The implementation of the plan for new top level domains
will have a destabilizing effect on several aspects of the Internet.
Increasing risk: mistakes happen, and a mistake such as
the one by Network Solutions, which led to domain names being inaccessible for upto 48
hours recently, will be much more likely to occur if the system is divided into a number
of databases and bodies in charge of administration. There are enough problems with one
database and one registrar. Imagine the madness surrounding 7 databases [all updated
daily!] and a potentially unlimited number of Registrars!
Increasing complexity: The success of the Internet as a
global medium depends in part on its simplicity. Although they are by no means instantly
understandable, Internet conventions are simplicity itself compared to the arcane, cryptic
commands and procedures in other areas of computing. Increase the number of domain names,
and you increase the complexity of the Internet. The Internet is already too complicated.
Any steps towards complexity are steps in the wrong direction.
Reduced funding: At the moment, the procedure is a little
flawed, but at least in theory much of the money collected for domain name registrations
gets reinvested in the network infrastructure. There is no provision for such an
investment in the current proposals for the new domain names.
Increased mistrust: The expansion in the number of top
level domains will lead to a very high increase in lawsuits. With
3 top domains, there are 3 potential lawsuits [.com vs .net,
.net vs .org, .com vs .org] for any given set of "matching" domain names. With 10 top domains, there are 45 potential lawsuits for each "matching" domain name [.com vs .org, .org vs .firm,
.web vs .net etc.]
Increased bureaucracy: One advantage of a
"monopolistic" arrangement like the current domain name system is that there is
a single entity responsible for the maintenance and upkeep of the domain name system. Once
the system is expanded, the amount of bureaucracy required to police and implement the
system will go up by several orders of magnitude. Bureaucracy = money, so this increase
will be reflected in the cost of domain name ownership.
Introduction