Re: [ga] Re: [ncdnhc-discuss] WLS proposal

["Olivier MJ Crepin-Leblond" <ocl@gih.com>]

>From: "Marc Schneiders" <marc@fuchsia.bijt.net>
>To: "Olivier MJ Crepin-Leblond" <ocl@gih.com>
>Cc: <ga@dnso.org>; <james.love@cptech.org>
>Sent: Wednesday, June 19, 2002 4:41 PM
>Subject: Re: [ga] Re: [ncdnhc-discuss] WLS proposal


> On Wed, 19 Jun 2002, at 15:26 [=GMT+0100], Olivier MJ Crepin-Leblond
wrote:
>
> > Why is "expiry" information published and openly accessed by the rest of
the
> > world in the WHOIS database ? Does this help anybody apart from domain
> > name hoarders/pirates/speculators ?
>
> Yes, people that want to register a domain that expires to use it.

As Gary Osbourne has already mentioned, if I had a gee-whizz great idea
for a Web site, I would not be waiting for a domain to expire, to implement
the idea. Nobody waits for domains to expire to use them - nobody, apart
from those people that want to make money from re-selling the domain
at a premium. Besides, since the vast majority of domains are renewed,
you'd have a bigger chance of winning a million dollars at the state lottery
than to wait for a domain to expire and not be renewed by its owner.

> > 5. if the domain name holder prefers not to renew the domain, the
domain's
> > details are erased from the database altogether, and the domain falls
into
> > obscurity. Anybody could re-register it again, but they first need to
find
> > out
> > if it exists, and that involves a lot of work.
>
> Not at all. Scripts, cron.

Scripts & Cron are fine - but can you imagine how many scripts and
cron jobs would have to be run to check for all domain names that might
have expired? Anybody here remembers a game called "Core Wars" ?
This is a game I first played in the mid 80s, on the then ArpaNet.
The issue of expiring domain names, cron jobs and automated scripts
reminds me more and more of this. In "Core Wars", you would let a
small program out in a virtual piece of memory, and it would propagate,
thus eating up other programs when its own code copied itself onto
part of another person's code. With the current perceived value of
domain names, it wouldn't surprise me if some people/companies
spent an anormous amount of time and money to devise, the
ultimate domain grabbing/monitoring device. This does not smell
good for the future. If you treat the DNS like a punchbag, it will
eventually break at the seams.

> > Remember that automatic data
> > mining of the WHOIS database contradicts the AUP of the registrar.
>
> Mining is about getting email addresses for spam. Trying to find out about
> a domain or a limited set of domains is not.

Data Mining is anything to do with automated scanning of a database,
and the use of intelligent automated agents to make sense of it, and
process it into information that will be useful to a specific purpose,
whether it is for spamming, or registering expired domains.

>
> Also, trying to grab a released domain does not operate over whois,
> obviously. One just tries to register is every so often. So your plan will
> only increase the hammering on the registry...

See "Core Wars", above. They are breaking the Registry's AUP if
they do such a thing, and some kind of rule, similar to those rules
passed about SPAM e-mails, should be drafted.

>
> > How much more difficult can it be than this ?
> > It is the fairest way to run the DNS.
>
> It is merely a variant of 'security by obscurity'. What is worse: big
> players can work around your scheme (by setting up a shaddow whois for
> interesting domains _with_ expiry dates); ordinary users of domain names
> cannot. Your plan will increase the hold of speculators on names.
>

If mining the WHOIS database breaks AUP guidelines, then yes, they
could set-up a shadow whois for interesting domains with expiry dates.
But then, there is the issue of cost - at the end of the day, does it make
business sense to go through so much pain and hardship, just to get hold
of a particular domain, bearing in mind that we have passed the peak
of crazyness, and today, you'd be hard-pressed to find a punter that will
want a domain name so badly that they'll pay millions...

--
Olivier MJ Crepin-Leblond, Ph.D. |--> Global Information Highway Limited
E-mail:<ocl@gih.com> | Tel:+44 (0)7956 84 1113 | Fax:+44 (0)20 7937 7666
Web: http://www.gih.com/ & http://www.nsrc.org/codes/country-codes.html

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