Greg and all,
>
> > Btw, the simple *technical* solution to all this is to discontinue the DNS
>
> You will have to convince nearly the entire Internet population
> that either:
Not at all. I'm speaking to ICANN's mandate, not the Internet. Use
all the names you want -- but its not ICANNs business to keep you
from getting into hot water, if hot water is trademarked.
I believe its RFC 1591 that states that registering a domain name
confers no legal rights to that name and that any disputes between
parties over the rights to use a particular name are to be settled
between the contending parties using existing legal methods. Why
then should a *technical* administrative body be impelled to step
into this picture, unless trademark interests are pushing it in order
to 'externalize' their costs? If you (and the rest of the Internet
population) cant see this as "mission creep," then you may just
get the (quasi-)government you deserve.
> * they don't need DNS any more, or
> * there is something else that works even better
Again, ICANN *could add its weight to the obvious way out -- the
de-emphasis of DN as an advertising/ 'free speech' device, and the
enhancement of more accurate and contextually richer modes of
navigation than a single 64-character string -- instead of plowing
deeper into the mud. Imo, a fair share of the net population might
well agree that that's not such a bad idea -- but youre right, there's
always the difficulty of convincing anybody of anything. IFWP
as always, is a fine testbed.
> also, anyone who's using software that does not allow you to specify an
> IP address instead of a domain name, or to load your own host table, is
> out of luck.
>
I havent been able to load my own host table yet (DNSUP doesnt
recognize the dialer/ socket that comes with NS/ Sympatico -- how
do I find the script Winsock needs?), but I didnt know there was
any com software that didnt recognize IP numbers.
kerry
