Re: [wg-c] reposted for Richard S. Campbell

[Kent Crispin <kent@songbird.com>]

On Wed, Dec 22, 1999 at 10:05:45AM -0500, Harold Feld wrote:
> Jonathan Weinberg (for Richard S. Campbell) wrote:
> >
> > Now, there are a lot of weaknesses in this idea, not the least of which is
> > the actual definition of bank, and who would define it.
> 
> A number of people have raised this issue for "chartered" TLDs.

Yes, since mid 1996.

> Might I suggest that preserving the character of a chartered TLD is a
> value-added service that a registry will want to maintain on its own.

That is, you could repeat one of the suggestions that has been made 
many times in the past...

> For example, if I maintain ".cpa", I will market it as a convenience
> for folks looking for (or looking to be identified as) CPAs or
> somehow CPA-related.

In general there is no reason that the registry would be adding this
"value-added service", and in fact, in most cases it would be desirable 
to separate those functions.  To examine the .cpa example in more 
detail:  

CPA is a us-centric term, and it is American Institute of Certified
Public Accountants (AICPA) that grants CPA certification.  It is the
only entity so entitled, and it there are legal constraints that prevent
someone from using the term "CPA" if they are not certified.  Note that 
the AICPA has a total monopoly on the granting of CPA certificates.  
Therefore, it is the AICPA that needs to run the registry -- it already 
has all the information on the applicants, and can identify them with 
certainty. 

On the other hand, the AICPA has no experience with the technical
aspects of running a DNS registry.  Therefore, the obvious arrangement
is that the AICPA would perform the value added service of
authenticating the individual or firm, and perhaps assigning the domain
name.  But it would contract out all the other technical functions of
the dns registry to a registry operator. 

This arrangement has come to be called a "sponsored" TLD.  The AICPA in 
this case is the sponsor; the registry operator is a contractor.  It is 
the AICPA that is delegated the TLD, not the registry operator; the 
AICPA already has an approved monopoly function, and therefore there is 
no issue of creating a new monopoly.


-- 
Kent Crispin                               "Do good, and you'll be
kent@songbird.com                           lonesome." -- Mark Twain