[12513] in Commercialization & Privatization of the Internet
Re: About the creation of new 3-letter domain(s)
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (John C Klensin)
Fri May 20 02:02:02 1994
Date: Thu, 19 May 1994 18:45:24 -0400 (EDT)
From: "John C Klensin" <klensin@infoods.unu.edu>
Reply-To: klensin@infoods.unu.edu
To: sean@dsl.pitt.edu
Cc: com-priv@psi.com, namedroppers@rs.internic.net
In message Thu, 19 May 1994 12:09:55 -0400 (EDT),
Sean McLinden <sean@dsl.pitt.edu> writes:
> Since ANSI represents the authority of the US via the State Department, I
> think that I would approach this by applying to ANSI to be a registration
> authority for some domain, and once that has happened and been approved
> without challenge, no one could take that away.
Fortunately or unfortunately, ANSI does not such thing. ANSI is a private,
voluntary, organization. Its ties to ISO (another private, voluntary,
organization) are via its membership and place as the "US National Body".
It has the latter status because it has claimed it and all of the likely
contenders have quietly gone along (and because there is a lot of resistance
in this country to having the government assume that role).
The State Department does have a role wrt ITU, which is a treaty
organization. In theory, we could end up with two separate and conflicting
registration systems for organization names of MHS names in this country,
with each of them making separate delegations. The only thing that has
(partially) prevented that is good sense.
More important, registration of names with ANSI (the organization and MHS
ones they are now registering for example) mostly just guarantees that you
have registered the name. If someone challenges a name you have registered
(at *any* time) the ANSI procedures--when stripped of a lot of structure,
formal procedure, legalize, and fee structures--are very similar to IANA's:
they tell the parties involved to go settle it amongst themselves.
The only real differences between a registration-in-progress and one that is
completed and "yours" are:
-- In the in-progress case, if a protest or counterclaim comes up, you
don't get the name until things are settled. If the name is already
registered then _As far as ANSI is concerned_ you get to use the name
while you dicker. Of course, the opposing side's lawyers may have a
different view on that topic.
-- Whatever value or sanction you can convince a judge the ANSI
registration process has. Its inherent value is essentially zero
beyond going through a formal ritual to try to notify other claimants
and get them to do their protesting early and I don't think there is
any case law yet, but various people hope that registering will
provide at least the level of protection associated with "made an
honest mistake" rather than "did an evil deed intentionally".
--john
