________________________________________________________________________________ Wired News Is Dot-Biz Really a New Domain? by Declan McCullagh 2:00 a.m. Nov. 27, 2000 PST For Leah Gallegos, the recent news that companies might soon be able to buy dot-biz domains came as something of an anticlimax. Gallegos, who works for Atlantic Root Network, is happy to sell you a domain name with a "dot-biz" suffix. The current cost: A handy $6 a year. There is, of course, a catch. Only a minuscule portion of computers connected to the Internet are configured to recognize dot-biz names, and unless you're using one, you'll get one of those irksome can't-find-that-site errors. The 56-year-old Gallegos is part of a small but growing number of entrepreneurs who have been participating in alternative root systems, which serve as a substitute -- albeit a little-known one -- for the action by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN). Now that has changed. ICANN has approved seven additional suffixes, and one of them -- dot-biz -- appears poised to conflict with domain names already in use. Gallegos estimated that approximately 1,000 dot-biz names are in use. "ICANN should be recognizing this and over 100 other top-level domains and not allow duplication of those strings, whether it chooses to include them in the legacy root or not.... Causing a collision anywhere on the Internet is ethically wrong," Gallegos says. To the domain name digerati, this is an oft-discussed problem with a familiar name: Balkanization. On two different machines, the same domain name could lead to two different websites, depending on whether the computer is configured to point to the ICANN-approved server or to one that Gallegos supports. Think of it as the same phone number connecting you to two different people, depending on whether you use AT&T or MCI service. That unappealing prospect was one reason why ICANN board members, during this month's meeting in Marina del Rey, California, fretted about awarding dot-web to Afilias -- when Image Online Design had already been assigning such domain names under an alternative root and had also applied for the suffix. ICANN board member Vint Cerf of MCI expressed "concern and discomfort" with assigning dot-web to Afilias and said it would be better "if we were to assign a different string for them and to reserve dot-web." In the end, neither company got it. Image Online Design said in a statement that "Our commitment to operating the dot-web registry remains strong. It will never falter. We will continue to make an aggressive case to ICANN that we are more than qualified to be selected." "I hope it will not lead to a Balkanization of the Net, but speaking for myself I'm glad of (the alternates') existence," Esther Dyson, the former ICANN chairwoman, said in e-mail to Wired News. "ICANN needs a couple of people nipping at its heels, as opposed to uninformed criticism, in order to keep it hopping. The possibility that people can use other root servers will encourage ICANN, and its community, to keep their own system operating effectively." Dyson said that the board members did not discuss grandfathering dot-web or dot-biz: "My attitude is: OK, operate outside (of ICANN), but then expect to stay outside." One alternative root system is the OpenNIC project, which supports alternative generic top-level domains including dot- parody; dot-oss, for open-source projects; and dot-geek, whose projects are still pending. Perhaps the most popular of the alternative root networks is the Open Root Server Confederation, which says it's open to anyone who wants to create a new top-level domain and include it in their extensive database that includes dot-god, dot-earth, and dot-chick. "What we're trying to do in ORSC is figure out how to get everyone to work together," says ORSC member Simon Higgs. "The ORSC root will take anyone's top-level domains that are requested. They'll be in there just for the asking. People haven't asked." "There is consensus out there that speaks against the ICANN decision. Registrants who paid money to register in dot-biz will be out of money," Higgs says. JVTeam is the ICANN-authorized registrar for dot-biz. But Atlantic Root Network's Gallegos says she won't give up. A statement on biztld.net says: "That does NOT mean that Atlantic Root Network's dot-biz is going anywhere. We did not apply for entry into the ICANN rootzone, and we plan to stay where we are and continue to resolve to the ORSC rootzone." "If dot-biz loses this battle, it could mean all TLDs lose, which is just what ICANN and the megacorps want. We need the public's support and we need to educate the public about what is really going on," Gallegos says. To reconfigure your browser to support alternative roots, go to youcann.org. The origins of dot-biz lie in Usenet, when activist Karl Denninger in the late 1980s created newsgroups where commercial messages would be allowed. Denninger said he expanded the concept to allow automated dot- biz domain name registrations in 1995, and his company, Macro Computer Systems, was sold in 1998 to Winstar Communications. He says ORSC changed from pointing to Winstar's list of dot-biz names to Alantic Root Network's in the last year. "The problem is that (Gallegos') claim to this is no more legitimate than JV Team's. I would argue that neither of them has a legitimate claim," Denninger says. http://www.wirednews.com/news/politics/0,1283,40301,00.html ________________________________________________________________________________ no copyright 2000 rolux.org - no commercial use without permission. is a moderated mailing list for the advancement of minor criticism. post to the list: mailto:inbox@rolux.org. more information: mailto:minordomo@rolux.org, no subject line, message body: info rolux. further questions: mailto:rolux-owner@rolux.org. home: http://rolux.org/lists - archive: http://rolux.org/archive