[alac] Re: [alac-admin] IDN

[Vittorio Bertola <vb@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Sun, 28 Nov 2004 14:17:05 +0100, Thomas Roessler
<roessler@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

>The current text (e.g., the liberté <-> liberte example) seems to
>suggest that equivalence should extend to characters that can be
>distinguished, i.e., to typos.  That would be far too broad in my
>view, and I'd oppose an ALAC recommendation to that effect.

The problem is that here we have a very peculiar situation, in which the
existing domain (e.g. liberte.com) is actually the typo for the new one
(liberté) - so the person who would now get the IDN version would basically
turn the existing registrant into a squatter.

In other words, if you have spent the last five years telling everyone
(including by voice, e.g. radio or tv commercials in which your URL was
loudly read, or simply when talking to friends) that your web site is
"liberte.com", in the IDN-enabled world everyone would now naturally type
liberté.com and go to another website.

As for the protocol part, you are absoutely right that it would better be
the application to do the translation, and that protocol strings are not DNS
- but what I mean is that, in practice, the internationalization of the
Internet identifiers infrastructure requires other steps than just
internationalized SLDs, and that ICANN should take the lead on that, even if
just by fostering, say, a joint steering group including people from ICANN,
IETF, linguists, browser and application makers, etc. 

But we need someone to go and bug IETF, the IT industry, etc, and I think
that ICANN has to take the lead, or the problem will never be solved, and
there will be people that will claim that the current Internet governance
community is not able to solve these problems.

(I am moving the discussion to the public list.)
-- 
vb.               [Vittorio Bertola - v.bertola [a] bertola.eu.org]<------
http://bertola.eu.org/  <- Vecchio sito, nuovo toblòg...