On-going Internet Emergency and Domain Names

Tue Apr 3 02:12:01 UTC 2007

On Fri, Mar 30, 2007 at 09:18:07PM -0500, Gadi Evron wrote:
> There is a current on-going Internet emergency: ...

Having just read and deleted somewhere between 100 and 400 messages on
this, I don't really want to add to the noise.  I hope there's some
signal here.

One thing is clear, that Gadi wants DNS completely re-vamped.  He says
that it as an infrastructure for abuse.

Come on!  DNS is a lookup mechanism.  It is the infrastructure for
EVERYTHING.  So, yes, it is the infrastructure for the abuse.  It is
ALSO the infrastructure for doing things right.  It may even be the
infrastructure for the solution.  [Vixie thinks it's DNSSEC - but the
problem is, the data being inserted IS authentic data, filed in a
registry.]

More likely, though, as this is a social problem, the solution is
completely outside the technical realm.  ICANN is working on the "domain
tasting" issue, as a quick lookup shows.  PIR has proposed a "restock
fee".  An independent report to ICANN advises that Versign should do the
same thing.  Will this stop domain tasting?  It will, at least, make it
less profitable.  Will this stop the "pirates"?  No, of course not, as
said at last fifty times in this thread.  But if this catches on world-
wide, they may choose a different mode of ingres into our lives than
this "fast-flux" route.

Will legislation solve anything?  Probably not.  Who legislates for the
entire world?  Although I did note that the WTO did smack the USA down
for some things recently, and they had to sit there and take it.  [Well,
with some ineffective loud complaints.]  So maybe there is someone who
can really enforcce international law.  I wouldn't know.  [Who DOES make
international law?  Is it just treaty and precedent?  Ooops, OT!]

Gadi wants a separate root server that he can trust.  I think we've
already seen the evil of separate roots, except those who claim it's our
saviour.  I fail to see the relevance, here, at all.  Besides, the root
is in so many countries today, why aren't we trusting it?  [Except for
the poorly run or separated copies.]

Gadi wants to be able to blacklist domain names immediately when called
for by ... oh, wait, we haven't figured that out yet.  It would have to
be someone who is always right before I would accept it.  And He hasn't
said a thing about domain names yet.

I kind of liked Doug Otis' suggestion of a mandatory waiting period for
all domain registrations.  Even if we didn't take the time to check all
registered domains for illegal payment methods or known name-terrorists
[;-)], it would certainly end the fast-flux capability.  Of course,
everyone would complain; but if it were universal, it would be accepted.

Would someone come up with a way around it?  Have they come up with a
way around the firearm waiting period?  Of course.  But it's harder.

But it's also not clear that, long-term [once they get bored with
fast-flux, or the easily mined value of it has gone] it really has any
merit.

I don't want to say that none of Gadi's own ideas have merit, because
they do.  [As long as one doesn't make a spectacular leap from one of
those to a totally unrelated idea with no visible support.]  Perhaps
there should be someone somewhere to whom the bewildered DNS user
[everybody!] can turn when there is a domain [not DNS, but a domain]
that is being abused.  The someone could look into it and see whether
it's purely an abuse domain, and if so, recommend that it be terminated.

As much as I like this idea, it has the possibility for turning into the
Inquisition.  It would need checks and balances - for none of us mere
humans could possibly find out all the uses of a domain, or how it was
paid for, or all the things for which it is used.  So we would have to
go with the best information we can find, and that may not be enough.
Ther would have to be checks and balances and appeals and all the
trappings of the more civilised sort of justice that allow people and
companies accused of violations of the law to keep doing it for years
before a resolution is found.  But this is what frustrates all of us,
Gadi no less than any.

And speaking of such companies, before "fixing" DNS, shouldn't we be
forcing the company whose software generates a whole industry in fixing
its bugs to correct itself?  Why is that not the issue?

There were too many other issues that I had wanted to address, but I
think this is getting too long already.  I do want to repeat, this is a
social problem, and needs social solutions, most likely ones that take a
bite out of the easy money causing the various abuses discussed in this
thread.

-- 
Joe Yao
Analex Contractor