Re: TLDs, Registries, ISO & $$

[pb@fasterix.freenix.fr (Pierre Beyssac)]

According to Amadeu Abril i Abril:
> -multiple registries better than one (and I have nothing special against
> InterNIC/NSF/NSI; you Americans should try the so-called *national*
> NICs). This also implies as many iTLDs as the *system* could
> (reasonably) manage.
> -shared registries better than exclusive registries (if possible from
> the technical and business points of view)
> 
> I assume that the IAHC is trying to devise the best policies in order to
> cope with TLDs and registries, so I think there is no reason to exlude
> the *national* registries managing the two letter TLDs delegated by IANA
> following the ISO 1366 list.

As you point out, national registries are and will stay with
a monopoly on their domain.

However, I don't think that's a big problem in terms of competition.

There's already a de-facto competition between the Internic and
the national registries. .COM and other international TLDs (even since
the Internic bills for them) are far more attractive, cheaper, and easier
to register in than national TLDs, at least in most of Europe.
The mess in .COM especially since last year is not surprising:
that's more or less when European NICs started to bill domains.

Actually I see no incentive for anybody to register in a national
registry, except for the debatable satisfaction of having a
domain name under your contry's TLD. If national registries
can sell their "vanity-plate" ISO-code TLD at any price and make a
living out of it, why not? As long as nobody is forced to use a national
registry and there are cheaper alternatives, I really don't think that's
a big problem.

On a related note, I find the frequent habit of reserving company.com +
company.fr + company.uk + company.de + ... quite absurd, and IMHO it
shouldn't be a primary goal to make life too cheap for those who want
25 domains when they need only one.
-- 
Pierre Beyssac      pb@fasterix.frmug.fr.net pb@fasterix.freenix.fr
{Free,Net,Open}BSD, Linux : il y a moins bien, mais c'est plus cher
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