Verisign vs. ICANN

Mon Aug 16 20:29:48 UTC 2004

On Aug 16, 2004, at 4:13 PM, Paul Vixie wrote:

> patrick at ianai.net (Patrick W Gilmore) writes:
>
>>> PS: I will patent it myself to prevent Versign from doing this.
>>
>> And if they do, what's to stop the root operators from doing this.
>
> the root server operators don't act collectively.

While correct, your statement does not answer the original question. :)

>> Remember, there are 13 IPs no one can get around - no other "TLD" to
>> register your domain name.
>
> according to the whackos, we are the "legacy root" operators, and folks
> ought to feel free to point their resolvers at any of the "alternative
> root" operators instead.  YMMV.

Let's confine the discussion to the 99.99% of us who use the Internet 
.. uh .. "normally".  (Best description I could think up.)

I mean, they are called "whackos" for a reason.

>> Flipped on its head, what's to stop the root operators from
>> circumventing anything Verisign or any other TLD operator does?
>
> root server operators don't control the root zone, they only publish 
> it.
> some combination of itu (via the iso3166 process), icann/iana, 
> ietf/iab,
> and us-DoC are the folks you'd go to if you wanted a toplevel wildcard.

Actually, the root server operators absolutely do _control_ the root 
zone in very obvious operationally relevant ways.

Whether that control could be used - improperly or not - to, say, 
insert a wildcard record strikes me as much the same question as the 
Verisign action which started this thread....

-- 
TTFN,
patrick