more on China To Launch Alternate Country Code Domains]

[Dave Farber <dave () farber net>]

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: RE: [IP] China To Launch Alternate Country Code Domains
Date: Tue, 28 Feb 2006 10:42:59 -0800
From: Travis Kalanick <travis () redswoosh net>
To: dave () farber net
CC: mgeist () pobox com

Michael,

I would like to address your reference to the Internet "breaking" due to a
secondary root, as I am convinced the situation is not so bleak.

If an ISP decides to support parallel roots and both roots support the same
extensions, it would be trivial to set up a rule which gives priority to one
yahoo.com (determined by one root), over another yahoo.com (determined by
another root).

My guess is that the ISP that supported two roots would make a default
decision on behalf of the user, and if the user didn't like the decision
there would be a number of easy to use software kits available to the
consumer that would set the hosts file to the desired IP addresses--a simple
tool could/might simply be bundled with Windows/Linux/MacOS distributions.

If you're worried about censorship and access regarding China's 110MM users,
the DNS change does little to change the situation.  China has been
filtering Internet content and redirecting "dangerous" requests w/o a
secondary root for years.

More broadly, ISPs have the ability to censor, filter and redirect without a
secondary root.  The only things to stop them are the values, laws, and
enforcement under which they operate.

Travis

-----Original Message-----
From: David Farber [mailto:dave () farber net]
Sent: Tuesday, February 28, 2006 7:03 AM
To: ip () v2 listbox com
Subject: [IP] China To Launch Alternate Country Code Domains



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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