Luke,

neat response! :-)

I'll draft the letter over the coming week (it'll take some days to get the words
honed to the appropriate level of accuracy).

thanks,

   Geoff



At 10:11 AM 4/12/96, Luke Carruthers wrote:
>> >> If this is not possible, then should the x-IA should be
>> >> lobbying the government for legislation to protect DNS
>> >> registering bodies from litigation?
>> >
>> >This has been raised with the relevant government bodies, but the
>> >issue has not been definitively resolved one way or another as yet.
>> 
>> I'm sorry but this is simply not good enough is my reaction. 
>> This is the ABSOLUTE CORE of the issue, and if there is
>> ONE THING to fix to allow the DNS to work I'd suggest
>> that this is IT (have I made the point clearly enough yet?)
>
>While I perhaps wouldn't have said it the same way, I must agree
>that this is a central issue to any possible future structure for
>DNS management.  You have been part of the restructuring process from
>the beginning, and I do recall your arguments in favour of this at
>the last meeting.  The "relevant government bodies" means essentially
>DOCA - perhaps we can prevail upon you to draft a letter on behalf of
>the DNS forum to DOCA regarding the issue?
>
>Luke Carruthers
>Magna Data
>Internet Solutions Provider
>
>> This is covered  in http://www.aunic.net/doms.html  but as so many of the
>> readers of this list have evidently done their homework and read this 
>> background document, and the related DNS documents (NOT!) I'll quote
>> from it:
>> 
>> 
>> "The fundamental cause of this flawed environment is the implicit
>>  assumption that the Internet Domain Name environment is not considered
>>  an authoritative name source, and litigants can cite other name
>>  authorities as some form of overriding legitimacy of exclusive right
>>  to a name and claim damages against the operators of the domain name
>>  system. This is a flawed environment, and can only be addressed by a
>>  fundamental shift within the public regulatory environment to allow a
>>  managed framework of registration of Internet domain Names, where due
>>  adherence to the defined framework will ensure that the process
>>  creates a name authority for the a name which is functionally
>>  independent of any other means of citation of authority to use a
>>  name. Thus the process of assigning a domain name of, say,
>>  <b>xyz.com.au</b> to an entity (on the basis that the name
>>  <b>xyz.com.au</b> was not assigned to any other party, that the bona
>>  fides of the applicant had been established, the appropriate fees (if
>>  stipulated) had been paid and the relevant administrative policy and
>>  process for the .com.au SLD had been followed) should be an act which
>>  does not incur a subsequent liability on the part of the .com.au DA or
>>  the registry operators. This does require some form of public
>>  instrument to effect this critical change in recognising the
>>  authenticity of the Internet Domain Name environment. It is noted that
>>  such public regulation of the activity may be accompanied by operation
>>  of the process by a duly created operating entity as a component of
>>  government administration, or in other cases it may be accompanied by
>>  a process of passing the responsibility for the operation to duly
>>  licensed bodies. Either approach would be a significant step forward
>>  in preserving the value and utility of the <b>.au</b> name domain over
>>  the current situation, as it would add a visible line of derivation of
>>  authority within a process where the ultimate functionality of the
>>  Internet domain name system is the foremost concern and the integrity
>>  of that functionality would be best safeguarded through such
>>  measures."
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> -- 
>> Geoff.Huston&#167;telstra.net
>> 
>> Network Technical Manager    Locked Bag 5744,
>> Telstra Internet             Canberra  ACT  2601
>>                              AUSTRALIA
>> 
>> ph  +61 6 208 1908
>> fax +61 6 248 6165
>> 
>> 
>> -----------------------
>> And as a quick postscript to those cut and paste reporters lurking
>> out there...
>> 
>> Copyright of this message is asserted by Geoff Huston
>> Permission to reproduce this message in whole or in part in any medium
>> other than the Internet is expressly NOT provided by the copyright owner.
>> -----------------------
>> 
>> 
>>