[WSIS CS-Plenary] Re: [CRIS Info] The PublicRoot rises again - Dutch tech firm wants to rid the Web of the .com

Mon Nov 28 14:01:10 GMT 2005

On Mon, 28 Nov 2005, Jeff Williams wrote:

> Joe and all,
>
> It is good to see that the unified root is moving in a positive direction
> and having more success.  This is indicative of a free market system
> at it's best.

Unfortunately Jeff I don't trust them.  The UnifiedRoot as Paul Vixie has
said is run by pirates and rogues.  But while Vixies claim is speculative
I know the facts and can say he is dead on.

But they will create a significant number of top level domains and in the
long run will contribute to the breakage of the ICANN monopoly, which is a
positive aspect of the UnifiedRoot.

regards
joe

>
> Joe Baptista wrote:
>
> > UnifedRoot rises from the ashes of the Public-Root - court action pending.
> >
> > An interesting observation from me is as follows - as private root use
> > their commercial leverage to increase the size of the root database - how
> > relevant will the WSIS process be in 5 years time?  Or should I be saying
> > how irrelevant will it be then?
> >
> > http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=internetNews&storyID=2005-11-25T161438Z_01_MCC558424_RTRUKOC_0_US-INTERNET-DOMAINS-NODOTCOM.xml
> >
> > Dutch tech firm wants to rid the Web of the .com
> > Fri Nov 25, 2005 11:14 AM ET
> >
> > By Lucas van Grinsven, European Technology Correspondent
> >
> > AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - A Dutch technology company has breathed life into a
> > project to rid the Internet of suffixes such as .com, and instead offer
> > single names which can be countries, company names or fantasy words.
> >
> > Such a system, which enables countries, individuals and firms to have a
> > Web address which consists of a single name, offers flexibility and is
> > language and character independent.
> >
> > "The plan is to offer names in any character set," said Erik Seeboldt,
> > managing director of Amsterdam-based UnifiedRoot.
> >
> > UnifiedRoot offers practically unlimited numbers of suffixes, unlike the
> > short list of suffixes currently in use. Its offer is different from other
> > "alternative root" providers such as New.net which offers to register
> > names in front of a small range of new suffixes, such as .club and .law.
> >
> > "We've already had thousands of registrations in a single day," said
> > Seeboldt after the official opening of his 100-strong company which has
> > installed 13 Internet domain name system (DNS) root servers on four
> > continents.
> >
> > Dutch airport Schiphol is one of the early customers. Registering a name
> > costs $1,000 plus an annual fee of $240. Companies can then invent
> > additional Web site addresses in front of their top-level domain (TLD)
> > name, such as flights.schiphol or parking.schiphol.
> >
> > Critics argue alternative root companies such as UnifiedRoot introduce
> > ambiguity because they bring a new set of traffic rules to the Web which
> > are, certainly in the beginning, only recognized by a limited number of
> > computers around the world.
> >
> > "Those who claim to be able to add new 'suffixes' or 'TLDs' are generally
> > pirates or con-men with something to sell," said Paul Vixie, who sits in
> > several committees of the California-based Internet Corporation for
> > Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) with day-to-day control of the Web, on
> > his CircleID blog.
> >
> > WELCOME
> >
> > Others are more welcoming.
> >
> > "The existence of alternate roots, and the possibility of new ones,
> > provides a useful competitive check on ICANN," said Jon Weinberg, a member
> > of ICANNwatch which keeps a critical eye on ICANN.
> >
> > ICANN is overseen by the U.S. Department of Commerce and operates the root
> > servers of the Internet which guide all Web traffic. The organization also
> > determines which top-level domains are recognized by those root servers.
> >
> > At the United Nations World Summit on the Information Society earlier this
> > month, many countries said they wanted to take part in the governance of
> > ICANN. But the United States would not give up control.
> >
> > UnifiedRoot plans to take advantage of unhappiness about ICANN by offering
> > geographic locations for free to countries, regions and cities.
> >
> > If alternative root companies want their TLDs recognized by computers
> > around the world, they need to circumvent ICANN by pointing every single
> > Internet computer around the world to their own root servers -- which
> > contain a copy of ICANN's root server plus the addition of own-made TLDs.
> >
> > A quicker way to change the settings in individual computers is by closing
> > deals with Internet Service Providers (ISPs) which can change the settings
> > for all their subscribers.
> >
> > UnifiedRoot has already clinched deals with most ISPs in Turkey. ISP
> > Tiscali is also a UnifiedRoot client.
> >
> > To avoid conflicts between TLDs from UnifiedRoot and ICANN, the Dutch
> > company will not register existing ICANN TLDs.
> >
> > UnifiedRoot took over from a Dutch company called UNIDT which launched the
> > initial plan for TLDs last year, but which relied on a network of root
> > servers controlled by individuals. This made the network vulnerable to
> > manipulation or even criminal attack directing Internet surfers to fake
> > Web sites.
> >
> > "The network has not been abused, but this was a mistake," said Marty van
> > Veluw, the founder and manager of UNIDT who sold his client base and some
> > other assets to UnifiedRoot.
> >
> > "UnifiedRoot has understood that the network needs to be 100 percent
> > reliable, and they put a new one in place," he said.
> >
> > - 33 -
> >
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> Regards,
>
> --
> Jeffrey A. Williams
> Spokesman for INEGroup LLA. - (Over 134k members/stakeholders strong!)
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