Docket No. 980212036-8172-03: U.S. Gov't Position on ccTLDs and national govern

["J. William Semich (NIC JWS7)" <bsemich@mail.nu>]

August 30, 1998
MEMO

To: Kathy Smith, Acting Chief Counsel
    National Telecommunications and Information Administration,
    Dept. of Commerce

From: J. William Semich
      President
      Internet Users Society - Niue
      P.O. Box 91
      Alofi, Niue, via Auckland, NZ
      The South Pacific

RE:   Docket No. 980212036-8172-03
      The U.S. Government's Position on ccTLDs and national governments

Dear Ms. Smith;

I would like to bring your attention to a potentially dangerous and
erroneous assumption you appear to have made in question number 8 in the
"Questions for Public Comment" in THE DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE, NATIONAL
TELECOMMUNICATIONS AND INFORMATION ADMINISTRATION, Docket No.
980212036-8172-03, "Request for Comments on the Enhancement of the .us
Domain Space." 

In that question, you ask:

"8.How well has the system of delegating third-level domains
(localities) to private registrars on an exclusive basis worked? How
could it be improved? Should registrars be accountable to their
delegated localities *(just as country-code registries are accountable
to national governments)?*" [emphasis added]

The current ccTLD registries are not, either as a matter of law or of
Internet standards (RFCs), explicitly "accountable to national
governments". In RFC 1591, the current document that explains how
country code registries should be delegated and what the delegated ccTLD
registries' responsibilities should be, no mention of the word
"government" is made. 

Country-code registries are delegated, under RFC 1591, to set the
policies for and manage domain name registration and sub-delegation for
the ISO 3166 Country Code TLDs associated with some 240 countries,
islands, sub-territories and scores of non-national locations (both
occupied and unoccupied, governed and not governed) throughout the
world.

Antarctica, for example, has an ISO 3166 Country Code associated with it
(AQ) and thus also an ISO 3166 ccTLD (.aq). That is not to say
Antarctica has a "national government." And in those ISO 3166 Country
Code areas which do have national or local governments, it is not a
forgone conclusion by any stretch that either the national government or
the local government is directly involved in the ccTLD delegation
selection process or with the registration procedures of second level
domain names for the ISO 3166 country-code TLD associated with the
locality where it governs. 

RFC 1591 clearly states that the IANA, the current entity with the
responsibility for overseeing implementation of country code TLD
delegation, "is not in the business of deciding what is and what is not
a country. The selection of the ISO 3166 list as a basis for country
code top-level domain names was made with the knowledge that ISO has a
procedure for determining which entities should be and should not be on
that list." 

The NTIA and the U.S. Commerce Department could be construed as
propagating misinformation to the public at large if, as you appear to
be stating in the publicly posted Docket No. 980212036-8172-03, you are
asserting that the U.S. government believes country-code registries are,
either as a matter of law, or of Internet Standards rulings or of U.S.
Government policy, "accountable to national governments." 

I would hope that you either modify your RFC or you submit an addendum
to Docket No. 980212036-8172-03 that clarifies to the general public
that the NTIA, the U.S. Commerce Dept and the U.S. Government have no
position on whether "country-code registries are accountable to national
governments" or not.

There are more that 200 Country Code TLD Registries active on the
internet today, and it is important that the U.S. Government continue to
maintain a position of neutrality concerning how these registries are
managed now and into the future.

Sincerely,

J. William Semich (NIC JWS7)
President
Internet Users Society - Niue
Box 91
Alofi, Niue, via Auckland, NZ, The South Pacific
bsemich@mail.nu

The .NU Domain
http://www.nunames.nu
Memberships: WWTLD, APTLD, APIA, ISP/C. ISOC, PAB (gTLD-MoU)