IP: US Seeks Alternative Domain Name Plan

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

US Seeks Alternative Domain Name Plan
by Rebecca Vesely


6:14pm  2.May.97.PDT -  The Clinton administration, dissatisfied with a new
international agreement on the registration of domain names and other
key Net issues, has directed a working group to amend the system, a
government official told Wired News on Friday.


The official, who is knowledgeable about the policy discussions and
spoke on condition of anonymity, said that the US initiative is aimed at
easing emerging disputes over the International Ad Hoc Committee's pact
and creating a more tangible mechanism for handling far-reaching Net
issues.


"While we feel that the IAHC has done a good job, we are concerned about
numerous aspects of their plan," the official said. A central problem,
the official added, was the role assigned to the UN-affiliated
International Telecommunications Union and World Intellectual Property
Organization without approval from member states.


As a result of objections voiced by the United States and the European
Union, both international agencies on Thursday refrained from their
planned signing of the agreement.


The IAHC agreement creates seven new generic top-level domains - .web,
.arts, .info, .firm, .store, .rec and .nom to augment the current .com,
.net, .edu, .org, .gov, and mil. Twenty-eight companies would be chosen
by lottery to register domain names. The agreement would also create a
system of arbitrating copyright and trademark disputes and would address
deeper addressing issues.


One strong opponent of the IAHC plan is Virginia-based Network
Solutions, the only registrar of the current group of domains. Under a
monopoly agreement with the National Science Foundation, Network
Solutions has registered more than 1.2 million names in a franchise that
could bring in US$200 million by 1999. The NSF announced last week,
however, that it does not intend to renew the company's contract when it
expires early next year.


Network Solutions has called for a longer period of study for the IAHC
system and has also put forward what it describes as a market-based
alternative. A coalition of smaller companies that seek permission to
create and administer their own domains, called Enhanced Domain Name
System, has called on the federal government to sponsor a review of the
IAHC system.


The working group, formed in March, is made up of policymakers from the
Commerce and State departments, National Science Foundation, Office of
Management and Budget, US Patent and Trademark Office, White House
Office of Science and Technology Policy, the Federal Communications
Commission, and the National Telecommunications Information
Administration.


Attempts late Friday afternoon to reach officials from the working group
were unsuccessful.


The US official told Wired News on Friday that the IAHC agreement
"creates something of a vacuum in terms of making decisions on who's in
charge of domain name registrations." The official emphasized that the
United States is not seeking to control the process.


"We don't want this to be something the federal government is running,"
the official said.


Action is necessary to avoid an "unstable situation," the official said,
in which some groups would follow the IAHC proposal and some would not.
That could fracture the Internet and disrupt the free-flow of
information.


"In order to avoid that, we need to give everyone a seat at the table,"
the official said.




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