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Bret Fausett's Internet Printing Press

Bret Fausett's Other Weblog:

Pray For Rain

View Article  Terms of Service for the .COM and .NET Zone Files?
After I linked to this copy of the root zone, I noticed the terms of service at the top:
; The use of the Data contained in Verisign Inc.' aggregated
; .com, and .net top-level domain zone files (including the checksum
; files) is subject to the restrictions described in the access Agreement
; with Verisign Inc.
What's that about?
View Article  Welcome to the Root Zone, .TRAVEL!
It's in there!
TRAVEL. NS A.GTLD.BIZ.
TRAVEL. NS B.GTLD.BIZ.
TRAVEL. NS C.GTLD.BIZ.
TRAVEL. NS D.GTLD.BIZ.
TRAVEL. NS E.GTLD.BIZ.
TRAVEL. NS F.GTLD.BIZ.
TRAVEL. NS G.GTLD.BIZ.
TRAVEL. NS H.GTLD.BIZ.
View Article  Search or DNS?
Karl Auerbach: "[W]ith the rise of a highly dominant search engine, Google, the policies and choices of Google have a much greater power to define what is, and what is not, on the internet than do any policies about the domain name system."

I hear this a lot, but there's no call for an ICANN of the search space. Probably because the switching cost is so easy. My favorite alternatives these days are Yahoo and Icerocket.

Something's funny with Icerocket though. The #1 result on Icerocket for "ICANN" is http://www.gdnx.org/. ICANN itself is #2.
View Article  Redelegating Iraq
Next up on the ICANN Board's agenda: "Consideration of .IQ Redelegation Request." Now this is one redelegation request, I'd like to see. Whatever happened to the practice of posting IANA ccTLD reports?
View Article  Link To My WNYC Moment
As I mentioned yesterday, I was a guest this morning on The Brian Lehrer Show. If you missed it or were out of range of WNYC's signal, here's a link to the mp3 file. The subject was "Internet Governance."
View Article  Lots of Radio
Two radio shows of note to follow. I was a guest on David Lawrence's Online Tonight last night, talking about 'the law of podcasting' and other legal stuff. I was on for the last hour of the show and stuck around afterwards to do his podcast (MP3 recording here).

And tomorrow morning I'll be a guest on the Brian Lehrer Show on WNYC (New York Public Radio) where the subject will be WGIG, WSIS and "Internet Governance."
View Article  What's the Case for New TLDs?
In the ALAC, we're preparing responses to ICANN's set of questions on new TLDs. Here's the question I'd really like to see us nail: "What are the benefits...associated with delegating and operating new TLDs?" In the public forum last week, it was clear from comments by Vint Cerf and Steve Crocker that some on the ICANN Board don't believe they have a satisfactory answer to that basic question.

Here's my first draft of a response:

New top-level domains enhance the ability of users to identify themselves and the content they create on the Internet. They allow natural communities to express their common interests under a common moniker. They allow persons, companies, and communities from a variety of backgrounds, cultures and languages to identify themselves and their content with an appropriate label that has meaning to them.

How close is that to the right answer? What would you add or revise?
View Article  A Commitment to Improvements at ICANN
Here is Vint Cerf's opening comment at the ICANN Board meeting last week:


In the course of this week, it's been very clear that our constituents, and most of you out there, have been both disappointed and surprised, and your expectations have not been met with regard to the kinds of information that you expected from the Board and from the rest of ICANN.

We have heard that pretty loudly and clearly. And I want to say that this is a disappointment for us as well.

I want to say that I apologize for not meeting your expectations with regard to communications, with regard to keeping you adequately informed. And we are going to do something about that.

There are steps that I think we can take in the near term and steps that I hope we can take in the longer term to improve our ability to work with you, our constituents, and for the Board to work both together as a Board and also together with our Staff.

So I'm committing to you that we will make improvements.

Full text of the Board's meeting is here.
View Article  'Homographs' in IDNs
The ALAC's John Levine, writing on the NANOG list: "I see two reasons that it's a waste of time to worry about homographs. One is that there's so many approximate homographs even in 'simple' languages like English (O and 0, I and l and 1, etc.) that you can't possibly strike them all. The other is that even if you rule out all variants of, say, citibank.com, you're still going to have names like citibank-account.com (which is not Citibank) and cyota.net (which isn't Citibank either, but runs Verified by Visa mail on behalf of lots of real banks.)"

Here's a real world example: www.lcann.org (or www.lCANN.org, if you prefer). .
View Article  Fumigation

Harold W. Furchtgott-Roth, ex-FCC Commissioner in the U.S., writing on the WGIG report: "the United Nations uniquely seeks to displace national governmental authority with its own brand of undisciplined authority."

Dana Blankenhorn, reporter, writing on Harold W. Furchtgott-Roth: "Is he stupid? Is everyone in Washington so filled with hubris? I don't live inside the Beltway, I'm just a freelance tech reporter in Atlanta. But the place needs to be fumigated."

More on Corante.

View Article  Vixie on WSIS/WGIG
Interesting stuff from Paul Vixie on the WGIG report. via Dave Farber's list.

I especially liked: "I'm a bit concerned that it amounts to a generally agreed upon statement that 'somebody ought to put a bell on that cat'." 
View Article  ICANN Board Meeting in Luxembourg

The Board meeting is underway. The titles of the resolutions are up on the monitor, and it doesn't look like much will happen here. Later: The adopted Board resolutions are posted here.

Add: I was wrong. Right out of the box, Dr. Cerf apologized to the ICANN community for the way the .NET agreement was handled. Is there any precedent for that? I can't remember anyone on the Board ever doing anything like this in the past.

I'm surprised that I don't see a resolution on the list relating to new TLDs.

A review of the "performance and operation" of the GNSO is now underway.

The Board passed a carefully worded resolution designed to increase transparency around its telephonic meetings. I'm not sure I've parsed it correctly, but from the discussion it sounds like the Board's discussions will remain private but the voting will be transcribed. Board members also will have the opportunity, if they so choose, to make a statement for the record. If that's the correct reading of the resolution, I'm not sure what has actually changed. Clearly the intent of the resolution was to do something more, but I'm not sure what. I'll try to get an explanation after the meeting is over.

By the way, the Board resolution was in response to a Reconsideration Request I filed several months ago.

A new ICANN staffer asked me this week why I was here in Luxembourg, "in the tent" in her words, since I am sometimes critical of ICANN and its processes. I explained that it was the same reason that I can wear a U.S. flag lapel pin and still think poorly of "a - certain - high - level - U.S.- elected - politician - who - will - not - be - named - here - because - I - still - need - to - get - through - customs - when - I - get - back - home." Is that a particularly American way of working? The alternative is "America (substitute: ICANN), Love it or Leave it."  That's worse.

"In the tent" was a fairly accurate choice of words given the meeting facilities here in Luxembourg.

Add: Okay, here's the story on the transparency resolution. My reading was correct, but as explained to me, the change is that the transcription will both encourage Board members to make comments for the record and make it easier for them to do so. It also should make it easier for staff to post a summary report in a timely fashion. We won't know if it works this way in practice until after the next telephonic Board meeting. If Board members decline to make a statement, we'll have no change from the status quo at all. I hope that won't happen.

View Article  A Better Caption
I just received a better caption for this picture by e-mail: "If anyone has seen the whereabouts of any of the individuals shown here, please contact your local Internet authorities. The actual winners of the tournament would like their trophy."
View Article  My Note to the Board on New TLDs
Roberto (copy to Vint),
These are the resolutions I mentioned. As you'll see, the status quo is that ICANN has decided that it should introduce new TLDs "in a measured and responsible manner." A popular misconception is that this statement of policy applied only to the testbed. If you read the DNSO Statement, it separately accounted for the testbed. Now we either need to revisit the adopted policy or implement it.

    -- Bret

GNSO/DNSO RESOLUTION:
The Names Council...recommends to the ICANN Board that it establish a policy for the introduction of new gTLDs in a measured and responsible manner, giving due regard in the implementation of that policy to (a) promoting orderly registration of names during the initial phases; (b) minimizing the use of gTLDs to carry out infringements of intellectual property rights; and (c) recognizing the need for ensuring user confidence in the technical operation of the new TLD and the DNS as a whole.

Because there is no recent experience in introducing new gTLDs, we recommend to the Board that a limited number of new top-level domains be introduced initially and that the future introduction of additional top-level domains be done only after careful evaluation of the initial introduction.

http://www.icann.org/yokohama/new-tld-topic.htm#18/19April2000NCStatement

BOARD RESOLUTION:
Resolved [00.46] that the Board hereby adopts the Names Council's recommendation that a policy be established for the introduction of new TLDs in a measured and responsible manner.

http://www.icann.org/minutes/minutes-16jul00.htm

View Article  Public Forum Day
Here's today's agenda. I came in the room just after the completion of the Reconsideration Committee report which, I was told, made good recommendations to the Board in response to my recent request. (My alarm ran out of electricity during the night.)

Interesting report from the Board's Audit Committee, recommending new third-party auditors and new financial controls.

The Ombudsman report was published. Jottings isn't impressed.


View Article  Winners of the Luxembourg Cup

WARNING: Please note that captions in this weblog are not necessarily reflective of the content of the posts. Past performance is no guarantee of future success. If conditions last more than four hours, please consult a doctor. Objects in mirror may be closer then they appear.

An accurate title might be "Holders of the Luxembourg Cup."
View Article  45 Minutes, Every Two Days
At the presentation this morning on WSIS and WGIG, we were invited to attend the coming events in Tunis this fall. For 45 minutes, every two days, Internet stakeholders like end-users and commercial providers will be able to present their views. This was described as a wonderful opportunity, not to be missed, for WSIS participation. I wonder whether the GAC members would bother to fly to ICANN meetings if we gave them 45 minutes every two days to present their views to us. It's a wonderful opportunity!