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Username: chris@shenton.org
Date/Time: Thu, March 1, 2001 at 7:06 PM GMT
Browser: Netscape Navigator V using XWindows/SunOS 5.7
Score: 5
Subject: .org not just for non-profits (RFC1591); change screws complying owners

Message:
 

 
       
      In 1994, RFC1591 described the domains which fall under .org:

  ORG - This domain is intended as the miscellaneous TLD for
        organizations that didn't fit anywhere else.  Some non-
        government organizations may fit here.

It does not say anything about restricting it to non-profits,
restrictions like those which were *supposed* to apply to .net, and
mostly apply to .gov and .edu.

It is inappropriate to take .org domains away now, changing the rules,
for domain owners who have abided by the rules as laid out in the RFC.
When I got mine, I got decided to get .org because .com and .net did
not seem appropriate based on the RFC definition.  Why should new
political/economic motivations penalize people who acted correctly
back then?

If the desire is to create a TLD for non-profits, create a new one.

If you wish to change the existing rules for .org, you are of course
free to do so, but you should "grandfather" current .org domains for
folks who abided by the rules when they paid for their domains, thus
insuring "backward compatibility".  Failure to do so damages
credibility and breaks things as surely as making incompatible changes
to Internet protocols specified in other RFCs.

 

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