At 10:22 AM 05/12/97 CDT, Stan Barber wrote:
Carl writes:
And the outcome of all this affects every Nanog member. It affects every network operator, every ISP, every sysop. It affects the 1.2 million owners of the 1.2 million domain names in COM and NET and ORG. Every network operator, every SIP, every sysop, every domain name owner, should pay attention to all of this and speak up.
Carl, I don't think there are 1.2 million domain name registrants as many domains (like CyberPromo, for example) has registered multiple domains names.
Nowadays, taking annual fees into account, the number of parties owning thousands of domain names is dropping quickly. Okay, so let's say it is a ten-to-one ratio (which it's not, I believe it is more like 1.5 to one) then the number of domain name owners would still be 120,000. And those 120,000 owners should still be speaking up, in the absence of which things may happen that they won't like later.
That being said, there is already an alternative in the county code domains. There, the policies are different (though not necessarily better) than NSI.
That is no comfort at all, none whatsoever, to someone who has invested years of time and sweat and energy and money in a COM domain name. If the answer is, "Hey, you don't like NSI's domain name policy? So give up your domain name and start over again in a two-letter domain!" then it is no answer at all.
That's not to say that the exising gTLD infrastructure does not need to evolve. It must. I agree with you that those who are domain name registrants in the current gTLDs have a stake in this evolution and should express a thoughtful and constructive opinion on how this evolution should take place. Unfortunately, some who have expressed opinions have chosen not to be either thoughtful or constructive. I think some operators have been reluctant to participate because of this.
As I am sure you are also aware, the present structure of the .US domain is unworkable for any business that is located in more than one state, or for any business that thinks it might ever move from one state to another. There ought to be a .com.us, for example, and at present there isn't one.