new.net: yet another dns namespace overlay play

Wed Mar 7 02:54:31 UTC 2001

Patrick,

> > ICANN's prospective failure is evidently in the mind of the beholder.
>Besides producing a UDRP that allows trademark interests to convienently
>reverse-hijack domains

 From the Wired article:

     [New.Net CEO] Hernand said New.net will follow ICANN's
     dispute resolution policy. "The system is not perfect.
     Trademark issues are complicated, but we determined
      this is the best approach for now."

Sounds like new.net will be using the same UDRP that ICANN is.

>and the selection of a handful of lackluster
>TLDs from a pool of applicants paying a non-refundable 50k fee in a
>completely arbitrary and capricious process,

I don't think anyone would claim ICANN has done a good job in dealing with 
adding top level domains.  It isn't clear to me that new.net's approach is 
any better (in fact, I figure it is significantly worse).  As an aside, I 
believe new.net approached Nominum to provide services and we declined -- 
we are interested in helping to make the DNS infrastructure better, not 
helping it devolve into chaos.

>perhaps you could point to
>some of the many successes of ICANN as an organization?

Like plumbing, you should only notice ICANN when it breaks.  The fact that 
ICANN continues to exist despite the absolute insanity now associated with 
the DNS is a success.

Rgds,
-drc