In message <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, Karl Au
erbach writes:
>
> > > The whois database is part and parcel, a necessary element of DNS
> > > operation. It is impossible (or at least unreasonable) to conceive of
> > > running a TLD zone file without keeping track of who is associated with
> > > each second level domain.
> >
> > Actually, that's incorrect. The DNS SOA record shows who produced the
> > record and according to the RFC's the postmaster@... address is mandatory.
> > There is just no technical *NEED* to have more data.
>
> SOA records in a zone file are not relevant to the contact database.
And?
> I'm not talking about data that is published, but rather the data
> needed to operate a TLD class zone file -- if one is going to
> perform billing (per Amendment #4) or simply validate changes or
> expire require renewal after a period of time, it is necessary to
> have a contact database right alongside the zone file itself.
But who else needs that information? Nobody. You just made NSI's case.
> A zone file without a contact database is like a a phone company
> that retains no records of who to bill for each number. It is not a
> matter whether that such a database is made public or not, only that
> it must (and, in fact does) exist.
Nonsense. The Zone file is all required to operate the DNS. And if you
need to contact the person responsible for an entry you email the
address listed in the SOA.
> > In fact .NA does not give out this information for its registrants and
> > that has been working for almost 8 years.
>
> But I would bet that there is an database of who the registrants
> are, what domain each has, when the registration expires, etc. It
> is this database that I am talking about.
Sure, but this data base is none of your business!
[...]
> No, they were hired to perform registrations. Registrations produce
> two things -- 1) a record of who performed what registration and 2)
> a zone file.
Yes, indeed. The record is a business record and NSI's property. The
Zone File is the technical record and available.
> They may not have to publish it (although the Internic group of
> contracts requires that they do), but they certainly need it to
> perform their internal billing and renew operations.
They do not HAVE to publish it, they MAY have to hand a copy over to
NSF, upon request. AND, it's not at all clear whether it even falls
under the scope of the agreement as it is clearly (conceded by you as
well) internal data.
[...]
> Yes, the cooperative agreement says very explicitly that NSI must
> turn over (if the government requests) all data necessary for the
> government to enable a sucessor to pick up the registration job for
> the TLDs run by NSI.
So, we'll let the laywers sort it out. But we do agree that it is
their intellectual property, internal business data and all?
> > > The whois database is about as ancillary to DNS as wings are ancillary to
> > > a flying airplane.
> >
> > Nonsense!
>
> How do you propose to perform billing without it?
Where does it say that DNS is dependent on billing?
> How to you propose to know whether someone is sending in an
> authentic update without it?
SOA records.
> The contact database is absolutely part and parcel of the job of
> running a TLD registry on the scale that NSI is doing.
Now that's a different argument.
> And, moreover, it was the standard way of doing things *before* NSI
> started its job under the contract. The Internic contract is
> extraordinarily vague about deliverables and can only be interpreted
> in the context of the way things were done before by SRI and BBN.
NONSENSE!!!!
> As such, the US government has the contractual right to obtain a
> copy of the whois database, in addition to the raw zone files, at
> the end of the cooperative agreement.
That is great stuff. Why don't you let the USG decide what it wants to
do? They don't listen to you anyway, not even come election time.
el
