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["John Kozlowski \(ShofarDomain.com\)" <John.Kozlowski AT ShofarDomain.com>]

Our response as found at http://ShofarDomain.com/Blog-2013-05-29.

 

ICANN study on non-delegated TLDs: A gesture of cooperation or an act of war?

ICANN has announced a study on the issue of “non-delegated TLDs” which is their term to describe the work of alternative roots and rootless TLDs (http://www.icann.org/en/news/announcements/announcement-28may13-en.htm).  While there is wisdom in making the study and documenting the findings, ICANN’s history and several hundred million dollars of financial interest, suggests the possibility that wisdom will take a backseat to agenda.

 

First look at their history.  In 2006 a report was issued titled “Alternative TLD Name Systems and Roots: Conflict, Control and Consequences (SAC009)” that contained high sounding arguments and strong emotional tugs.  The report emphasized possible abuses by political or ideological parties, but gave no hint that mitigations were possible.  It worked on the assumption that alternatives would use the exact same implementation as ICANN rather than making improvements on the technology that mitigates the issues.

 

The new study commissioned will look at “potential security impacts” of non-ICANN TLDs.  By framing the study as “how to mitigate the various risks” we are starting with the assumption that a war is in progress. 

 

If ICANN were indeed working in the public interest, its study would focus on questions to seek real understanding.  Why is there a growing market for the alternatives?  What can be done cooperatively to mitigate TLD collision?  What is ICANN doing that is fostering the alternative market?

 

Many alterative TLDs offer features that ICANN prohibits or makes impractical, such as free domain names, or names that are offensive to some parties.

 

ShofarDomain’s rootless system is not simply trying to be an alternative, but offer options that ICANN does not allow.  For example our resolver is being designed to allow the end user’s DNS traffic to be unmonitorable, a feature that has a growing market interest.

 

Many ISPs hijack otherwise none defined domains to point to their servers.  ShofarDomain allows non-delegated SLDs to be responded by the TLD in the way it sees fit.  We are also building the ability to for an end user to choose a third party, for business, moral or religious reasons, to that could provide redirects for selected domains.

 

The rootless design opens the door for TLDs to offer a vastly different set of terms and features.  We suggest that ICANN embrace the concept.  ICANN TLDs can continue under their terms and others can be as innovative as they desire.

 

ICANN sanctions “.com” with its 9 digit count of domains as well as “.museum” with its 2 or 3.  It is not a size issue.  ShofarDomain should be able to offer “.TeaParty” and “.Occupy”, irrespective of the volume, with the same accessibility.

 

Unless there is an issue of desiring absolute control, then a rootless design should be a welcome option.  Or did we just hit a nerve?

John Kozlowski

http://ShofarDomain.com Email: John.Kozlowski AT ShofarDomain.com Phone: +1 (423) 716-6432 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ShofarDomain Twitter: https://twitter.com/ShofarDomain YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/ShofarDomain

 

 

-----Original Message-----
From: discuss-request AT lists.opennicproject.org [mailto:discuss-request AT lists.opennicproject.org] On Behalf Of Julian DeMarchi
Sent: Tuesday, May 28, 2013 10:22 PM
To: OpenNIC discussion
Subject: [opennic-discuss] Fwd: Fwd: ICANN News Alert -- Security Studies on the Use of Non-Delegated TLDs, and Dotless Names

 

 

 

 

-------- Original Message --------

Subject: Fwd: ICANN News Alert -- Security Studies on the Use of Non-Delegated TLDs, and Dotless Names

Date: Tue, 28 May 2013 22:16:28 -0400

From: Joly MacFie <joly AT punkcast.com>

Reply-To: joly AT punkcast.com

To: North American Network Operators Group <nanog AT nanog.org>

 

FYI, since this has been a topic here.

 

 

 

---------- Forwarded message ----------

 

 

http://www.icann.org/en/news/announcements/announcement-28may13-en.htm

 

________________________________

Security Studies on the Use of Non-Delegated TLDs, and Dotless Names

 

28 May 2013

 

ICANN's mission and core values call to preserve and enhance the operational stability, reliability, security, and global interoperability of the Internet. In pursuing these goals and following the direction of its Board of Directors as well as the advice of the Security and Stability Advisory Committee, ICANN is announcing two studies regarding: 1) the use of non-delegated TLDs and 2) potential risks related to dotless domain names.

 

On 31 January 2013, ICANN security team received the SAC 057: SSAC Advisory on Internal Name Certificates. On 18 May, the ICANN Board directed staff to commission a study on the use of TLDs that are not currently delegated at the root level of the public DNS in enterprises.

 

Today, ICANN is announcing that a study has been commissioned on the potential security impacts of the applied-for new-gTLD strings in relation to namespace collisions with non-delegated TLDs that may be in use in private namespaces including their use in X.509 digital certificates. As part of this study, the expert study team will develop a framework for assessing the risk level and classify the risk level for the strings as identified in the study. The report will also provide options for ICANN as to how to mitigate the various risks and will describe the pros and cons of the options.

 

On 23 February 2012, the SSAC published the SAC 053: SSAC Report on Dotless Domains. A domain name that consists of a single label is referred to as a "dotless domain name". Use of dotless names could provide potential innovations to the domain name industry and new gTLD applicants, but their use also raises usability, functionality, security and stability concerns as described in the SSAC report. On 23 June 2012, the ICANN Board directed staff to consult with the relevant communities regarding implementation of the recommendations in SAC 053 and to provide a briefing paper for the Board, detailing the issues and options available to mitigate such issues.

During the period of August to September 2012, a public comment period was held regarding the SAC 053 report. The public comment period made clear that dotless domain names are a subject of active discussion in the ICANN community, that no clear conclusion could be drawn, and that a greater effort to identify and explore solutions to the concerns raised before implementing SAC 053 recommendations could be useful.

 

Today, ICANN is announcing that it has commissioned a study on the potential risks related to dotless domain names based on SAC 053 report.

The study report will identify and describe the potential risks that dotless names raise with particular focus on those related to security and stability. The report will also provide options for ICANN as to how to mitigate the various risks and will describe the pros and cons of the options.

 

In both cases ICANN intends to deliver the study teams findings before the ICANN 47th meeting in Durban, South Africa.

 

 

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Joly MacFie  218 565 9365 Skype:punkcast WWWhatsup NYC - http://wwwhatsup.com  http://pinstand.com - http://punkcast.com  VP (Admin) - ISOC-NY - http://isoc-ny.org

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