For no good reason. In fact, I'm surprised they chose to snip the cables instead of pull it up, or instead of lowering it onto a barge.
Actually, I know a guy who works for the Coast Guard in the Bay. Apparently the fact that the bug was hanging from the bridge was preventing shipping traffic from entering and leaving the Bay. Time is money, and someone decided that it would take to long to remove the thing nicely. It's not as if they had all the time in the world to deal with it.
And fair enough, in my view. It's like putting a bug on the runway at SFO. Auto traffic isn't the only, or even the most important, traffic.
...and for that reason the folks over at the OpenNIC have created an entire namespace in which only individuals are allowed to register domain names (no corporations) and in which trademark is explicitly rejected as a dispute-settlement criterion.
If you don't like ICANN, solutions exist. Vote with your resolver.
New.net arrives on the scene with venture funding and ignores pre-existing claims. They can expect no support from the alternative namespace communities.
Paul Ehrlich made a good point about this in a talk I saw once, years ago.
The human population grows exponentially. That means that once the earth is full (whatever that point may be) we need to find another earth within the next doubling interval (right now, 30 years). 30 years later, we need two more earths. In another 30 years, 4 more earths.
Pretty soon, we would need to find and colonize 100s of new earths every year.
This is obviously untenable. Zero or near-zero population growth is the only solution, and we may as well start now, before things get too ugly.
From the license of 1.2.12, upon which OpenSSH is based (according to the Newsforge article):
"As far as I am concerned, the code I have written for this software can be used freely for any purpose. Any derived versions of this software must be clearly marked as such, and if the derived work is incompatible with the protocol description in the RFC file, it must be called by a name other than 'ssh' or 'Secure Shell'."
This would pretty clearly seem to imply that as long as OpenSSH was creating a protocol-complaint product that they were welcome to use the name ssh. Otherwise it would have said something like "SSH is the trademark of SSHC, INC, and may not be used without our permission, period".
Unless I am missing something here, it would seem as if Ylonen pretty clearly authorized other compatible and derived products to use the name 'SSH'. And once that permission was granted, it can never - at least not if we want to 'do the right thing' - be taken back.
No way. The author released the code years ago under a license that pretty clearly allowed use of the name. You can't take something like that back. Once something is released to the world under a certain set of conditions, you can't take it back, no matter how much you might like to.
He gave the name away, and now he regrets having done so. Well, too bad. OpenSSH used the name with the entirely justifiable understanding that this was allowed. They took nothing that had not been offered. They built a brand of their own, which the original author now wants to destroy since it is becoming competitive.
Most of the OpenNIC registrants we have at the moment, in.oss (Open Source Software) for example, have not given up their com/net/org domains yet. Thus http://www.djiab.oss can still be found at http://www.djiab.org, but with a plug for OpenNIC at the bottom.
This is how I would recommend that most people do this. At the moment,.oss registrations are free. They will never be very expensive, since this is a user-owned and -operated TLD. Users would vote on any fees to be imposed strictly for administrative reasons. So if you are interested in supporting ICAAN's alternatives, simply get a domain in an alternate namespace, and then count hits to the new as opposed to the legacy domain. It would be possible to simply throw the switch once the new domsin accounted for some percentage (50? 75?) of visits to your site.
Doesn't cost a dime, and your're supporting a good cause. You don't have to give up your legacy domain names to use new ones. Use both.
OpenNIC already has a.oss TLD for open source-related material. Check it out at www.oss is you are using OpenDNS. Otherwise, go to the OpenNIC websie and find out how.
Absolutely. We call these zoning laws "TLD charters". The problem with most of the alternate roots (ORSC, and so on) is that they treat ALL TLDs as generic TLDs. The OpenNIC project is atempting to create an alternate root specifically for chartered TLDs. We believe that charters can never be enforced effectively by a commercial entity (they will always want to sell as many domain names as possible, charter be damned). But non-profit groups, such as those overseeing.mil,.edu and.gov have been very effective in this regard. (with a few odd exceptions like gop.gov).
Our solution is for the TLD to be owned and managed in a democratic fashion by domain registrants. We feel that domain registrants will have an interest in enforcing their charter. Over time, these community-policed namespaces will come to be more trusted and useful than the.com/.org/.net ghetto and similar uncontrolled namespaces. Kind of like moderated as opposed to unmoderated usenet groups.
We already operate several such TLDs, including.parody (charter is obvious) amd.oss (for open source software-related material). We also peer or are discussing peering the namespaces of other roots, including ICANN/NSI, ORSC, PacRoot, TINC and AlterNIC.
If you're really interested, become an OpenNIC member, register a domain name or propose a new TLD, or help out however you like.
This is exactly what we and other organizations are doing. Support the alternate roots. There are a number of them, with varying philosophies. I myself am a member of the OpenNIC. You might also like to check out TINC (The Internet Namespace Cooperative), ORSC (the Open Root Server Confederation), and PacRoot (the Pacific Root).
Really, though, there is something to protest in this election. Whatever you may think of ICANN, nobody should vote for the board-nominated candidates. Dyson and the board have stacked the field in favor of the sort of candidates they like. We should send them a message that this sort of ballot-stacking is unacceptable, and vote only for self-nominated candidates. In North America, that means Auerback, Simons or Tiller.
Slashdot Mirror
You want an expanded namespace? You can have one now. Join the OpenNIC, or another of the alternative DNS systems. It's really easy.
OpenNIC
ORSC
Quite whining and waiting for some damn megacorp to do something. Do it yourself!
Claim your namespace.
Actually, I know a guy who works for the Coast Guard in the Bay. Apparently the fact that the bug was hanging from the bridge was preventing shipping traffic from entering and leaving the Bay. Time is money, and someone decided that it would take to long to remove the thing nicely. It's not as if they had all the time in the world to deal with it.
And fair enough, in my view. It's like putting a bug on the runway at SFO. Auto traffic isn't the only, or even the most important, traffic.
Claim your namespace.
If you don't like ICANN, solutions exist. Vote with your resolver.
Claim your namespace.
- the OpenNIC
- ORSC
- PacRoot
and so on.New.net arrives on the scene with venture funding and ignores pre-existing claims. They can expect no support from the alternative namespace communities.
Claim your namespace.
Paul Ehrlich made a good point about this in a talk I saw once, years ago.
The human population grows exponentially. That means that once the earth is full (whatever that point may be) we need to find another earth within the next doubling interval (right now, 30 years). 30 years later, we need two more earths. In another 30 years, 4 more earths.
Pretty soon, we would need to find and colonize 100s of new earths every year.
This is obviously untenable. Zero or near-zero population growth is the only solution, and we may as well start now, before things get too ugly.
Claim your namespace.
"As far as I am concerned, the code I have written for this software can be used freely for any purpose. Any derived versions of this software must be clearly marked as such, and if the derived work is incompatible with the protocol description in the RFC file, it must be called by a name other than 'ssh' or 'Secure Shell'."
This would pretty clearly seem to imply that as long as OpenSSH was creating a protocol-complaint product that they were welcome to use the name ssh. Otherwise it would have said something like "SSH is the trademark of SSHC, INC, and may not be used without our permission, period".
Unless I am missing something here, it would seem as if Ylonen pretty clearly authorized other compatible and derived products to use the name 'SSH'. And once that permission was granted, it can never - at least not if we want to 'do the right thing' - be taken back.
Claim your namespace.
I vote for SeaSHell
---
Claim your namespace.
No way. The author released the code years ago under a license that pretty clearly allowed use of the name. You can't take something like that back. Once something is released to the world under a certain set of conditions, you can't take it back, no matter how much you might like to.
He gave the name away, and now he regrets having done so. Well, too bad. OpenSSH used the name with the entirely justifiable understanding that this was allowed. They took nothing that had not been offered. They built a brand of their own, which the original author now wants to destroy since it is becoming competitive.
That's dirty pool.
Claim your namespace.
Matt
Claim your namespace.
Just plain old TLC, baby...
Claim your namespace.
This is how I would recommend that most people do this. At the moment, .oss registrations are free. They will never be very expensive, since this is a user-owned and -operated TLD. Users would vote on any fees to be imposed strictly for administrative reasons. So if you are interested in supporting ICAAN's alternatives, simply get a domain in an alternate namespace, and then count hits to the new as opposed to the legacy domain. It would be possible to simply throw the switch once the new domsin accounted for some percentage (50? 75?) of visits to your site.
Doesn't cost a dime, and your're supporting a good cause. You don't have to give up your legacy domain names to use new ones. Use both.
-matt
Claim your namespace.
Claim your namespace.
Our solution is for the TLD to be owned and managed in a democratic fashion by domain registrants. We feel that domain registrants will have an interest in enforcing their charter. Over time, these community-policed namespaces will come to be more trusted and useful than the .com/.org/.net ghetto and similar uncontrolled namespaces. Kind of like moderated as opposed to unmoderated usenet groups.
We already operate several such TLDs, including .parody (charter is obvious) amd .oss (for open source software-related material). We also peer or are discussing peering the namespaces of other roots, including ICANN/NSI, ORSC, PacRoot, TINC and AlterNIC.
If you're really interested, become an OpenNIC member, register a domain name or propose a new TLD, or help out however you like.
Claim your namespace.
The Opennic URL should have been this.
Too much coffee....
Claim your namespace.
Claim your namespace.
Claim your namespace.
For more info, see ICANNnot.
Also, everyone should check out alternatives, like OpenNIC
Matt Bandy
Scientist
"Let my obsolescence blossom and propagate..."