http://www.webweek.com/96Sep09/industry/domains.html is an article from WebWeek on the upcoming new top-level domain registries.

Sender: owner-nettime-l@Desk.nl Mime-Version: 1.0 Date: Fri, 29 Nov 1996 02:52:27 -0500 To: nettime-l@desk.nl, list@rhizome.com From: mf@MediaFilter.org (MediaFilter) Subject: nettime: Expanding the Internet Namespace Sender: owner-nettime-l@Desk.nl Precedence: bulk Expanding the Internet Namespace The overcrowding of the "com." domain on the internet has led to much speculation, name piracy, ransom and blackmail. From pirates who registered McDonalds.com to blackmailers who hijacked Tiger Woods and snatched up "tigerwoods.com" then attempted to ransom it back to Mr. Woods...by insisting on creating and hosting his website! The current Domain Name System is an arcane and obsolete legacy of the cold war, when the identity and purpose of a network was reflected in its name. Now that the internet has commercialized, the nature of the Domain Name System has reached its limits and can no longer sustain the demands of commercial and personal users. The arbitrary designation of "com" has created the problem of how a company can express its identity by their network address. IBM, Inc. becomes IBM.com....that's fine when there is only one "Big Blue", but what happens when companies in other states or countries (the net is international!) have similar names? If Widgets, Inc., Widgets, Ltd., Widgets Bros., or Widgets Corp. had to face this today, only one of them could prevail under the current system.... and whomever was first to register 'widgets.com" would hold the prized net address. Now, thanks to Media Artist Paul Garrin, and an international network of artists and friendly hackers, all of the names can be had....widgets.inc, widgets.ltd, widgets.bros and widgets.corp are all possible under a new internet address naming scheme Garrin calls "name.space". His new company, Name.Space, Inc. has put in place a network of root nameserver computers in several countries throughout Europe, with it's home base in the USA. Name.Space is the new competition for the newly privatized and de-facto monopoly on Domain Name Service now held by Network Solutions, Inc. of Herndon, Va. Network Solutions, Inc. was granted the contract to run the InterNIC (Internet Network Information Center) which was formerly run by the National Science Foundation (NSF) who, as a US taxpayer supported entity, registered domain names for free on a first come, first served basis. Since NSI took over InterNIC, they began charging $100 per name for new registrations, which recently hit a high of 50,000 per month, richly lining the pockets of this de-facto monopoly that dominates the deregulated internet marketplace. Although privatization should have upgraded the InterNIC to a free-market business, it has instead continued the bureaucratic nature of its predecessors--and not surprisingly-- for NSI, although on the surface is a private comapny, their ties to inside the D.C. beltway are apparent. The parent company of NSI, Scientific Applications International Corp. (SAIC) is a $2billion employee-owned company of about 20,000 with offices located internationally. SAIC is the number one private consulting firm to the Pentagon, NSA and CIA, and were responsible for the strategy of c3i (Command, Control, Communications, Intelligence) in the Gulf War. In 1995, SAIC (spelled backwards reads "CIAs") billed and collected $975 million from the Pentagon alone. SAIC bought NSI in March, 1995--just weeks before the NSI announced the intention to charge for domain names, which until then was a free process, paid for by US tax dollars. Registering a name with NSI can be painful and delayed... and the request for new top level domains is a long, painful process with no guarantees. Enter the free market.... Companies such as Name.Space. are now offering new top level domains, or rootnames, on demand. Registrations take place over an automated web interface which upon completion, renders the newly registered names active immediately. Users have the option of having unpublished addresses (much like unpublished phone numbers), an option that InterNIC/NSI/SAIC does not allow. Garrin's new scheme all but puts the name "prospectors" out of business. He suggests dozens of new possible domain names, and even invites you to think of your own. As Paul Garrin stated, "The InterNIC/NSI command economy of artificial shortages has ended...the free market has stepped in and is ready to satisfy client demand by expanding the internet namespace to accomodate all." Author Douglass Rushkoff (Media Virus, Cyberia) adds, "What had been a fairly limited range of .coms and .edus now becomes as diverse as language itself, transforming a limited resource into an inexhaustible one." While Garrin certainly hopes to make a few bucks off his ingenuity, he also hopes that others around the world will create their own alternate nameservers, and has developed a system through which everyone -- even InterNIC -- can update one another on all their new names. To him this is much more than a business. It's an appropriation of an essentially public space by the public who truly deserve it. "We're shifting the naming paradigm from militarism to democracy, and fulfilling the ideal nature of the Internet, which is virtual space with no borders. name.space is located at: http://name.space. if you're already there http://namespace.autono.net. if you're not -- * distributed via nettime-l : no commercial use without permission * is a closed moderated mailinglist for net criticism, * collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets * more info: majordomo@is.in-berlin.de and "info nettime" in the msg body * URL: http://www.desk.nl/~nettime/ contact: nettime-owner@is.in-berlin.de

Sent from: Boris Groendahl mailto://boris@berlin.snafu.de Expanding the Internet Namespace The overcrowding of the "com." domain on the internet has led to much speculation, name piracy, ransom and blackmail. From pirates who registered McDonalds.com to blackmailers who hijacked Tiger Woods and snatched up "tigerwoods.com" then attempted to ransom it back to Mr. Woods...by insisting on creating and hosting his website! The current Domain Name System is an arcane and obsolete legacy of the cold war, when the identity and purpose of a network was reflected in its name. Now that the internet has commercialized, the nature of the Domain Name System has reached its limits and can no longer sustain the demands of commercial and personal users. The arbitrary designation of "com" has created the problem of how a company can express its identity by their network address. IBM, Inc. becomes IBM.com....that's fine when there is only one "Big Blue", but what happens when companies in other states or countries (the net is international!) have similar names? If Widgets, Inc., Widgets, Ltd., Widgets Bros., or Widgets Corp. had to face this today, only one of them could prevail under the current system.... and whomever was first to register 'widgets.com" would hold the prized net address. Now, thanks to Media Artist Paul Garrin, and an international network of artists and friendly hackers, all of the names can be had....widgets.inc, widgets.ltd, widgets.bros and widgets.corp are all possible under a new internet address naming scheme Garrin calls "name.space". His new company, Name.Space, Inc. has put in place a network of root nameserver computers in several countries throughout Europe, with it's home base in the USA. Name.Space is the new competition for the newly privatized and de-facto monopoly on Domain Name Service now held by Network Solutions, Inc. of Herndon, Va. Network Solutions, Inc. was granted the contract to run the InterNIC (Internet Network Information Center) which was formerly run by the National Science Foundation (NSF) who, as a US taxpayer supported entity, registered domain names for free on a first come, first served basis. Since NSI took over InterNIC, they began charging $100 per name for new registrations, which recently hit a high of 50,000 per month, richly lining the pockets of this de-facto monopoly that dominates the deregulated internet marketplace. Although privatization should have upgraded the InterNIC to a free-market business, it has instead continued the bureaucratic nature of its predecessors--and not surprisingly-- for NSI, although on the surface is a private comapny, their ties to inside the D.C. beltway are apparent. The parent company of NSI, Scientific Applications International Corp. (SAIC) is a $2billion employee-owned company of about 20,000 with offices located internationally. SAIC is the number one private consulting firm to the Pentagon, NSA and CIA, and were responsible for the strategy of c3i (Command, Control, Communications, Intelligence) in the Gulf War. In 1995, SAIC (spelled backwards reads "CIAs") billed and collected $975 million from the Pentagon alone. SAIC bought NSI in March, 1995--just weeks before the NSI announced the intention to charge for domain names, which until then was a free process, paid for by US tax dollars. Registering a name with NSI can be painful and delayed... and the request for new top level domains is a long, painful process with no guarantees. Enter the free market.... Companies such as Name.Space. are now offering new top level domains, or rootnames, on demand. Registrations take place over an automated web interface which upon completion, renders the newly registered names active immediately. Users have the option of having unpublished addresses (much like unpublished phone numbers), an option that InterNIC/NSI/SAIC does not allow. Garrin's new scheme all but puts the name "prospectors" out of business. He suggests dozens of new possible domain names, and even invites you to think of your own. As Paul Garrin stated, "The InterNIC/NSI command economy of artificial shortages has ended...the free market has stepped in and is ready to satisfy client demand by expanding the internet namespace to accomodate all." Author Douglass Rushkoff (Media Virus, Cyberia) adds, "What had been a fairly limited range of .coms and .edus now becomes as diverse as language itself, transforming a limited resource into an inexhaustible one." While Garrin certainly hopes to make a few bucks off his ingenuity, he also hopes that others around the world will create their own alternate nameservers, and has developed a system through which everyone -- even InterNIC -- can update one another on all their new names. To him this is much more than a business. It's an appropriation of an essentially public space by the public who truly deserve it. "We're shifting the naming paradigm from militarism to democracy, and fulfilling the ideal nature of the Internet, which is virtual space with no borders. name.space is located at: http://name.space. if you're already there http://namespace.autono.net. if you're not -- * distributed via nettime-l : no commercial use without permission * is a closed moderated mailinglist for net criticism, * collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets more info: majordomo@is.in-berlin.de and "info nettime" in the msg body * URL: http://www.desk.nl/~nettime/ contact: nettime-owner@is.in-berlin.de -+----+------------------- Boris Groendahl -----+----+-+------++----- Texte Und Konzepte Fuer Medien -+------------------------ boris@well.com ---------------------+---- voice +49-30-68 83 43 58 --+----------------------- cellular +49-172-322 13 58 -----+-------------------- facsimile +49-30-68 83 43 57

SEVEN NEW TOP LEVEL DOMAIN NAMES ARE ADDED FOR INTERNET ADDRESSES AND UP TO 28 NEW REGISTRARS PLANNED WASHINGTON, DC, February 4, 1997 -- The number of names available to specify Internet locations, such as web sites and email addresses, will increase and more firms will be allowed to act as registrars for the names, under a plan announced today by the International Ad Hoc Committee (IAHC). Internet users will have 7 new generic Top Level Domains (gTLDs), in addition to the existing ones (.com, .net, and .org), under which they may register Internet names, when the plan is implemented. The new gTLDs and the intended fields of use are: .firm for businesses, or firms .store for businesses offering goods to purchase .web for entities emphasizing activities related to the WWW .arts for entities emphasizing cultural and entertainment activities .rec for entities emphasizing recreation/entertainment activities .info for entities providing information services .nom for those wishing individual or personal nomenclature In addition, up to 28 new registrars will be established to grant registrations for second-level domain names under the new gTLDs. The new registrars will be selected by lottery from applicants who fulfill specific requirements established by the IAHC. All the new gTLDs will be shared among the new registrars, meaning that each registrar may effect registration of second-level domain names under all the new gTLDs. It is intended that the three existing gTLDs (.com, .net, and .org) would also be shared upon conclusion of the cooperative agreement between Network Solutions, Inc. (NSI) and the United States National Science Foundation (NSF), which allows NSI to act as the registrar for those gTLDs. The plan announced today is a result of efforts by an international group named to resolve questions critical to the current and future growth of the Internet. The eleven-member International Ad Hoc Committee, chaired by Donald M. Heath, president and CEO of the Internet Society, received input from individuals, organizations and government agencies from around the world. To guide future registrar developments, an association comprising all the registrars, the Council of Registrars (CORE), to be established under Swiss law will create and enforce requirements for registrar operations. These requirements are spelled out in a separate legal instrument to which each registrar must agree. The IAHC plan includes the establishment of a non- regulatory policy framework in the form of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) which both the public and private sector will be invited to sign. The MoU will provide a mechanism for signatories to advise on future policy evolution of the global Internet domain name system. "I am pleased that the Secretary General of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) has agreed in principle to act as the depository of the MoU and to periodically publish an updated list of its signatories," Heath said in releasing the IAHC report. "The structure we have established for the operation and oversight of domain name administration insures that we will have stability and continuing input from a broad spectrum of organizations and individuals." Heath pointed out that the IAHC will continue to function for the period until the new registrars are named and the MoU has entered into force. At that time, the IAHC will change to act as the committee to conduct oversight of CORE until a permanent gTLD DNS Policy Oversight Committee (POC) is established to perform that function. The POC will determine, in consultation with CORE and a gTLD DNS Policy Advisory Body (PAB), the evolution of gTLDs, registrars, and any fees that CORE may collect from its members, the registrars, for services it may perform. The POC and CORE will be advised by the gTLD DNS Policy Advisory Body (PAB) that will consist of all of the signatories to the MoU and will provide input and recommendations for general policy matters relating to gTLDs and the Domain Name System (DNS). Signatories will include representatives from governments, independent governmental organizations, non-government organizations, and industry. An earlier draft proposal by the IAHC had recommended a mandatory 60 day waiting period before activation of new domain names, in order to alleviate what is considered to be a major source of instability in the DNS, namely widespread piracy of famous trademarks by certain domain name holders. In the final report, that recommendation has been replaced by a more comprehensive solution that addresses the needs of all classes of stakeholders. In addition to making the 60 day waiting period optional for registrants, the final report institutes a system for dispute settlement involving on-line mediation, mandatory arbitration (if a domain name challenger chooses to initiate arbitration), and a fast-track on-line administrative domain name challenge procedure. The administrative domain name challenge procedure would be conducted on-line, and would allow an intellectual property right holder to petition a panel of international experts to determine if a second-level domain name violates the policy that a domain name which contains an internationally known trademark may only be held by the trademark owner. The dispute settlement procedures would be administered under the aegis of the World Intellectual Property Organization Arbitration and Mediation Center, located in Geneva. "During the public comment period, we received over 4000 submissions from the interested public, including 100 submissions from organizations around the world and we are very pleased with the acceptance and broad consensus that we have achieved in this process," Heath stated. "To attain its fullest potential, the Internet requires true self-governance. The Internet Society's role is to facilitate that requirement," he added. The IAHC is a coalition of participants from the broad Internet community, working to satisfy the requirement for enhancements to the Internet's global Domain Name System (DNS). Organizations naming members to the committee include: Internet Society (ISOC), Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA), Internet Architecture Board (IAB), Federal Networking Council (FNC), International Telecommunication Union (ITU), International Trademark Association (INTA), and World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). The full text of the IAHC report is being published at the Internet site: http://www.iahc.org. # # # # # # # # # Internet Society 12020 Sunrise Valley Drive Reston, VA 20191-3429 TEL 703-648-9888 FAX 703-648-9887 E-mail info@isoc.org http://www.isoc.org http://www.iahc.org

But these new domains didn't go live yet, did they?