100% Government Backed TLDs

[Jim Fleming <JimFleming@doorstep.unety.net>]

On Sunday, May 03, 1998 7:50 PM, Adam Todd[SMTP:at@AH.NET] wrote:
@Looks like the Domain Policy list is warming up for news on the Green Paper
@results.
@

Actually, I think that things are getting quiet and falling into place.

People close to the new IANA Inc. formation report that there will
NOT likely be any significant number of new TLDs added. Supposedly
the IAHC/CORE group will be given the go ahead to compete with
NSI. They will be required to have a Registrar/Registry situation that
is similar to the WorldNIC/InterNIC transition that is taking place under
the supervision of the U.S. Government. The rumor is that CORE will
start with THREE TLDs, just like NSI.

Apparently, government officials from Australia and Europe were able
to convince the U.S. Government that they should be involved at the
registry level. Since they will need time to get up to speed, the approach
of giving only CORE the go ahead is a compromise. Essentially, the
ISOC is given the status of being a psuedo government in this plan.

After CORE gets rolling, and NSI continues to roll, people expect to
see other governments making proposals to the IANA Inc. to have THREE
TLDs added via a registry they back. This will provide the government-backed
stability that some people feel is needed to protect consumers. It will also
allow countries to break from the shackles of the ISO TLDs that they may
not desire.

As this evolves, it appears that ALL TLDs at the registry-level (not registrar)
will end up with some government supervision. .COM, .NET, and .ORG will
be U.S. supervised. The CORE registry will be supervised by Switzerland
unless CORE moves to the U.S. following their upcoming May 14th meeting.
All of the Country Code TLDs will be supervised by the countries involved,
or so they say.

In order for companies to get the new IANA Inc. to add new TLDs, this
plan would require them to find a "country" (or government) to escort them
and back their registries. If this plan comes to pass, this will likely cause
small countries to come into the international spot-light as they are
lobbied to support THREE new TLDs from some registry confederation
that is willing to turn the TLDs over to the country for trusteeship as they
proceed to develop the registrar level of operations.

This plan results in the real money being made at the registrar level
with "Internet taxes" going to the registry level and probably to the country
that is backing the three-TLD confederation. Because of the size and
dominance of the United States, it will be unlikely that any companies
will be able to lobby them to add any more TLDs. They will be able to
live off of the .COM, .NET, .ORG, .US, .MIL, and .GOV for a long time.

This plan helps to take much of the pressure off of the proposed IANA Inc.
Rather than deal with companies who bring attorneys, the IANA can
deal with countries who bring ambassadors. The IANA has not had
a good track-record for dealing with companies. Because of the DOD
roots of the IANA, it should be more comfortable dealing with governments.

This plan helps to encourage the wide-spread clean-up of the two-letter
country code registries. There will likely be a surge in education as
companies begin to educate the various governments about the
Registry Industry in hopes of getting a government endorsement for
their proposed TLDs. Rather than move the Internet further from government
control, it will help to place it in the international government's hands
more tightly.

This placement is likely to help balance creativity and prudence in
the selection of the TLDs. It is unlikely that a recognized government
will come to apply for controversial TLDs. Their citizens would likely
object. Despite the commercial value of a .XXX or .SEX, it is unlikely
that these will appear. This frees the IANA Inc. from having to deal
with the potential censorship issues.

This plan can be best described as "the Postage Stamp Plan".
Countries currently design and print colorful and creative postage
stamps, which could be compared to TLDs. They do not print
stamps that would be considered objectional. Instead, stamps
tend to reflect cultural diversity but still maintain the official "look"
that goes with government-sanctioned designs.

If this plan comes to pass, it will likely signal a turning point for
the IPv4 Internet. The IPv4 Internet was built around the edges of
the "old-school" telecommunciations infrastructure. It leveraged
off it, but avoided being pulled into the massive beauracracy (and
cost) that goes with government control.

If the plan plays out as expected, the IPv4 Internet will likely become
a core collection of infrastructure that the average person can no
longer touch. If this occurs, the only solution is to start to build
around this core infrastructure. IPv8 was designed in anticipation
of this evolution. It appears that it will be needed sooner rather
than later, because apparently this plan will be moving forward
between now and September 1998.


-
Jim Fleming
Unir Corporation
IBC, Tortola, BVI

http://vi.caribnic.net