Re: The view from my window

[Jeff Williams <jwkckid1@ix.netcom.com>]

Carl and all,

  Here!  Here! Carl.  I hope everyone was listening.  I cannot agree
more.

Regards,


Carl Oppedahl wrote:
> 
> At 03:55 PM 12/22/96 -0800, Gary Morrell wrote:
> 
> >I have watched the TLD debate for many months now. I have
> >been on three mailing lists. Up to this point, I have
> >remained fairly quiet, feeling that some of the more
> >vocal proponents that I sided with could sway the debate
> >and an outcome that I felt comfortable with. Sadly, such
> >was not the case.
> >
> >Firstly, I must ask, how was the IAHC formed? How did these
> >folks get chosen? Why wasn't there a "lottery" to be
> >included in this committee? The folks with the most at
> >stake, companies running new TLD registries, had absolutely
> >no representation at all in this process.
> 
> Sorry, but I disagree with you as to who has the most at stake.
> 
> The folks with the most at stake are domain name owners who have invested
> their time and sweat and money building businesses around their domain
> names.  In second place is the Internet community generally, the people who
> will or will not be well served by any of the proposed change to the domain
> name system.  People who are running in place, hoping to get a jump on
> everyone else when the starter pistol fires for opening up new registry
> opportunities or new top-level domains, those people are good to have
> around but their interests come after the interests of the Internet
> community generally or the interests of the owners of existing domain names.
> 
> I am sure that the people who hope to jump into the registration authority
> business and the top-level-domain business have studied the IAHC draft
> carefully and have gripes.  Of course they do.  Anything that delays their
> entry is, from their point of view, A Bad Thing.  Anything that keeps them
> from owning and controlling their own planned TLDs is, from their point of
> view, A Bad Thing.
> 
> But no matter how bad things look from the point of view of these eager
> people, I am sorry but what is more important is being very thoughtful,
> very deliberate, and keeping squarely in view the interests of the Internet
> community generally and the interests of those who have built existing
> businesses around existing domain names.
> 
> I believe the members of the IAHC have tried very hard to do exactly this.
> 
> Frankly, I believe that the members of the International Trademark
> Association Internet Subcommittee have tried very hard to do this also.
> (See their proposal at <http://plaza.interport.net/inta/intaprop.htm>.)
> 
> Let's consider what would happen if, starting tomorrow, the COM domain were
> eliminated.  Sounds crazy, but suppose we were to do that.  It would be an
> outrage!  It would be on the front page of every newspaper!  Every
> magazine, no matter what its subject matter, would put it on the front
> page.  Yes, right there on the newsstand, the Journal of Small Yappy Dogs
> would have a cover story, Internet Brought to its Knees!  That television
> news teaser that everyone jokes about, Internet Collapses, film at 11,
> would be a reality.
> 
> Well, think about it.  The decision to create COM, a decision made, what,
> eleven years ago?  That decision is the sort of decision that can't be
> undone later.  Once it was created, and a few people signed up, it was
> impossible to change.
> 
> And somebody is jumping up and down now, in December of 1996, saying that
> they have trademarked "SYD" as the top-level domain for small yappy dogs,
> and they even went to IANA a few months ago and got what they thought was a
> verbal promise that they would be the owner of the small-yappy-dog TLD, and
> by now they have hundreds of customers who have signed up for domain names
> in the SYD domain, and for months now they have been operating servers, and
> gosh-darn it the IAHC has failed to set a date certain, a date that can be
> counted on for worldwide recognition of the small yappy dog domain?
> 
> I apologize.  I know that all sorts of well-intentioned people have made
> all sorts of plans, and have drafted RFCs, and have tried as hard as they
> can to set up registration authorities in competition with NSI.  I must say
> I want very much for NSI to lose its present monopoly position, since it
> has proven itself to be incapable of considering the interests of the
> Internet community, and has proven itself only capable of setting terrible
> policies, and doing it only in secret.  If I were to describe all the
> things that NSI and its people have done that are bad for the Internet, and
> that have caused great harm to many members of the Internet community, and
> that have threatened innocent owners of domain names with destruction of
> their businesses ... I would have to go on so long that this email would
> require attachments.
> 
> But what I won't apologize for is my view that it is in the interests of
> the Internet to go very slowly, very deliberately, in any additions to the
> top-level domains.  And I feel that IAHC has tried to be thoughtful and
> deliberate on this exact topic.  A TLD, once created, can't be un-created.
> It is important not to be hasty.
> 
> Carl Oppedahl

-- 
Jeffrey A. Williams
DIR. Internet Network Eng/SR. Java Development Eng.
Information Eng. Group. 
Phone :972-447-1878
E-Mail jwkckid1@ix.netcom.com