The long-awaited green paper about the way forward for the internet’s domain name system (DNS) is due next week from the US government, according to most stories winging their way around the web at the moment. As it was originally due last November no doubt the government thinks a few more days doesn’t matter one way or the other. Although its contents are a closely-guarded secret, we have learned a few things that will probably be in the paper and, if confirmed, they are bound to upset most of the players, to one degree or another. According to what ComputerWire has heard, there is a proposal in the paper to limit the power of the Council of Registrars (CORE), the group of 88 registrars hoping to be able to register domains using seven new top-level domain (TLDs) names that are to be introduced into the internet’s root server network. It now looks as if CORE will be able to manage just one, or possibly two, TLDs to start with, and will have them integrated into the root. It will get ultimately five TLDs rather than seven.
That is going to be pretty difficult to split between 88 registrars and make it a viable business for them. Part of the reason for this move probably comes from the various meetings president Clinton’s internet advisor Ira Magaziner has had with large corporations interested in maintaining their hold on the domain names. They are worried that if seven new TLDs are introduced in one go, they will become susceptible to cyber- squatting – the practice of registering famous brand names with the new TLDs, for example, ibm.firm, or sears.shop. However, CORE and the Policy Oversight Committee (POC) that oversees its operation have tried to address that with its so- called Administrative Challenge Panels (ACPs) for resolving conflicts. One existing registrar that would come into conflict with one of the seven names CORE is looking to register told us this is pretty much what the green paper will say. CORE has also raised $880,000 from its members, of which $88,000 went to Arthur Andersen for coordinating the CORE registration process and surely some of that money will have to go back. Another move that will both upset and please a lot of people is a proposal for the Internet Assigned Number Authority (IANA) will retain its position as the ultimate authority over what domain names get introduced into the internet’s root server system. But IANA itself will change into a more broad-based organization, including private sector involvement. But the timetable for this power shift is up to two years, during which time the US government will provide ‘oversight,’ which, if true, would cause a great deal of disquiet among the wider internet community. As far as the existing exclusive registrar of .com, .net and .org, Network Solutions Inc (NSI) is concerned, the news looks like being both good and bad also. On the upside, it will no longer have to pay 30% of its proceeds into the infrastructure fund, thus reducing its costs by that amount. It will be able to retain the ability to register those three domain names, but will have to compete with other registrars. Thus NSI will have its roles as a registrar of TLDs and as a registry split so that other registrars can compete with NSI’s registrar business. This somewhat artificial split must give NSI a distinct advantage over its would-be competitors.
