Cut to the CORE

The Clinton administration is considering a plan that rejects the creation of seven new top-level Internet domains and a shared database for administering them.

If adopted, the plan would wreak havoc with the Internet Society's Council of Registrars (CORE), whose members have already begun accepting applications for names in the seven new domains - which include .firm, .web, .shop and .rec - and which is meeting today to discuss implementation of its shared registry system.

Network World Fusion has learned that Ira Magaziner, Clinton's top Internet adviser, is studying a plan that instead calls for adding just a single new domain - as yet unnamed - and for leaving domain name control of .net, .org and .com as well as the new domain in the hands of Network Solutions, Inc. (NSI).

However, the plan would also set up a new nonprofit entity to oversee domain naming and eventually create a competitive system for name registrars.

Magaziner said Wednesday he has yet to reach a decision on the domain-name issue, although he added he will release a final report by the end of next week. However, he said he will recommend splitting NSI into two entities to ward off off further charges that it holds an Internet monopoly.

Under the plan Magaziner is studying, the government would create a non-profit organization to oversee domain names and a new competitive system for domain registrars. NSI would be split into InterNIC, which would run the databases at the heart of the domain naming system and WorldNIC, which would be one of those domain registrars.

Registrars would be qualified by the nonprofit organization under strict guidelines and they will have to build their own registration databases.

The proposal leaves little room at the outset for CORE - which has already hired a company to build a domain-name database. Some 80 companies have announced plans to participate - starting with a $10,000 fee for building the database to handle names in the proposed domains.

Sources said Magaziner may reject the CORE proposal because it was designed "behind closed doors" and because it would have shifted domain naming from the U.S. to Geneva. Magaziner declined to comment.

The proposal also calls for continued government oversight of domain naming for the next couple of years, sources said. NSI currently doles out domain names under a contract from the National Science Foundation - which sources said would be extended past its current March end date.

In addition to restructuring, NSI will hand over control of the master database, known as Root Server A, that handles DNS updates among 12 root DNS servers. Although observers speculated that the National Institute of Standards and Technology will gain control of Root Server A, Magaziner said it would probably be handed over to the oversight organization.

Sources also said Magaziner's plan does not rule out a role for CORE as a registrar - or even as a full fledged domain registry - provided they comply with strict rules. The plan also does not rule out additional generic top-level domains in the future.

So where does that leave CORE members? More than 15 of them have met with Magaziner to express concerns about the $10,000 they each invested in the shared database, sources said. If CORE insists on continuing to register its own domains, they will not be recognized by the 13 root servers under the government's oversight.