INTERNET-DRAFT                                         Yaron Y. Goland
Expires: April 1998                              Microsoft Corporation
Standards Track                                       October 30, 1997


        Uniform Resource Locators (URL): NOREG URL Naming Scheme
                     draft-ietf-urlreg-noreg-00.txt


Status of this Memo

   This document is an Internet-Draft. Internet-Drafts are working
   documents of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), its areas,
   and its working groups. Note that other groups may also distribute
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   ftp.isi.edu (US West Coast).

Abstract

   This document proposes mapping DNS names into the URL scheme space
   for the purpose of preventing namespace collisions amongst URL
   schemes whose syntax and functionality are not appropriate for
   standardization.

.   Introduction

   In [URL-REG] a process is established for registering new URL
   schemes. However this registration process is centralized and keyed
   toward schemes that define new standards.

   Not all URL schemes need to be standardized. Many schemes are
   registered with client software so as to activate software, not to
   specify a generalized function. In such cases the key concern is the
   prevention of URL scheme name collisions, not an open registration
   of the URL's syntax or functionality.

.   NOREG URL Prefix Scheme Syntax

   Scheme = "NOREG+" domain '+' [extension]
   domain = see [STD13] section 3.5
   extension = URL-Scheme
   URL-Scheme = see the scheme production in [URL-SYNTAX] section 4.1





Goland                                                        [Page 1]

INTERNET-DRAFT         NOREG URL Naming Scheme       October 30, 1997


.   Examples

   The owner of the foo.bar.com DNS name would, under this proposal, be
   given control of the NOREG+foo.bar.com+ URL scheme. The scheme can
   be used by itself to form URLs, for example,
   NOREG+foo.bar.com+://www.nowhere.com/somewhere or can be used as a
   prefix, for example, NOREG+foo.bar.com+any-legal-scheme-
   characters:anything:anywhere.

.   Namespace Ownership

   Whoever owns a particular DNS name owns all NOREG URL scheme names
   as defined under this standard. If a DNS name should change
   ownership then all NOREG URL scheme names defined using this
   standard are transferred to the new owner.

.   Trademarks

   The trademark ramifications of this scheme are left in the hands of
   those who define names under this scheme. As no central authority
   handles registration of the names there is no central authority to
   be served with court papers. As such there are no special trademark
   issues that need to be addressed by the specification.

.   References

   [URL-REG] Masinter, Alvestrand, Zigmond, 'Guidelines for new URL
   Schemes', WORK IN PROGRESS, <URL: ftp://ftp.ietf.org/internet-
   drafts/draft-ietf-urlreg-guide-00.txt>.

   [URL-SYNTAX] Berners-Lee, Fielding, Mastiner, WORK IN PROGRESS,
   'Uniform Resource Locators: Generic Syntax and Semantics', <URL:
   ftp://ietf.org/internet-drafts/draft-fielding-url-syntax-09.txt>.

   [STD13] Mockapetrix, 'DOMAIN NAMES - CONCEPTS AND FACILITIES',
   INTERNET STANDARD, <URN: ftp://venera.isi.edu/in-
   notes/std/std13.txt>.

.   Author's Address

   Yaron Y. Goland
   Microsoft Corporation
   1 Microsoft Way
   Redmond, WA 98052

   Email: yarong@microsoft.com








Goland                                                        [Page 2]