New Internet Domain Name System Coming

September 7th, 2007

In a move that recognizes the proliferation and diversity of Internet sites, the system used to specify Internet locations such as Web sites and e-mail addresses will expand to include seven new top-level domain names, an international Internet committee announced.

Seven new generic top-level domains will be added to the existing domains of .com, .net, and .org. They will go into effect once a working registration process is established, according to the announcement by the International Ad Hoc Committee, or IAHC. The new domains and their intended fields of use are:

• .firm, for businesses or firms
• .store, for businesses offering goods to purchase
• .web, for entities emphasizing activities
  related to the Web

• .arts, for cultural and entertainment groups
• .rec, for entities emphasizing recreation/entertainment
• .info, for organizations providing information services
• .nom, for individual or personal nomenclature

To ease this new Domain Name System into operation, up to 28 new registrars will be appointed according to IAHC requirements. The new registrars will be selected by lottery from applicants in each of seven worldwide regions designated by the World Trade Organization, said Donald Heath, president and CEO of the Internet Society and chair of the IAHC.

Each of the seven regions will have four registrars, Heath said. It can be literally anybody-it could be a start-up, it could be Microsoft, it could be AT&T. We have established a very objective requirements policy.

Chris Clough, a spokesman for Network Solutions, the organization that along with AT&T administers the current InterNIC domain name registration process, said the expansion could pose a problem for current domain name holders.

If the new top-level domain names force CocaCola.com, for example, to switch to CocaCola.firm or CocaCola.store, others could swoop in and try to claim the new name. That’s because InterNIC uses a modified first-come-first-serve approach to name registration, but the IAHC plan calls for a complex system of arbitration and mediation. Registrants would continue to own their existing extensions.

We’re concerned about stability and integrity of the registration process, Clough said. We want to ensure that, for the existing 900,000 registrants, there is no interruption of service.

The InterNIC system, which works under the authority of the National Science Foundation, has faced heavy international criticism since its implementation in 1992, said Ross Rubin, group director for the industry research firm Jupiter Communications. Copyright issues and InterNIC’s monopolistic control over U.S. domain name registration are among the perennial complaints, Rubin said.

[Network Solutions] has come under fire since it was given exclusive authority, Rubin said. They were going to open up the registration process to 50 new registrars, which pissed off our friends overseas. There were copyright issues-it was a big morass.

Heath said deployment of the IAHC plan will depend on when the new registrars are named and a non-regulatory policy framework is established among several other international Internet policy makers, including InterNIC.

I think if things go well, you’re talking four months or more, Heath said. All of the details aren’t going to be as simple as we’d like to believe. Actually, the end of the year may be more like it.

Rubin said the various Internet policy makers are likely to support the new IAHC plan. Everyone has a vested interest, and they understand that the greater good is served if they’re all on board.

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