IP: last note on domaine name space unless major action occurs

[David Farber <farber () central cis upenn edu>]

Posted-Date: Fri, 15 Sep 1995 01:02:03 -0400
From: "Matthew R. Sheahan" <chaos () crystal palace net>




                                                |     Matthew R. Sheahan    |
                                                | Crystal Palace Networking |


        The night of Wednesday, September 13, a draft press release was
leaked from the Network Solutions Incorporated (NSI), the company managing
Interned domain name registration under funding from the National Science
Foundation, detailing its plans to institute fees for Internet domain names
on the 18th.  The anger and disbelief this inspired in the Internet community
was magnified when, in response to this leak, the plans were moved up and the
fee structure came into effect at 12:01 AM of the 14th.


        The attitudes displayed on the Internet mailing lists concerned with
the new fees ranged from tacit approval to litigious-minded outrage.  A primary
concern was NSI's perceived status as an unsanctioned monopoly, dictating
unforeseen fees to a captive market.  Many Internet Service Providers talked
of class-action suits.


        We, Crystal Palace Networking Inc., of Newton, New Jersey took a
different tack.  The problem, as we saw it, was that NSI existed in a vacuum,
being the only company capable of providing domain name registration in
public-use, non-regional domains.  The solution was to give them competition.
The evening of the 14th, we petitioned the InterNIC (the name of the domain
registration service operated by NSI) and the Internet Assigned Names
Authority for registration of nine new "top-level domains" for administration
by our servers and those of our associates, with fees initially set equal
to those newly established by NSI.


        This proposal, if approved, will create a set of top-level domains
to compete with those administered by the InterNIC.  We believe this to be
in the best interests of the Internet community for three reasons.  First,
the establishment of competition in this area forestalls the possibility of a
monopolistic economic environment taking hold.  Second, many of the top-level
domains which we propose to administer, such as .inc and .ltd, have been
discussed for some time as a method of breaking up the overloaded .com top-
level domain into more useful segments.  Third, as a community-oriented
company with expertise in modern methods of data management, we believe that
we can manage our top-level domains with greater efficiency demonstrated by
NSI, which has often been lambasted for failing to incorporate technological
advances into its registration services.


        Not to be outdone, Journey Communications of Mt. Pleasant, Michigan
announced its intention to compete with us and the InterNIC with its own
domain registration services on a modified fee structure.  Competitive
principles had already taken hold; Journey Communications' announcement
went out approximately four hours after ours.


        We have already received a great deal of feedback, both positive and
negative, from the Internet community.  People have attacked our commercial
interest in the area, which we have no intention of denying; others have
offered alliances in the interest of making our proposal a reality.  Some
have simply wished us luck.  All fortune and misfortune aside, the decision
of whether to approve our proposal is now in the hands of the InterNIC and
the Internet Assigned Names Authority.  We of Crystal Palace Networking urge
the individuals involved to choose wisely; may their decision be to the best
interest of the community at large.