Freedom of choice, anybody?

[Walter Dnes]

On Thu, Oct 13, 2005 at 09:30:01PM -0400, meng wrote
> Zbigniew Koziol wrote:
> 
> Why does the internet need "ORSN"?

  A reporter once said to Linus Torvalds that the large number of linux
distros was very confusing.  To which Linus retorted that the residents
of former East Germany were similarly confused during their first
election in unified Germany... all those political parties to choose
from on the ballot... what to do?

  The best analogy to DNS is a phonebook.  You enter a (machine) name
and get back a number (IP address).  An alternate root system is like
those alternate phone books from Telus.  You can use them if you wish.
Or you can ignore them.  New.Net has a kludgy setup right now that tries
to offer something similar, but it's not really a root server.  Again,
if you don't like the alternates, don't point resolv.conf at their
system.

> Until now, the administration is done by the USA and/or the ICANN. 
> Therefor, a large number of root-servers is located in America. A loss 
> or the modification of the root-server information could result in 
> serious consequences for all other countries concerning their internet 
> use. It is for example possible to stop a whole country from using the 
> internet. In practice, this scenario didn't happen so far

  Wrong, wrong, wrong.  Iraq's ".iq" TLD was de-activated before the
2003 war.  No, it was *NOT* at Sadam's request, either.  George Bush can
pick up the phone and order the de-activation of any domain on the
planet... he just has to mumble something about "National Security" and
all the "checks and balances" go by the wayside.

> but it can't be excluded either.

  It *HAS* happened once, it can happen again.  Given how important the
internet is to many national economies, there are a lot of countries
that are scared of the fact that their net access is controlled by an
American corporation, which is subject to American law.  It is a matter
of national security for every country on the planet that they have the
ability to control their own domains.

  Not only was the .iq domain shut down in 2003, it was originally
allocated in 1997 to a Palestinian emigre living in the USA!!!  Read
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/06/30/iraq_internet_domain/ (note;
it's a *LONG* article).  After you finish, ask youself, do you *REALLY*
trust a system under which an American company can hand your country's
domain to someone of another nationality who lives in the USA???

-- 
Walter Dnes <waltdnes-SLHPyeZ9y/tg9hUCZPvPmw at public.gmane.org>
An infinite number of monkeys pounding away on keyboards will
eventually produce a report showing that Windows is more secure,
and has a lower TCO, than linux.
--
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