On Fri, Aug 11, 2000 at 01:01:24PM -0400, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
> As a domain name owner, I prefer that RSP's not be able to change
> the tech (or any other information) on the domain names that I own.
> Changing contact information without the owner's permission is a
> violation of the owner's privacy, and, an unethical way for RSP's to
> advertise at no cost.
>
> The only time that I have contact with an RSP is when I purchase a
> name...once I own the name I prefer to choose who is listed as the
> contact(s) for my domain names. Once a name has transferred, an
> RSP should NOT have any control over a domain name - he/she owns
> no part of it. RSP's wishing to retain control are shamelessly and
> selfishly thinking only of their own interests, and, of the money they
> hope to make when the name is renewed each year.
Actually, that's one sort of RSP - the kind that is just in the domain
reselling business. That's fine, but there are other sorts of RSPs.
I wrote a longish message on this topic this morning, but decided not
to send it because it was really rambling. But the upshot is that
we're an ISP and we generally register domains on behalf of customers
- many times those customers are not computer literate and are
incapable of registering the domain themselves. All they want is for
us to make their web site work. Our clients own their domains, but
they want us to take care of everything for them. That is a very
legitimate reason for us to be the technical contact.
In addition, we require that any domains we provide DNS for have us
listed as the technical contact. We may have to make changes to keep
those domains operational. This is also a legitimate reason for us to
be the technical contact.
Unfortunately, the way OpenSRS is set up right now, the technical
contact doesn't mean anything - we effectively have less control than
we had when we were using NSI. I think this needs to change, and I'd
prefer it to change by providing more functions through the API,
rather than making it a process of manual labor through the reseller
web interface.
>From a slightly different perspective: it makes sense to have nothing
to do with a domain if you're just acting as a reseller. But the
registrar has some control over the domain - someone has to, to deal
with the inevitable technical support issues that will arise. I don't
consider an RSP "just a reseller" of Tucows' domain registration
service. We're sort of "virtual registrars", and we should have some
of the abilities a registrar has - particularly given that Tucows
doesn't want to be doing tech support for our end users.
I understand your concerns, but I think it is less of an issue than
you may think. There are undoubtedly unethical RSPs out there, but
I hope that the majority of us would not abuse whatever additional
power we might be given. I already have the power to put banner
ads on clients' web sites, read people's private e-mail, even watch
which web sites our dialup customers go to - at some level, every
ISP can do that. I hope that most of them, like us, would consider
such actions unthinkable.
--
Christopher Masto Senior Network Monkey NetMonger Communications
[EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.netmonger.net
Free yourself, free your machine, free the daemon -- http://www.freebsd.org/
