Name Truce in the Offing?
Author: Rebecca VeselyRebecca Vesely
After two days of panels, slide presentations, and fuzzy talk of "consensus" at the Washington Sheraton, something like a truce in the war of the Internet domain-name gods is in the offing.
The Forum on Internet Domain Names, which managed to assemble some of the major combatants in the ongoing conflict Wednesday and Thursday, ended its off-the-record proceedings with general agreement that it's not quite time for the US government, the Net's Cronus, to take leave of its creation; that Network Solutions Inc., the .com monopolist everyone loves to hate and hates to pay, will continue as a central force; and that at least some parts of the widely criticized International Ad Hoc Committee agreement will form the framework for the future of domain-name registry.
The IAHC pact, signed in May by the Internet Society, Internet Assigned Number Authority, and a host of commercial Net services, would expand generic top-level domains, work around Network Solutions' monopoly by bringing on more than two dozen new registrars, and set up an international tribunal for resolution of trademark and copyright claims arising from domain names.
The Internet Council of Registrars, created by the IAHC pact, appeared to win broad support for a memorandum of understanding spelling out how to administer the new top-level domain system. The council is accepting applications from new international registrars through 16 October.
"There is a fear of control - and that fear tends to manifest itself," said Jay Adelson, operations manager of Digital Equipment Corp. "The MOU offers at least guidelines for a start in this evolutionary process."
That fear is one of the deeper issues the forum brought to the surface, most having to do with uncertainty about governance and distribution of power as the Net is transformed daily into a more complex global entity.
Harry Hochheiser, a software developer who is on the board of the Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility, agreed: "This is the beginning of Internet self-governance. But what does this mean to people who use the Internet? In the end, what's going to matter most is developing sophisticated directory systems to find things on the Net. Domain names is at this point just about branding."
"Grass-roots organizations need to be paying attention to this issue, and they're not," said Herold Feld, assistant general counsel for the Domain Names Rights Coalition, a Virginia group targeting the issue of how copyright and trademark should be handled in global domain pacts. "This issue is about power, and the devil is always in the details."
In large part because so much is unsettled and because true self-governance looks like it's still well in the future, there was frank acknowledgment that the US government still must play a role.
"The United States is not in a position to walk away right now because there is the question of stability in the transition period, but we do want the Internet to be independent," said Becky Burr, senior policy adviser for the National Telecommunications and Information Administration at the Commerce Department.
And the department has become the Clinton administration's lead agency in trying to sort out the complaints with the IAHC's proposals. Forum participants pointed to the Commerce Department's collection of public comments through 18 August as a key opportunity for finding a resolution.
Most participants agreed that Network Solutions will play some role in the whatever new registration process is developed.
"From a technological perspective, Network Solutions has been doing this for four years, we need them to help us capitalize on that knowledge, although there can be some improvement," said DEC's Adelson.
Network Solutions, which in addition to controlling .com registrations signs up names in the .net, .org, .gov, and .mil through an agreement with the National Science Foundation, will lose its exclusive contract in March. This has some worried about who will run the central database containing millions of domain names while the system is in transition.
One government source said that Network Solutions' contract will likely be extended until the end of next June in a "ramp-down" period so the transition goes more smoothly.
Attendees included officials from the Commerce Department, Federal Trade Commission, and Patent and Trademark Office, and from international agencies such as the World intellectual Property Organization; industry leaders such as America Online, Netscape, and IBM; major domain-name players like the Internet Society and Network Solutions; and a host of other activist and consumer groups, including the sponsors - the Center for Democracy and Technology, Information Technology Association of America, and the Interactive Services Association.