[ga] Long-term renewals, and the year 2038 problem

[George Kirikos <gkirikos@xxxxxxxxx>]

Hello,

Right now, the maximum domain name registration is 10 years, for the
largest TLDs. Thus, the largest date that registrars/registrars are
dealing with these days is in 2017.

However, suppose overnight the policy switched to permit 40 year (or
longer) registrations, as a service to registrants. How many
registrars/registries would encounter issues (i.e. would meltdown) due
to the Year 2038 problem, i.e. due to "wrap around" in their date/time
libraries, see:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Year_2038_problem

Back in 1999, there was an ICANN document that mentioned 2038, namely
that it was out of scope for discussion.

http://www.icann.org/committees/dns-root/y2k-statement.htm

Karl had brought up the issue a few years ago, see:

http://www.cavebear.com/cbblog-archives/000081.html

I think this is an area where ICANN and the Board can take a leadership
role today, in a purely technical area, and perhaps set a target that
all important systems be 2038-compliant within a set period, perhaps 3
or 5 years from now. There's no immediate rush to "panic", but if folks
just forget about the issue, it won't simply go away --- it will need
to be dealt with eventually, and there's no better time to start
thinking about it than now, as folks rewrite their code in the ordinary
course of business, upgrade to 64-bit platforms, etc.

I would think infrastructure systems like DNS/bind/root-servers would
be at the top of the list to make sure they are compliant, then
registry/registrar operations, WHOIS, and then having outreach towards
application providers to some degree (e.g. email systems, web browsers,
SSL, etc.). This need not cost a lot or be controversial, it just needs
strategic use of ICANN's "bully pulpit," so to speak, on an important
technical matter. In 2037 (or even sooner, if longer term registrations
were permitted), when other organizations are scrambling to rewrite
their systems, we can all look back and say "been there, done that."

Happy Easter!

Sincerely,

George Kirikos
http://www.kirikos.com/