[ga] Re: [ PFIR ] Take a Tiny First Step Toward Controlling Your Internet Addressing Destiny

["Jeffrey A. Williams" <jwkckid1@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

All,

  As an FYI.  Perhaps there are differing opinions here,
but still well worth the read and consideration.  Contacting
your respective representatives in this matter or concern
may be in order.


-----Original Message-----
>From: pfir@xxxxxxxx
>Sent: Nov 19, 2010 3:07 PM
>To: pfir-list@xxxxxxxx
>Subject: [ PFIR ] Take a Tiny First Step Toward Controlling Your Internet      
>Addressing Destiny
>
>
>  Take a Tiny First Step Toward Controlling Your Internet Addressing Destiny
>
>                http://lauren.vortex.com/archive/000783.html
>
>
>Greetings.  ICANN is preparing to inflict hundreds, and then
>thousands, of new top-level domains (TLDs) onto the global community
>of Internet users, which will serve mainly to sow confusion among
>consumers, and award vast monetary treasures to the tiny set of
>entities poised to rake in the dough as the masters of the existing
>domain name system -- see: "It's Time to Stop ICANN's Top-Level Domain
>(TLD) Lunacy!" ( http://bit.ly/dh6zOf [Lauren's Blog] ).
>
>Meanwhile, the U.S. Senate is forging ahead -- despite the pleas of
>experts and major Internet firms -- with COICA legislation, that
>would leverage the domain name registration system into a tool for
>global Internet censorship ( http://bit.ly/9OYmy1 [Washington Post] ).
>
>An alternative Internet name to address mapping system -- fully
>distributed, open source, fault-tolerant, secure, flexible, and not
>subject to centralized constraints, meddling, and censorship -- will
>take significant time to develop, and a long transition period for
>deployment.
>
>But I'd like to offer a modest suggestion to perhaps help start down
>this important path.
>
>Please take a look at: 
>
>http://www.vortex.com/{NETWORKINFO}.txt
>
>The five lines in that file (domain name, name servers, contact
>address), represent the crucial data (other than more detailed contact
>information, which could be easily added) that anyone on the planet
>needs to locate my associated Internet servers.  Virtually everyone
>with a Web site pays a domain name registrar -- year after year -- to
>maintain this sort of largely static information, while simultaneously
>enabling the associated registries as centralized points for
>controlling access to sites, shutting down sites, and perhaps very
>soon for broad site censorship regimes.
>
>We can do much better -- and we should get started now.  There are
>myriad issues involved, including some formidable "chicken and egg"
>dilemmas associated with site discoverability.  Security,
>authentication, validation, and a wide range of policy concerns also
>come into play.
>
>I believe that all of these issues and problems are capable of being
>worked and solved.  The result could ultimately be an Internet
>naming/addressing ecosystem that will be far more extensible,
>egalitarian, economical, secure, and resistant to centralized
>pressures related both to site naming identifiers and the means of
>network address mapping.
>
>So here's my specific suggestion.  If you're so inclined, and you
>operate a Web site, please consider placing a publicly-readable plain
>text file at the root of your site, named:
>
>{NETWORKINFO}.txt
>
>containing the appropriate data for your site, modeled after my
>example file as noted above.  Be sure to list your domain name, all
>name servers, and at least the technical contact email address.
>
>Consider this as a first tiny step toward freeing your site from
>central control -- more a demonstration of potential interest than
>anything else at this stage, but still a potentially useful exercise.
>
>I strongly recommend making this address info page discoverable by
>search engines.  In my own case, I've created a visible, home page
>"Net Address Info" link to the file, but sitemaps and other mechanisms
>can also be used to assure that search engines will find your
>{NETWORKINFO}.txt file.  Try to keep the file updated with any changes
>to your name servers or associated data.
>
>If you want to drop me a line via email when you create such a file
>for your site, that would be appreciated.
>
>Just a tiny experimental step.  Only the merest initial flicker
>against the darkness, as we try to make the Internet better for
>everyone, not only the privileged few.
>
>After all, it's always darkest before the dawn.  Even on the Internet.
>
>Thanks.
>
>--Lauren--
>Lauren Weinstein (lauren@xxxxxxxxxx)
>http://www.vortex.com/lauren
>Tel: +1 (818) 225-2800
>Co-Founder, PFIR (People For Internet Responsibility): http://www.pfir.org
>Founder, NNSquad (Network Neutrality Squad): http://www.nnsquad.org
>Founder, GCTIP (Global Coalition for Transparent Internet Performance): 
>   http://www.gctip.org
>Founder, PRIVACY Forum: http://www.vortex.com
>Member, ACM Committee on Computers and Public Policy
>Lauren's Blog: http://lauren.vortex.com
>Twitter: https://twitter.com/laurenweinstein
>Google Buzz: http://bit.ly/lauren-buzz
>
>_______________________________________________
>pfir mailing list
>http://lists.pfir.org/mailman/listinfo/pfir

Regards,
Jeffrey A. Williams
"Obedience of the law is the greatest freedom" -
   Abraham Lincoln

"Credit should go with the performance of duty and not with what is very
often the accident of glory" - Theodore Roosevelt

"If the probability be called P; the injury, L; and the burden, B; liability
depends upon whether B is less than L multiplied by
P: i.e., whether B is less than PL."
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