to remember how to spell it.

    5. Re:The purpose of all the new TLDs by wowbagger · · Score: 1

      No, they will do what they do already - they will type the movie name into [google|yahoo|MSN] and be taken to the site by the search engine.

  24. Well by Cyn · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The .pro domain was specifically stated to be created for 'professionals' - doctors, lawyers - basically jobs you would have recognized as professionals in 1950, it's not just ANY professional that could get a .pro!

    The problem is they're not doing any checking, they're just opening up the .pro for anyone who has the cash. Personally I wouldn't see that as a problem, but the fact of the matter is it was originally intended to be established, checked, professionals.

    I suppose the real point was to say "these people have been checked and have shown they are professional, so you can trust them - at some level - with your information". Basically a free 'level of trust', similar to a SSL cert.

    The problem is, amongst other things, nobody would goddamned well know that. Joe schmoe is going to put more trust in law.com than law.pro - "what the hell is pro".

    Most people just go out there and get their .com - maybe the net and org - and are done with it. A few of the niche markets get their .tv for example (oh the irony), but that's recognizable - and they're pimping their URL at you constantly while you watch. I could understand a .law for lawyers and the likes, but .pro is just too generic.

    IMO - the concept has failed, and was a bad assumption to begin with. If you're going to be branching out more and more domains, trying to bring in the big bucks, make them really friggin specific so they're useful.

    --
    cyn, free software and *nix operating systems enthusiast.
    1. Re:Well by CharlieHedlin · · Score: 1

      It is hard enough getting people to understand the difference between .org, .com, .net, .gov, and .mil, the origional non country specific domain names.

      Domain names are confusing to the masses. The addtional top levels are only making it more confusing. How many companies find a domain name, and register it in as many top levels as they think are relevent? Most? Certainly seems to support the theory that this is just for the registrars.

      When I was in the 9th grade (1993, and the Internet existed but was still largely accedemic, dailup modems peaked at 14.4kbps) I had a computer teacher say that we didn't need the .us on the domain names because the border routers would recognize we were in the US. I corrected him several months later after I setup my first DNS server.

    2. Re:Well by Morlark · · Score: 1

      .gov, .mil? How many non-US entities do you know under those TLDs? Now that's violating the spirit of the Internet.

      --
      Santa's suicide mission go!
  25. I propose a new TLD! by thenerdgod · · Score: 3, Insightful

    It shall simply be for .

    Yeah, you heard me... '.'

    So you can register whatever you want with my new tld... Say you want... hmmm "slashdotbitesass"
    that'd be your new tld!

    origin slashdotbitesass.
    10.10.10.10 A www

    woot!

    Seriously, why the hell even go through all the trouble for new TLDs. With the possible exception of the utility of .XXX, everyone assumes ".com"
    when you say a domain name. Even if you say ".net" they try .com

    It's sheer madness!

    1. Re:I propose a new TLD! by DJCF · · Score: 1

      Mum: What's your website? Me: djcf-dot-sytes-dot-net Mum: (writes) djcf.sytes.com Me: No, djcf.sytes.net Mum: djcf.sytes.net.com? Me: (screams)

    2. Re:I propose a new TLD! by DJCF · · Score: 1

      Oops, really should have previewed...

      Mum: What's your website?
      Me: djcf-dot-sytes-dot-net
      Mum: (writes) djcf.sytes.com
      Me: No, djcf.sytes.net
      Mum: djcf.sytes.net.com?
      Me: (screams)

  26. No one.. by Digital+Warfare · · Score: 0

    ..Needs to worry anyway, its $99 for one year ! No one is going to buy one..

    --
    "Sweet llamas of the Bahamas !"
  27. The Spirit of Internet Naming? by birdman17 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Too late to cry about that now. That went out the window the first time a non-commercial entity bought a .com domain...

  28. No kidding... by Phil+John · · Score: 2, Funny

    ...I was reviewing the server logs of one of our clients and people were searching in google/yahoo/msn/ask jeeves for the entire domain name, i.e. siteurl.com.

    Even when people remember domain names some of them obviously don't know what to do with them (a stupidly large number of people I've met don't know what to do with the address bar and go to pages they regularly visit by typing the name in google, which is set as their homepage (somehow)).

    --
    I am NaN
    1. Re:No kidding... by cuzality · · Score: 1

      ...I was reviewing the server logs of one of our clients and people were searching in google/yahoo/msn/ask jeeves for the entire domain name, i.e. siteurl.com.

      I have no doubt that what you're talking about happens (I've witnessed it too), but since I've been using Firefox, I occasionally copy or type a URL into the search bar (which gets submitted to Google most of the time) -- Ctrl-L is for the location bar, Ctrl-K is for the search bar, and sometimes I get 'em switched up.

    2. Re:No kidding... by Ken+D · · Score: 1

      What's wrong with searching for a domain?

      I get some thirdparty trying to set a cookie, I want to know what people say about them, I don't necessarily want to visit them.

  29. The cost? by jacobcaz · · Score: 2, Interesting
    Why is a xxx.yyy.pro name worth $345 per year ($595 for 2 years)?

    Where is the value over a .com? I say, more power to them if they can convince "professional" organizations to pony up the cash.

    I see that some sites offering .pro domains mention an expensive vetting process to determine the authenticity of the registering party. I have to ask, "why?" Where is the value to the end user or to the registering party?

    There certianly isn't any value for me (as a professional or as a user) and I imagine these "rules" will be relaxed as some point where .pro will be just another .info or .biz - a TLD I never bother to check for availability when I register a domain.

  30. Re:Timestamp on the article by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    IANAL but I think your post goes against articles (2) and (3) (subsections IV) of the anti-"I am not a loser but I'm going to post my rant anyhow" protection clause of the Slashdot user covenant.

  31. Re:you mean dns has problems? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I was just surprised to see "violate the spirit" and ICANN in the same story.

  32. degrees, hello? by 192939495969798999 · · Score: 2, Interesting

    The only TLD that even makes sense to add at this point is to add .phd, .mba,etc. for accredited university graduates. And where the hell is the .adult or .sex to pass off all the adult sites onto? You could just require that adult content has a .adult extension and then censor the hell out of .com, and no one could really complain, since free speech would still abound over at .adult, or whatever.

    --
    stuff |
    1. Re:degrees, hello? by Pants75 · · Score: 1

      Here here!

    2. Re:degrees, hello? by harl · · Score: 1

      This would be pointless. Just get a degree mill doctorate and get your .phd domain with it.

      --
      I find being offended by me offensive.
    3. Re:degrees, hello? by AndrewRUK · · Score: 1

      There are two obvious problems with having .adult (or whatever) as a madatory TLD for adult content: definitions, and enforcement.

      The definition: what is "adult content" (or whatever term you decide to use)? Is an educational site that includes images of genitalia (e.g. sex education) included? A discussion site where people discuss sexual matters? (And does it make a difference whether such discussions are regular or occasional?) What about Wikipedia's articles on human sexuality? Does your ISP's usenet server carry alt.sex groups? And, given the international nature of the Internet, how are you going to come up with a universal definition of "adult content"? One acceptable in the Netherlands is not going to be accepted in Iran, or by the "argh! we saw a nipple on teh television!" crowd in the USA.

      Which nicely leads on two the second problem, enforcement. Even if you could get a universally accepted definition, you would also need universal enforcement.

      Basically, if you actually think a madatory adult content TLD is workable, I have a bridge for sale. Once you've sent payment, my airbore porcine couriers will arrange delivery...

    4. Re:degrees, hello? by B1ackDragon · · Score: 2, Insightful

      I agree that that would be nearly impossible to enforce, and that there are always going to be people (probably a fairly high percentage in the porn industry) who will want to hide among the .coms. However, I also feel that opening up a .xxx TLD and doing little or no enforcement would still be a great boon to the internet.

      It would at least cut back on the amount of explicit material on the rest of the web, browser filters could take care of .xxx if people don't want it, and I am sure there would be a lot (or at least some) site owners who would voluntarily move to the new TLD.

      Not to mention, it would be easier and more convenient to surf porn. Unfortunately, I doubt this will actually happen as such a plan would force people to publicly accept that porn has a legitimate place in society.

      --
      The snow doesn't give a soft white damn whom it touches. -- ee cummings
    5. Re:degrees, hello? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That only solves part of the problem. A .phd and .mba TLD might resolve a clash between Dr. John West in Florida and CEO John West in Japan, but what about Dr. John West in California? Why shouldn't he get the john-west.phd domain?

      What you really need is a hierarchical system of the form name.type.location, with some way of setting your computer to a specific .location so you can skip that part for local sites.

  33. Fawlty pr0n by cuzality · · Score: 1

    Basil: "Don't mention the war. I mentioned it once, but I think I got away with it. So it's all forgotten now and let's hear no more about it. So that's two egg mayonnaise, a prawn Goebbels, a Herman Goering and four Colditz salads....no, wait a minute...I got confused because everyone keeps mentioning the war."

    German: "Will you stop mentioning the war?"

    Basil: " You started it."

    German: " We did not start it."

    Basil: " Yes you did, you invaded Poland..."

  34. Comment removed by account_deleted · · Score: 1

    Comment removed based on user account deletion

  35. .scam by wingsofchai · · Score: 2, Funny

    I'm waiting for .scam to come out so I know who NOT to trust...I mean, we have .biz for businesses we "trust" and .pro now for certified "professionals"...

    --
    Reading at high threshold levels is group-think.
    1. Re:.scam by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You need to update your firewall to support RFC3514. http://rfc.net/rfc3514.html

  36. Isn't the 'sprit of internet naming'... by Andy_R · · Score: 4, Interesting

    ...simply "let's get rich quick"?

    I'll believe otherwise when .tv sites start being about the island of Tuvalu.

    Here in the uk, (where .co.uk is the normal domain for businesses) we've suffered years and years of the company that owns the (supposedly invalid according to ICANN's rules uk.com domain selling worthless 3rd level domains to people, who unsurprisingly find lots their traffic going to the 'co.uk' with the same name.

    99% of my spam comes from people who work for foo.uk.com (where foo is my company's domain) who sign up for junk and get their own address wrong. ICANN doesn't want to know about this flagrant abuse of the system, presumably because there is no financial gain to be had by closing down .uk.com

    --
    A pizza of radius z and thickness a has a volume of pi z z a
    1. Re:Isn't the 'sprit of internet naming'... by n6kuy · · Score: 1

      Hmmmm.. Seems to me there used to be a rule forbidding second level domains being the same as any TLD, but that's obviously gone by the wayside...

      For example, there's com.com, net.com, org.com, etc...

      --
      If you disagree with me on social issues, then it's pretty clear that you are a narrow-minded bigot.
    2. Re:Isn't the 'sprit of internet naming'... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      ...as well as com.com.com.com.com
      Where will the madness end?

  37. Comment removed by account_deleted · · Score: 1

    Comment removed based on user account deletion

  38. But what if you're a professional spammer? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    And how do you proove it?

    1. Re:But what if you're a professional spammer? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Just send in 1 million domain applications, of course.

  39. ICANN sucks, and who wants a .pro domain anyway? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    ICANN sucks, and who wants a .pro domain anyway?

  40. Poor island nations by Mr.+Underbridge · · Score: 1
    I'll believe otherwise when .tv sites start being about the island of Tuvalu.

    Yeah! And when .cx sites start being about Christmas Island!

    Of course if those sites are about Christmas Island, I can tell you I'm never going there. One hell of a hazing ritual for the new guy...

  41. software engineers? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Surely that would be ...

    soft.pro (n)

    and the numerous jokes that would entail.

    Then again hardware (proper) engineers would be...

    hard.pro (n)

    so I shouldn't complain ;)

  42. Professionalism by spectre_240sx · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The reason Joe's Garage needs www.joesgarage.com rather than joesgarage.ict.ks.us is because it seems more professional. It creates an illusion of size to the people that don't fully understand the way the system works; ie bob smith who is looking to have his car serviced.

    In the early days of the web, most of the websites worth looking at had a .com TLD and were fairly large and I think that idea has stayed with us until now.

    1. Re: Professionalism by Anonymous+Luddite · · Score: 1

      >> www.joesgarage.com rather than joesgarage.ict.ks.us is because it seems more professional.

      Not just that - You'll pick up more type in trafic with a dot-com. In fact, many browsers helpfully add the ".com" if you type in a partial URI. - just type "ebay" into your address bar and hit enter. -> bet you go to http://www.ebay.com.

      Unlessyou just can't get a decent dotcom name related to your business, I think it's the way to go...

    2. Re: Professionalism by starwed · · Score: 1

      Well, firefox takes you to ebay, but it is by means of Googles "I feel Lucky" search, rather than just appending a .com.

    3. Re: Professionalism by Vellmont · · Score: 1

      No, joesgarage.ict.ks.us is just too hard to remember. I doubt many people care much about what the actual name is, but they do have to remember the name at least once for it to be at all usefull.

      --
      AccountKiller
    4. Re: Professionalism by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The real reason is this: Joe's garage's phone number is 650-555-1111 and not 2-42-31-650-555-1111 ext 2452. People want their domain name to be as accessible as their phone number, and justifiably so.

    5. Re: Professionalism by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Well, as someone who was too young to be using the internet back then (and not all that many people were, by today's standards), I don't think it's that.

      It's just now that everyone has theircompany.com, it would look strange to use theircompany.ict.ks.us - as though they could not afford a .com, or were only a part of ict.ks.us, etc etc. It just looks *wrong*. I would raise eyebrows at anyone who did that.

    6. Re: Professionalism by compm375 · · Score: 1

      Opera and Lynx append the .com.

  43. loophole my ass by jbltgz · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I wouldn't call this a loophole. ICANN is in the business of generating revenue. If they stop these guys from letting them register domains then they're just stepping on their own airhose.

  44. .phd & .mba - why does that make sense? by Danuvius · · Score: 1
    The only TLD that even makes sense to add at this point is to add .phd, .mba,etc. for accredited university graduates.
    Why do you feel that makes sense? I don't mean to be argumentative, but am seriously curious. IT is probably *the* field where degrees should matter least. So I thought it strange to read this suggestion on slashdot.
    --
    Akarsz Magyar Gentoo fórumot? Akkor
  45. ICANN wrong by CarpetShark · · Score: 1

    Well, yes, proper restrictions on domains would be good. But... you can buy a domain as long as you already own one? What kind of policy is that? Seriously. The point is to keep domains from being abused, not to limit their use to people who have already bought one.

    I can't imagine any reason for such a rule except to double the sales of .pro domains because people will have to buy a third-level domain first.

    1. Re:ICANN wrong by GreyPoopon · · Score: 1
      The point is to keep domains from being abused, not to limit their use to people who have already bought one.

      Yes, but look at what is happening here. Let's say my name is "Arthur Walling" and that I'm an lawyer. I purchase the domain name, "authurwalling.law.pro" and use that to do business. Then, my arch rival, "Jonathan Seymour," who already owns "jonathanseymour.law.pro" finds out he can pull a fast one and purchases "arthurwalling.pro" so that he can usurp business from me. This is what ICANN is trying to prevent. Although there are some other laws that kick in here, it's a whole lot cheaper to both me and the public if they aren't allowed to pull this stunt in the first place. I rarely agree with ICANN, but I must hesitantly do so this time. BTW, did I choose good lawyer names? ;)

      --

      GreyPoopon
      --
      Why is it I can write insightful comments but can't come up with a clever signature?

  46. .geek would be more useful than .pro by rewinn · · Score: 1

    An insanely arcane registration methodology would make .geek TLD membership self-validating and highly trustworthy (...although not necessarily useful...)

    1. Re:.geek would be more useful than .pro by NaDrew · · Score: 1
      An insanely arcane registration methodology would make .geek TLD membership self-validating and highly trustworthy (...although not necessarily useful...)
      I like it. If you can swing a dead chicken (and presumably post to a.t-s.r or a.s.r), you can have your own .geek domain!
      --
      Vista:XPSP2::ME:98SE
  47. Completely true!!! by cfalcon · · Score: 1

    Yesterday I arrived home and my internet was down (Comcast). It was obviously a DNS problem (so sayeth TCP dump).

    First step: Need to call company.

    216.239.57.99
    Google for "Comcast help number" and assorted queries, until it comes up.

    Second step: Call Comcast. They have a major DNS outage, as you are already aware. They have no solution yet.

    Third step: Google for how to specify your DNS in Linux.

    Fourth step: Google for alternate DNSes.

    Fifth step: Do as Google demands.

    Bang! Full intarweb functionality. All from one IP address. Memorize it, it's worth the neurons!

    1. Re:Completely true!!! by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      Personally, I can remember 1-800-COMCAST. And if I can't, I have it programmed into my mobile. (It goes down often enough to where I need it on speed-dial.)

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
  48. Are they that craptastic? by cfalcon · · Score: 1

    I've only had cable service for a couple months, so I've literally never called the number before. When it works, it's the best connection I've ever had (counting college).

    1. Re:Are they that craptastic? by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      That's been my experience too. They bumped the speed up AGAIN past 4 Mbps down and 384kbps up, I think the downstream is now closer to 6 Mbps, it's at LEAST 5. Really low latency, too.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
  49. Good! Screw .pro, and screw ICANN by SpacePunk · · Score: 1

    "Lawyers, accountants, doctors and engineers in the United States, Canada, Germany and the United Kingdom could get such names if they submitted proof of their professions. So a law firm called Smith Jones could get "smithjones.law.pro.""

    Elitist sacks of shit. There are a lot more 'professions' than "Lawyers, accountants, doctors and engineers." Those groups just got pissy because they had to share .com, .net, and .org with all us peons on the net. Fuck em.

  50. Cf. Milka vs Milka Couture by RedLaggedTeut · · Score: 1

    Not true. Trade marks are only valid within an industry. Consider Remy, which makes Cognac, and Remy, which makes starter motors and alternators. Even within .com then, there are name collisions. Ideally, .com should be separated based on industry.

    Yes, that is the theory, and it would make sense to proceed like this, but when there is one party owning a well-established and know trademark, and the other party is smaller, the courts will decide in favor of the big party(on the issue of the domainname) regardless of whether the big party has failed to register the trademark for the service or product the smaller party is offering, and regardless of the smaller party registering the domain first. See Milka versus Milka Couture in France.
    --
    I'm still trying to figure out what people mean by 'social skills' here.
  51. At 99 bucks per year ... by Harry+Balls · · Score: 1

    ...(discounts apply for multi-year signups), I'd only sign up for one of these if someone was pointing a gun at my head. And that's just the second level .pro domains. The third level .xyz.pro domains, for instance, .eng.pro, are a cool $199 per year...

  52. Re:Good! Screw .pro, and screw ICANN by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Well, they have professional organizations that kick members out for violations of that organization's ethical conduct rules. When bridges fall down, when doctors cut the arm off the wrong patient, when lawyers ... well there are exceptions, when accountants underpay your taxes, one of the professionals loses their license. That's just not worth a quick, short-term sleazy gain on their part (or so the theory goes).

    How many programmers do you know who never take shortcuts? That's why they aren't considered professionals. That's why people don't (or shouldn't) rely on them. Same for most other professions. Ph.D. is not a professional title, it's a degree.

  53. Why be forced to choose? by DABANSHEE · · Score: 1

    Surelly many Belgium companies have both .com & .be sites.

    www.companyname.be will be the national/local site relivent to all those doing business with the company in Belgium. As such it will be a bilingual Dutch/French site. www.company.com will be the international corporate site & will be in English. It will be laid out & have information relivent to it's international business & foreign investors, etc. Of course both sites will crosslink. For eample until the .be site has got arround to being tr-lingual & having it's own English option, clicking a Union Jack flag style English language icon will land one on the .com site, just as clicking on the "international Headquarters" or "international Corporate Site" link (or whatever) will land one on their .com site too.

  54. Re:Good! Screw .pro, and screw ICANN by SpacePunk · · Score: 1

    You missed the point, but let's address yours...

    Those 'professional organizations' only kick out members that have committed violations so flagrant that those violations would bring ill repute on the organization. They do nothing to address ambulance chasers or pill pushers, for example.

    Just face it, to them you are just a peon. One of the little people. Of little note.

  55. Here's another TLD that makes sense by TheLink · · Score: 1

    .here

    You know about 192.168.x.x, 10.x.x.x, 172.16.x.x and 172.17.x.x private IPs?

    I've been trying to get ICANN to officially reserve a TLD for _free_ _private_ use.

    e.g. *.here

    Then everyone who owns a network gets to define names in .here. like airconditioner.here. what.here who.here where.here or just plain here.

    IMO that'll be more useful than stupid stuff like info and biz. Which are just Yet Another .Com. TLD.

    Then it'll be easier to have defacto standards for accessing stuff in various _locations_ e.g. go to a cafe with a controllable jukebox, http://jukebox.here/ and you'd be able to select songs.

    http://here/ and you could learn more about the free wireless access you are using and the terms and conditions (sure you can do part of that by nocatauth but then people have to remember your URL or how to return to it after they clicked OK to browse), whereas http://here/ is simpler.

    See internet-draft:
    http://www.watersprings.org/pub/id/draft-yeoh-tldh ere-01.txt

    Alternate: http://www.circleid.com/print/540_0_1_0/

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