China To Launch Alternate Country Code Domains

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Michael Geist <mgeist () pobox com>
Date: February 28, 2006 9:24:09 AM EST
To: dave () farber net
Subject: China To Launch Alternate Country Code Domains

Dave,

China is preparing to launch what appears to be an alternate root.  
Starting tomorrow, they will establish four country-code domains.  In  
addition to the current dot-cn, they will offer Chinese character  
versions of dot-China, dot-net, and dot-com. As one article puts it,  
this "means Internet users don't have to surf the Web via the servers  
under the management of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names  
and Numbers (ICANN) of the United States."

Coverage from China is at
http://english.people.com.cn/200602/28/eng20060228_246712.html

I've got some quick commentary at
<http://michaelgeist.ca/component/option,com_content/task,view/id, 
1130/Itemid,85/nsub,/>

which includes:

"The alternate root has always lurked in the background as a  
possibility that would force everyone to rethink their positions  
since it would enable a single country (or group of countries) to  
effectively pack up their bags and start a new game.  The U.S.  
control would accordingly prove illusory since a new domain name  
system situated elsewhere would be subject to its own rules.  While  
the two could theoretically co-exist by having ISPs simply recognize  
both roots, the system could "break" if both roots contained  
identical extensions.  In other words, one root can have dot-com and  
other other can have dot-corp, but they can't both have dot-com.

It is with that background in mind that people need to think about a  
press release issued yesterday in China announcing a revamping of its  
Internet domain name system.  Starting tomorrow, China's Ministry of  
Information Industry plans to begin offering four country-code  
domains.  In addition to the dot-cn country code domain, three new  
Chinese character domains are on the way: dot-China, dot-net, and dot- 
com.  As the People's Daily Online notes this "means Internet users  
don't have to surf the Web via the servers under the management of  
the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) of  
the United States."

In other words, the Chinese Internet becomes a reality tomorrow. With  
it, the rules of the game may change as 110 million Internet users  
will suddenly have access to a competing dot-com (albeit in a  
different character set) and will no longer rely exclusively on ICANN  
for the resolution of Internet domain name queries.  This change was  
probably inevitable regardless of the status of ICANN, however, the  
U.S. position can't possibly have helped matters.  Indeed, some might  
note that while Congress has been criticizing U.S. companies for  
cooperating with Chinese law enforcement and thereby harming Internet  
freedoms, those same Congressional leaders may have done the same by  
refusing to even consider surrendering some control over the Internet  
root to the international community and thereby opening the door to  
an alternate root that could prove even worse from a freedom  
perspective.

This week's announcement certainly doesn't mark the end of a global  
interoperable Internet.  It does move one step further toward that  
path since in Internet governance terms, the credible threat is now  
real."

MG
--
**********************************************************************
Professor Michael A. Geist
Canada Research Chair in Internet and E-commerce Law
University of Ottawa, Faculty of Law
57 Louis Pasteur St., Ottawa, Ontario, K1N 6N5
Tel: 613-562-5800, x3319     Fax: 613-562-5124
mgeist () pobox com              http://www.michaelgeist.ca




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