At 3:11 PM 3/12/96, Luke Carruthers wrote:
>> If this is not possible, then should the x-IA should be
>> lobbying the government for legislation to protect DNS
>> registering bodies from litigation?
>
>This has been raised with the relevant government bodies, but the
>issue has not been definitively resolved one way or another as yet.

I'm sorry but this is simply not good enough is my reaction. 
This is the ABSOLUTE CORE of the issue, and if there is
ONE THING to fix to allow the DNS to work I'd suggest
that this is IT (have I made the point clearly enough yet?)


This is covered  in http://www.aunic.net/doms.html  but as so many of the
readers of this list have evidently done their homework and read this 
background document, and the related DNS documents (NOT!) I'll quote
from it:


"The fundamental cause of this flawed environment is the implicit
 assumption that the Internet Domain Name environment is not considered
 an authoritative name source, and litigants can cite other name
 authorities as some form of overriding legitimacy of exclusive right
 to a name and claim damages against the operators of the domain name
 system. This is a flawed environment, and can only be addressed by a
 fundamental shift within the public regulatory environment to allow a
 managed framework of registration of Internet domain Names, where due
 adherence to the defined framework will ensure that the process
 creates a name authority for the a name which is functionally
 independent of any other means of citation of authority to use a
 name. Thus the process of assigning a domain name of, say,
 <b>xyz.com.au</b> to an entity (on the basis that the name
 <b>xyz.com.au</b> was not assigned to any other party, that the bona
 fides of the applicant had been established, the appropriate fees (if
 stipulated) had been paid and the relevant administrative policy and
 process for the .com.au SLD had been followed) should be an act which
 does not incur a subsequent liability on the part of the .com.au DA or
 the registry operators. This does require some form of public
 instrument to effect this critical change in recognising the
 authenticity of the Internet Domain Name environment. It is noted that
 such public regulation of the activity may be accompanied by operation
 of the process by a duly created operating entity as a component of
 government administration, or in other cases it may be accompanied by
 a process of passing the responsibility for the operation to duly
 licensed bodies. Either approach would be a significant step forward
 in preserving the value and utility of the <b>.au</b> name domain over
 the current situation, as it would add a visible line of derivation of
 authority within a process where the ultimate functionality of the
 Internet domain name system is the foremost concern and the integrity
 of that functionality would be best safeguarded through such
 measures."







-- 
Geoff.Huston&#167;telstra.net

Network Technical Manager    Locked Bag 5744,
Telstra Internet             Canberra  ACT  2601
                             AUSTRALIA

ph  +61 6 208 1908
fax +61 6 248 6165


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