Re: DNS: Re: INET: Proposed BIZ.AU Registry

Re: DNS: Re: INET: Proposed BIZ.AU Registry

From: Gary Oliver <gary.oliver§ooo.com.au>
Date: Thu, 05 Dec 1996 23:30:41 +1100
Hugh Irvine wrote:
> 
> Roland Turner wrote:
> >
> > Simon Hackett wrote:
> >
> > > >>As I said before, my main problem with your proposal is the inconsistency
> > > >>of having two commercial domains which do essentially the same thing.  If I
> > > >>want to find Microsoft Australia, it seems logical to look at
> > > >>www.microsoft.com.au.  To have to check www.microsoft.biz.au seems rather
> > > >>redundant and would probably mean most companies would go for both.
> > >
> > > No, you read their URL on their products, or on their TV adverts, or on
> >
> > Not true. I frequently locate organisations by guessing a URL. VERY
> > FREQUENTLY. This practice is so widespread that organisations choosing
> > unconventional URLs for their homepage find themselves registering the
> > conventional structure as well. (home.netscape.com springs to mind.)
> >
> 
> Herein lies the problem - at the moment, guessing oftentimes works, however I
> believe Simon is taking the longer term view that as a *very* restricted
> namespace as represented by any single DNS hierarchy becomes ever more
> populated with ever less meaningful entries, the usefulness of a guess tends
> towards zero. This is indeed what is happening already in .com especially.
> 
> > There appears to be an inconsistency in what you are arguing. On the one
> > hand you are suggesting that what your domain is called is of no
> > importance at all, whilst on the other, registry services require some
> > demonstration of your entitlement to the name that you are registering.
> > If indeed the name is of no importance, then why require any proof of
> > anything. Why not allow me to register ibm.biz.au without any
> > demonstration of my "right" to use that name.
> >
> 
> Exactly - the desire has always been to somehow "impose order" (I use the term
> advisedly) on DNS requests. I believe you are right in ascerting that this is
> self-defeating.
> 
> > I don't yet see the middleground. (One component of your URL is
> > significant, but the rest is not?) So it seems that you can argue (a)
> > that the name is important and therefore that the 2LD IS important or
> > (b) that the name is not important, in which case you should allow
> > anyone to register anything, or perhaps you should simply require the
> > use of names like 123-456-789.acn.au.
> >
> 
> Simon and I have proposed exactly this in the past. It seems to me very
> beneficial to offer a completely different set of parameters for the
> allocation of DNS entries in this way, as it will provide if nothing else a
> different view of the problem.
> 
> > In human affairs, naming IS important: the name of an infant, a street,
> > a nation, a project, a brand of peanut butter, whatever. I believe that
> > making an attempt to keep the naming sensible is worthwhile. I
> > acknowledge that a (tiny) proportion of commercial organisations in
> > Australia have names in wierdo domains, but the vast majority have
> > chosen to use com.au, even despite the long delays that held up requests
> > when Mr. Elz was running the com.au registry on a volunteer basis.
> >
> 
> Well - lots of companies have used .net.au, as well as on.net, etc. - I would
> prefer to think of them as simply seeking viable alternatives. Again - any
> single DNS hierarchy based on words will lead directly to collisions, hence
> the problems as everyone has described.
> 
> > > funding the overheads required to support your database entry. Just be
> > > careful about confusing database entries with rights to a name outside of
> > > the Internet world.
> >
> > It is a mistake to pretend that these things are indpendent. The very
> > fact that registries require some attempt to demonstrate your right to
> > use a name before allowing registration demonstrates this.
> >
> 
> I think you were correct above - the registries *shouldn't* attempt to do
> anything other than provide a listing service.
> 
> > Anyway, there is another point. If the names themsevles are not
> > important, if it is not worthwhile to try to get to the point where
> > competing entities can maintain the one address space, why then bother
> > with joint/multiple administration of the biz.au namespace? Why not
> > create biz.au and bozo.au and administer them seperately? If the move
> > towards joint administration of a namespace is worth anything, why not
> > do it with the widely accepted domain for registering commercial
> > entities in Australia.
> >
> > Simon, there's a lot in this post. To avoid the creation of a flame, I
> > suggest that the one useful response that you can make to this posting
> > is to explain why it is that you think that the third from the right
> > component of a name is important whilst the rest are not, or if you do
> > not think this, what you do think about the policy of most registries of
> > requiring an applicant to demonstrate a right to use a name in the real
> > world before registration.
> >
> 
> All Simon is advocating is something other than a single space - content
> independent.
> 
> Hugh
Hi Hugh


>>I think you were correct above - the registries *shouldn't* attempt to do anything other than provide a listing service.

So if others apart from em think like this how do we translate this into 
an outcome?

Warm regards
Gary
Received on Fri Dec 06 1996 - 00:29:08 UTC

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