[ga] The Aftertaste

[Danny Younger <dannyyounger@xxxxxxxxx>]

Some thoughts.

Let's for a moment pretend that the practice of domain
tasting has disappeared.

What awaits us next?  Already we have scoundrels
soliciting NXDomain data on the NANOG lists and
elsewhere.  Such data is purportedly already being
purchased from certain ISPs, and, of course, ICANN (in
the exercise of its perverse wisdom) has already
granted the registries the right to sell their own
traffic data.

So soon we can expect an ongoing flurry of
registrations that will be based on NXD traffic
records.  Naturally, those domains that will be
registered will invariably be typosquats of major
brands/trademarks -- why should we expect anything
else?

All that will have happened with the end of domain
tasting will be a shift in market models -- you will
still see a pattern of abuse into the future that will
tacitly be aided by both registries and registrars.

As such, we can't just think about how to stop
"tasting"; instead, we should be thinking about
mechanisms designed to clean up the mess that ICANN
has made, that would allow for the rapid takedown of
the typosquats that have emerged while ICANN looked
the other way and ignored its responsibility to the
community.  

In the U.S., the Snowe bill reflects the sentiment
that ICANN can't be trusted to do the job that it was
assigned; measures are being designed to actively
regulate registrar practices (as the general view is
that registrars are incapable of engaging in their own
self-regulation).

This may be one of our last chances to demonstrate
that the ICANN community is capable of dealing with a
problem and is capable of cleaning up its own mess...
otherwise, regulations will be indeed forced upon the
supplier community and the very nature of the Internet
that many have sought to promote will change for the
worse as the heavy hand of Government will intrude to
a greater and greater degree as time goes by.

Either ICANN manages the namespace or the governments
will -- the resource is just too important to allow
for ineptitude or a wild west attitude to prevail.


      
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