Confederation of European Computer User Associations

Domain names have been quite frequently in the news recently although they have not exactly grabbed the headlines - certainly not in the popular press.

What is going on then? Well there are several issues, but in order to help you understand them, I will first of all explain what a Domain name is, why we have them and how they are administered.

All computers that are connected to the Internet have a unique number which is its "address". The number is of the form 123.456.789.012 which is rather boring and very difficult to remember. Nevertheless, such a number must be used whenever you wish to contact a particular computer. Then somebody came up with the idea of using names and having a centralised service to convert these names to numbers. However, there needs to be some sort of structure to the addresses (just as with postal addresses) and so the concept of "Domains" was developed. Further, because the names are structured, it is necessary to control the issue of these names, and so "Registrars" were set up. This is the reason that we need to have an organisation like "ICANN" (The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers). So what are the problems?

The main problem is that the Internet was originally set up in the US as a military and academic network (ARPA) and it has now grown into an international information service and facility without the implications being fully understood. In earlier days, there was a rush to register domain names under the TLDs (Top Level Domains such as .com, .org, etc.) without understanding the legal implications internationally. This has left a legacy of problems over Trade Marks, registered company names etc. For example, Prince (an English computer systems company) bought the domain name www.prince.com quite legally through a US company. After using this website for a few years, Prince's legal right to use this domain was challenged by a US company (also called Prince in the US), because it was registered under US Federal Law and they brought a court action to gain the right to use the domain www.prince.co. Fortunately, common sense prevailed and the company Prince of the UK was allowed to continue using this name. However, this type of problem is going to arise again in the international market because of two basic problems. The principal companies administering the International Domain Name system are registered and operate under US law. Secondly, individuals, companies etc. were allowed to register under global domain names such as .com and .org etc. Surely, the administration of the Internet should be controlled by International Laws and the use of registered names should NOT be permitted using global domains - they should be registered under the ccTLDs (country code Top Level Domains) and only in those countries where they have a legal right to use those names. (Each country has been assigned a Top Level Domain - ccTLD - which was originally intended to permit national domains to be set up for organisations etc. in those countries. However, the Registrars remain under the control of ICANN).

From the time that the Internet has been open for commercial use, it has been recognised by some enterprising individuals that some names can be valuable, and have registered the names of individuals and companies with the hope of making a large profit by coercing those legally entitled to use the name into paying large sums of money to use there own name on the Internet. This is known as "cyber squatting" and measures are now being taken to minimise this activity. However, a US company is now marketing ccTLDs such as .ws (as this name can presumably stand for "Web Site" rather than for the country of Samoa). Apparently this appears to be quite legal - I cannot find any agreements that have been made between ICANN and Samoa). Even worse, there are companies "registering" names under .eu - even though the name has not yet been accepted as a TLD and the organisation making the offer is an official Registrar with a contract with ICANN. Some would regard these activities as undesirable (although others would consider them as a valid commercial activity in the same vein as personalised number plates for vehicles).

Another area that is of concern is the question of character sets. In Europe, for example, only one in six citizens has English as a mother tongue, and most European tongues requires special characters. Whilst ICANN have made some moves towards accommodating non-US character sets, it still seems to be fixed to the idea of using a derivative of ASCII rather than using an established multi language character set such as Unicode. There has been much talk over the years of having a full international character set but nothing much has happened. This disastrous as far as users are concerned particularly those using non-Latin character sets. Why can't ICANN accept the use of Unicode in domain names?

So where does all this lead us? The problem with ICANN is that it operates under US law, purporting to be an International company, which is a contradiction of terms.

Secondly, it ignores the voice of users, governments etc. and conducts most of its business in secret so that the world only knows of its decisions as a fait accompli.

Thirdly, it has failed to take into account international desires, needs, requirements etc. and seems to be dominated by commercial interests.

CECUA believes that this situation is wrong. The Internet is such an important international communication, entertainment and business channel that it is no longer acceptable that it can be dominated by one national organisation. The way ahead is form an international organisation, running under international law and run by ALL players - and that means, users, governments as well as the service providers.

Stuart Goold, Secretary General, CECUA