[ncdnhc-discuss] Internet is global=we need central planning

[Michael Froomkin - U.Miami School of Law]

On Wed, 1 May 2002, Alejandro Pisanty - DGSCA y FQ, UNAM wrote:

> James,
> 
> I am saying that there has to be central coordination to ensure uniqueness
> of identifiers, and policies to ensure stability (you don't want a sudden

I think that data escrow and a host-of-last-resort policy meets this need.

> void to appear in namespace). That makes it very hard for, say, a govt to
> go on its own establishing a gTLD, without some agreements as to how it

STrange, they have all these bombs and things, and we don't make them sign
agreements with ICANN about those....

> will operate. You can maybe envision an ICANN-less world, in which these
> agreements are made on a peer-to-peer basis, but I find it unrealistic for

No. The idea is 1) that there exists commercial and other incentives that
will tend to police this well; 2) that to the extent (1) fails escrow
steps in; 3) in the unlikely event (1) and (2) fail, we cope for a short
period, just as people did when their ISPs died.

> this to occur without a forum where all registries can come together. And
> I would be surprised if you agreed for these decisions to be made in a
> registry-only closed organization. Which brings in the registrars,
> businesses, users, etc., and those with an opinion, like academics,
> consumer organizations, etc. Your title here "Internet is global" does
> have far reaching consequences; a locally generated TLD would be like a
> ccTLD, with responsibilities for those within the country and those
> outside (it is meant for location of the country's resources by outsiders
> as much as by locals, isn't it?).
> 
> All this implies a level of central coordination, not central planning. I
> find your subject line misleading in this sense.
> 

On the contrary.  The fear on instability means we must decentralize as
much as humanly possible to minimize the effects of errors.

Imagine if the internet creation process had been subject to what you
propose.  Or the design of software. Or hardware. We'd still be using
punch cards. And COBOL, if we were lucky.

-- 
[Note: I killfile Cr*cker, Kr*spin, JW*lliams]

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