It chaps my hide (was Re: [thelist] New TLDs on the way .. for better or worse.)

[Oliver Lineham]

At 14:35 17/07/00 -0500, you wrote:

>If someone really wanted to get around to making their own tld (and I 
>would be the first to recommend .Greg) all they would have to do is start 
>making a
>server or system of servers to hint for the new tlds (and publish a patch
>for BIND to allow two hint caches).  A linux-type movement could eradicate
>the need for NS or domain registrars completely.

i was chatting with isaac yesterday about this same thing:  you are right, 
it is important to remember that the dns is based entirely on trust.  you 
trust the ns's above you to give you goot data, and root-servers.net is 
sitting at the top.  it is a matter of convincing enough people to trust 
some different servers instead or as well.

as it happens, people have been trying for a while.  the one that comes to 
mind most quickly is www.alternic.org - who will happily sell you domains 
under ".PORN", or sell you ".GREG" for US$1200.   of course, it's pretty 
pointless as almost no one trusts their root servers.

a dns "revolt" *could* happen, if ICANN were to seriously mishandle the dns 
and upset enough sysadmins.

</ol>

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