Magaziner May Offer Fewer Domains

Welcome Guest. | Log In| Register | Membership Benefits

January 20, 1998 (12:00 AM EST)

By John Borland,

Presidential technology adviser Ira Magaziner indicated in a series of conversations over the last week that the U.S. government's soon-to-be-released plans for restructuring the Internet's domain name system may favor big-name trademark holders over companies that want to expand the Web's stock of real estate.

Magaziner told representatives from the Council of Registrars (Core), an international group of companies that wants to add new top-level domain names to the system, that they may have to be satisfied with only a single new domain in the early days of the new system. Existing top level domains, like .com, .org, or .net, are currently assigned by Network Solutions under contract with the National Science Foundation.

"It's like a complete 180-degree turn by the White House," said Core executive committee chairman Alan Hanson. "To suddenly have this happen is shocking. We're stunned." Core and its associate body, the Policy Oversight Committee, had been talking with administration figures for a year "without any indication that there was a problem with our seven top-level domains," Hanson said.

Magaziner could not be reached for comment.

The Geneva-based Core group, which has proposed that it take over responsibility for adminstering the Internet's top-level domain system from the U.S. government, announced last week that it would open a registration system in March using seven new domains, including .firm, .shop, .web, .arts, .rec, .info, and .nom.

The flurry of meetings and teleconferences between Magaziner, Core principals, and other interested parties amounts to a last-minute round of negotiation sessions before the U.S. government releases its recommendations for privatizing the Net's current ad-hoc governing structure. The federal plan originally was due last Nov. 1, but has been delayed as Magaziner and other federal officials continue to solicit information from the academics and business interests that will be affected.

Magaziner said last Thursday that the White House recommendations were likely to be released late this week or early next week. "If the draft just gets torn to pieces and everyone thinks it's terrible, we'll start over again and take the criticisms and try to produce something better," he said in a Net Insider interview. "If the draft with some modifications can eventually achieve consensus, then we'll go with that as a plan."

The question of how many new top-level domains to add to the system has been one of the thorniest political problems for Magaziner and his team. Core had originally asked for 100 new top-level domains, and other groups are asking for hundreds more. But companies that have been scrambling to protect their trademarked names on the Web have lobbied heavily against expanding the number of new domains. Each new .firm or .shop would add potential for "cybersquatters" to try to register something like "disney.firm" or "nike.shop," they say.

"[Magaziner] has got 40 or 50 of the most major corporations in the world today who have been meeting with him regularly to tell him that adding new domains would hopelessly exacerbate their intellectual property and trademark problems," said Network Solutions Inc. (NSI) senior vice president Don Telage, who has been in close contact with the president's Net adviser. "You can imagine if we added hundreds or even dozens of new top-level domains what the intellectual property costs would be. It would mean millions and millions of dollars in legal fees."

Several additional proposals that likely will find their way into the government's Green Paper proposal also have emerged out of Magaziner's week of conversations.

The government is likely to propose an end to the $30 tax now imposed on new domain registrations, Core officials said. These funds, which amount to nearly a third of the $100 paid to Network Solutions for every new domain, currently flow into a Net infrastructure maintenance fund.

Magaziner also is reportedly considering splitting Network Solutions into two separate entities. One half would continue the business of doling out new domain names to the public, and would likely continue its control over the familiar .com, .net, and .org domains at least through the end of a transition period. The company's database, or registry, function would be split off and would eventually compete with other similar databases for the business of registrar companies like NSI or Core's members.

If the Core group is given only a single new top-level domain to administer, many of the small companies involved will have a difficult time surviving, Hanson said. "With every top-level domain that drops off, 15 percent of the business model is gone," he said. "It will bankrupt a bunch of little companies."

Hanson and other Core members were unsure how solid Magaziner's proposals were, they said. "It was offered to get our attention," Hanson said. "I didn't read this as what was going to come out in the Green Paper."

But Telage said he thought the administration draft plan was close to its final form. "I'm not sure it's going to be rock solid," Telage said. "But I think he's got the boundaries filled out in his mind."