Top-level domains

["Bradley Richards" <bradley@acm.org>]

Dear folks,

As someone who teaches, among other things, Internet-related courses, I've
had a few thoughts that I'd like to share with you. First, from an
international point of view:

- US-specific TLDs such as .gov and .mil should be moved beneath the .US
domain.

- Organizations should register underneath their national domain, rather
than under TLDs such as .com, unless there is a real reason for a net-wide
or international presence. This is mainly a problem in the US, where
practically all companies and even private individuals have registered
domain names under .com, simply because it is the "default" TLD.

Related to this last point, I hope that registering individuals or
organizations will eventually be expected to show a reason why they should
be allowed to register a domain-name. While one cannot eliminate pure
speculation (http://www.my.com), one should at least prevent abusive
registrations (http://www.amazom.com, http://www.jennicam.com,
http://www.micros0ft.com to name but a few).

Cheers,

Bradley
--------------------------------------------
Bradley Richards
bradley@acm.org
http://www.ai-lab.fh-furtwangen.de/~bradley/

smime.p7s