A Legal Basis for Domain Name Allocation
RFC 2240
Document | Type |
RFC - Informational
(November 1997; No errata)
Obsoleted by RFC 2352
Was draft-rfced-info-vaughan (individual)
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Last updated | 2013-03-02 | ||
Stream | Legacy | ||
Formats | plain text pdf htmlized bibtex | ||
Stream | Legacy state | (None) | |
Consensus Boilerplate | Unknown | ||
RFC Editor Note | (None) | ||
IESG | IESG state | RFC 2240 (Informational) | |
Telechat date | |||
Responsible AD | (None) | ||
Send notices to | (None) |
Network Working Group O. Vaughan Request for Comments: 2240 Vaughan Enterprises Category: Informational November 1997 A Legal Basis for Domain Name Allocation Status of this Memo This memo provides information for the Internet community. It does not specify an Internet standard of any kind. Distribution of this memo is unlimited. Copyright Notice Copyright (C) The Internet Society (1997). All Rights Reserved. Table of Contents 1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 2. Overview of the domain space . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 3. Possible solutions to name exhaustion . . . . . . . . . . . 3 4. Proposed creation of new SLDs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 4.1 The world is not flat so why should domains be? . . . . . . 4 4.2 The case for legal names . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 4.3 Allocation of legal SLDs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 4.4 Allocation of miscellaneous SLDs . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 4.5 Identifiers in non-ASCII languages . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 5. Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 6. References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 7. Authors' Address . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 8. Full Copyright Statement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 1. Introduction The purpose of this memo is to focus discussion on the particular problems with the exhaustion of the top level domain space in the Internet and the possible conflicts that can occur when multiple organisations are vying for the same name. No proposed solutions in Vaughan Informational [Page 1] RFC 2240 Domain Name Allocation November 1997 this document are intended as standards for the Internet. Rather, it is hoped that a general consensus will emerge as to the appropriate solution to such problems, leading eventually to the adoption of standards. 2. Overview of the domain space Presently the domain space is organised as a heirarchical tree- structured namespace with several top level domains (TLDs), and sub- domains beneath them. The initial TLDs allocated and rationale are documented in [1]. The TLDs are functionally split up into 'generic' top-level domains (gTLDs) and two-letter ISO 3166 country domains for every country in which Internet connectivity is provided. The allocation of sub- domains under these TLDs is entirely up to the registry for that TLD. The registry may decide to allocate further levels of structure or merely allocate domains in a 'flat' manner. Example: +-----+ +----+ +----+ | COM | | UK | | FR | +-----+ +----+ +----+ | | | | | +---------+ +----+ +----+ +--------------+ +-----+ | VAUGHAN | | AC | | CO | | UNIV-AVIGNON | | AXA | +---------+ +----+ +----+ +--------------+ +-----+ | | | | | +------+ +---------+ +----------+ +-----+ +------+ | UNIX | | NEWPORT | | CITYDESK | | SOL | | MAIL | +------+ +---------+ +----------+ +-----+ +------+ | | +----+ +-----+ | NS | | FTP | +----+ +-----+ 1. Flat gTLD 2. Heirarchical country 3. Flat country In the example we see that the gTLDs are inherently flat, as organisations are allocated domain names directly under the TLD. With the country domains however, the domain allocation policy can vary widely from country to country, and it does. Some may choose to implement a functional sub-structure mirroring the gTLDs, some may choose to implement a geographical sub-structure, and some may choose to have no sub-structure at all. Vaughan Informational [Page 2] RFC 2240 Domain Name Allocation November 1997 In the first case the organisation is clearly a commercial one, as it is allocatged under the "COM" TLD. However, there is no information as to the country the organisation is based in. In the third case, we know that the organisation is based in France (FR), but without studying the actual organisation name we do not know what type of organisation it is. In the second case, we know the country that both organisations are based in (UK), and by following the heirarchy, we can deduce that the first is an academic organisation (AC), and the second is commercial (CO).Show full document text