----- Original Message ----- From: "Vadim Antonov" <avg@exigengroup.com> To: "John Palmer (NANOG Acct)" <nanog@adns.net> Cc: <nanog@merit.edu> Sent: Tuesday, February 26, 2002 7:49 PM Subject: Re: ICANN - The Case for Replacing its Management
You can always have as many domains as you wish -- inside your zone. Short words is a scarce resource, and therefore their use must be rationed in some way.
Thats up to the TLD holder to decide, not for some regulatory body that claims to have the right to control what all TLD Holders do. Thats why we have multiple root server networks now, because ICANN wont recognize established TLDs unless these registries sign their lives away (and the rights/lives of their registrars and registrants) to ICANN. ICANN is a monopoly at the root level. In its current form, it MUST die if the internet is to remain free. The proposed new form is even more hideous. We operate one of the ORSC root servers (H.ROOT-SERVERS.ORSC) and have seen a FIVE FOLD increase in traffic since the "big announcement" yesterday.
The pure market approach (i.e. selling them for flat rate) doesn't seem to be sufficient for squatter deterrence (they nearly always lose in court, but this may be prohibitively expensive for those who have legitimate reasons for obtaining those domain names).
Squatter = = someone who swipes a domain name that is someone else's trademark. I'm not talking about those. There are people who register common words like HOUSES.USA and GREEN.EARTH. There is nothing wrong with that. Our registry WILL NOT impose unneccessary restrictions on our customers.
--vadim
John