Re: [wg-c] .com vs. ccTLDs in Europe

["William X. Walsh" <william@dso.net>]

On 21-Oct-99 Kent Crispin wrote:
> 3) A more restrictive .com/.net/.org would mean that other 
> registries would get more business.  This would create a more 
> balanced competitive environment.

As an operator of a third level domain registry, I challenge this
assertion.

The third level registry market would not have benefited from this
type of structure.  Public perception was and is the major obstacle
to this.  When I was a volunteer dept. head with the ml.org
registry, one of the major points raised when someone would try and
setup a commercial site using a yourname.ml.org domain name was
that it couldn't possibly be taken seriously, both because they
didn't register a second level domain name, and because their
domain name ended in .org.

The third level domain market consists of people who tend to use
these domain names for non-commercial purposes.  There are a few
notable exceptions, mostly in the very low dredges of the adult
website industry, where third level domains are cheap (or free)
means of using a domain name to try and drive traffic to low
quality/amateurish/illegal adult sites.  Usually at the detriment
of the reputation of the registry.  This is why most of the TLDRs
have clauses that permit them to remove domain names at will for
any reason at all usually, without notice and without justification.

This is also why most TLDRs do not charge, but are free, or
advertiser supported.  When no money changes hands, the user has no
expectation of quality of service.

Many TLDRs have been discriminated against, with network operators
blocking email to/from their domain name holders, and other extreme
actions.  After all, it is just a third level domain registry, not
something important like .com. (Yes that was an actual statement
made by someone who filtered out *.ml.org at his ISP's mailserver)

To try and drag third level domain registries into this, and try
and tie them into this mess as a possible solution, ignores many of
the day to day realities that face third levle domain registries
that no second level domain registry has to face, or would have to
face.


--
William X. Walsh - DSo Internet Services
Email: william@dso.net  Fax:(209) 671-7934
Editor of http://www.dnspolicy.com/