> >> At this point, NSI is the only gTLD registry.
> >
> >Not true. I operate a registry, of which I happen to be the only client
> >at the moment, for some TLD's which I designate as .com, .edu, .net, .org.
>
> Now this is getting silly.
Hardly. There is nothing that prevents *anybody* from opening up their
own system for their own .com, .net, .edu, .net, and all the cctlds.
There is absolutely nothing that says that there shall be exactly one
version of .com and the rest of the TLDs.
It's merely an extension of the concept that there need not be one
universal root.
The sillyness is that we are acting like Lemmings and marching into
the sea simply because we don't question the fact that neither NTIA
nor NSI nor ICANN have any ability or power whatsoever to exclude
anybody from operating any TLD that they chose to run for whatever
clients elect to use that service.
What is silly is the enormous brand name that NSI has been given, as a
gift, by NSF and NTIA.
There is much merit in having disjoint registries. Communities of
interest can admit only those who are willing to abide by certain
limitations -- a church might allow its registry system to include
only those who will promise not to allow porn sites.
I can hear the false wailing of those who will say "this would split
the net".
Nonesense, it no more splits the net than the fact of multiple
publishers of telephone books splits the telephone system.
--karl--
