Root Authority

Tue Dec 16 12:06:26 UTC 2003

>> Sorry Mr Bush.  We derive our authority from the old IANA, who
>> assigned out the exiting roots.

>No, that's who *appointed* you.  However, you derive your actual
>authority from all the named.ca hints files that point to you.

Valdis is right. I suppose I could repeat my post about the free market
economy of ideas, but if anyone missed it last time, it's in the
NANOG archives here:
http://www.merit.edu/mail.archives/nanog/msg00294.html

The root servers are yet another area in which authority grew
on its own rather than being handed down from above. If the explanations
of this seem confusing it's because, like the Tao, what can be spoken
is only a one-sided view of what really is.

--Michael Dillon