[governance] Vixie replies (fwd)

[Milton Mueller]

>>> Paul Vixie <paul at vix.com> 10/09/05 9:32 PM >>>
note: i am not a member of the governance@ mailing list, someone
forwarded
this to me as a courtesy and i'm trying to reply.  i'm cc'ing mr.
mueller in
hopes that he will forward it to the list on my behalf, since i expect
that
my direct e-mail to governance@ will fail.

# http://www.circleid.com/article/1219_0_1_0_C 
# ...
# 
# So ..., ORSN sees this as a "backup" in case the US govt.  tries to
use its
# "oversight" authority to manipulate the Internet in some way.  And
Vixie,
# who administers one of the official root servers of the US Commerce
# Dept-centered system, is siding with them. Good!

i'm not siding with them.  quoting from text at the above URL:

	I'm indifferent to their reasons, as long as they don't add any
new
	TLD's or otherwise display the kind of piracy or foolishness i
have so
	often decried among new.net, unidt, united-root, public-root,
	alternic, open-rsc... and i forget how many others.

also:

	There can be only one namespace, even if there can apparently be
more
	than one nameserver system for that namespace, as in the ORSN
case.

also:

	I don't think that ORSN will make DNS more reliable -- I am
perfectly
	satisfied with the IANA root name server system and I do not
think
	that a more reliable system is possible.  However, I also know
that
	the ORSN web site claims reliability as one of their goals.  I
do not
	have to share that goal in order to be willing to help them.

and especially:

	Simon Waters asks: ``Say tomorrow ICANN decides for "security"
reasons
	to redelegate ".ir" to the Pentagon, with no public explanation.
If
	ORSN forks the root at this point, will Paul still support it,
even
	those his daughter now gets two different websites? What if
they
	choose only to override only one domain?''
 
	If ORSN ever publishes data that did not come originally from
IANA,
	beyond the minor change to the ". NS" RRset needed to make
ORSN's
	project viable at all, then that will probably end my
involvement with
	them.  From what I've learned of the other operators, that
would
	probably be the end of the project. From their FAQ:
 
	    ORSN is an serious network and we supports ICANN's
TLD-politics.
 
	I can imagine ORSN publishing stale copies of IANA's data,
	deliberately stale due to political concerns.  That doesn't
matter to
	me.  But I don't think your ".IR" scenario is very likely,
either.

that's not "siding with them".  that's "supporting their effort since
it will
do no harm and since they in turn support only the universal IANA
namespace."

# ... if the USG abuses its oversight authority and does something to
the root
# zone that makes it different, such as throwing Iran's ccTLD out of
the root
# zone, will ORSN follow suit?  I suspect (and hope) not.  Then you
will have
# a split root.

then you will have a root nameserver system that's publishing stale
IANA data
rather than up-to-date IANA data.  that ain't the same thing, at all,
as a
split root.  to contemplate an actual split root, study the prepcom3
results.

# In essence, Paul Vixie is saying is that he is willing to risk
# splitting the root for defensive, political reasons, and not for
# profit-motivated, economic reasons.

no.  paul vixie (me) has never said he (i) would split the root.

# Which is fine, those priorities are defensible and reasonable.  But
it's an
# interesting and welcome departure from the "one true root" orthodoxy
that
# used to prevail in IETF.

see above.  as anyone who has read the entire circleid thread now
knows, there
is a world of difference between "one namespace with multiple sets of
servers"
and "multiple namespaces".  and as anyone who has read this far knows,
there
is a world of difference between a deliberately stale root zone and an
amended
root zone.  if http://www.orsn.org/php.faq did not say:

	Furthermore, no additional alternative top level domains will be
added
	to the ORSN root-servers like NEW.NET, public-root and other
networks
	did it.
 
	ORSN is an seriously network and supports ICANN's politics for
TLD's.

then i would not be able to support their activities.  mr. mueller is
not the
first wisher-for-alternate-roots who has mistaken my support for ORSN
as being
supportive of their positions, but i hope that the end of that baggage
train 
is near.
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