Cut to the CORE
Government proposal would eliminate plan for new
Internet domains; set up new oversight board.
By Sandra Gittlen
Network World, 1/22/98
The Clinton administration is considering a plan
that rejects the creation of seven new top-level Internet domains and a
shared database for administering them.
If adopted, the plan would wreak havoc with the
Internet Society's Council of Registrars (CORE), whose members have
already begun accepting applications for names in
the seven new domains - which include .firm, .web, .shop and .rec -
and which is meeting today to discuss implementation
of its shared registry system.
Network World Fusion has learned that Ira Magaziner,
Clinton's top Internet adviser, is studying a plan that instead calls
for adding just a single new domain - as yet unnamed
- and for leaving domain name control of .net, .org and .com as
well as the new domain in the hands of Network
Solutions, Inc. (NSI).
However, the plan would also set up a new nonprofit
entity to oversee domain naming and eventually create a
competitive system for name registrars.
Magaziner said Wednesday he has yet to reach a
decision on the domain-name issue, although he added he will release
a final report by the end of next week. However, he
said he will recommend splitting NSI into two entities to ward off off
further charges that it holds an Internet monopoly.
Under the plan Magaziner is studying, the government
would create a non-profit organization to oversee domain names
and a new competitive system for domain registrars.
NSI would be split into InterNIC, which would run the databases at
the heart of the domain naming system and WorldNIC,
which would be one of those domain registrars.
Registrars would be qualified by the nonprofit
organization under strict guidelines and they will have to build their own
registration databases.
The proposal leaves little room at the outset for
CORE - which has already hired a company to build a domain-name
database. Some 80 companies have announced plans to
participate - starting with a $10,000 fee for building the database to
handle names in the proposed domains.
Sources said Magaziner may reject the CORE proposal
because it was designed "behind closed doors" and because it would have
shifted domain naming from the U.S. to Geneva. Magaziner
declined to comment.
The proposal also calls for continued government
oversight of domain naming for the next couple of years, sources said. NSI
currently doles out domain names under a contract from the National
Science Foundation - which sources said would be extended past its current
March end date.
In addition to restructuring, NSI will hand over
control of the master database, known as Root Server A, that handles DNS
updates among 12 root DNS servers. Although observers speculated that
the National Institute of Standards and Technology will gain control of
Root Server A,Magaziner said it would probably be handed over to
the oversight organization.
Sources also said Magaziner's plan does not rule out
a role for CORE as a registrar - or even as a full fledged domain registry
- provided they comply with strict rules. The plan also does not
rule out additional generic top-level domains in the future.
So where does that leave CORE members? More than 15
of them have met with Magaziner to express concerns about the $10,000 they
each invested in the shared database, sources said. If
CORE insists on continuing to register its own domains, they will not be
recognized by the 13 root servers under the government's oversight.