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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."
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
.com is enough, although I admit it is nice to have separate TLDs for nations and non-profits.
Therefore,
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.
The purpose of all the new TLDs is "To allow domain registrars to make more money."
.com domain, rather than having a virtual directory under the domain of the publisher - e.g. paramount.com/drecky_summer_movie/
.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!
That is why every little movie simply must have its own
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
.
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Excuse me, I had to replace the sarcasm fuse in my keyboard.
www.eFax.com are spammers
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!
.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.
.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.
The problem is they're not doing any checking, they're just opening up the
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
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.
It shall simply be for .
.XXX, everyone assumes ".com" .com
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
when you say a domain name. Even if you say ".net" they try
It's sheer madness!
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*
Too late to cry about that now. That went out the window the first time a non-commercial entity bought a .com domain...
The regularity with which Google redoes their search algorithim suggest that for sites with less than first tier popularity, this will not happen.
IP addresses are for n00bs. REAL hackers memorize MAC addresses.
You won't get very far beyond your LAN with those.
Serge
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.
.com TLD and were fairly large and I think that idea has stayed with us until now.
In the early days of the web, most of the websites worth looking at had a
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.
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.
.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.
It would at least cut back on the amount of explicit material on the rest of the web, browser filters could take care of
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
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'.