So far they are only permitted registrations from their "partners."
They are expected some time this week or next to open registrations to
the public though.
On Wed, 07 Jul 1999 14:19:18 +0100, Jeff Williams
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>Ben and all,
>
> Nice job Ben, seems to work pretty well and isn't all that slow
>as you seem to indicate. However you only check NSI and
>Register.com. Didn't you get the announcement on Melbourne
>IT yet?
>
>Ben Edelman wrote:
>
>> Currently it seems that there is no single authoritative WHOIS. Rather,
>> each registrar keeps its own data of its own registrants. This makes it
>> difficult to figure out whether a domain is truly available for
>> registration, so we've rigged up a search system to simultaneously query all
>> operating testbed registrars for information about a given domain.
>>
>> The system is totally experimental -- perhaps it has bugs we don't know
>> about, it's certainly a little sluggish, and the formatting still leaves
>> something to be desired. We may not keep it up in the long term, but at
>> least for now we think it may be helpful.
>>
>> I welcome any comments (on- or off-list) about the script, interface, or
>> concept in general. In particular, I'm interested in other Testbed
>> Registrars that are already accepting registrations and have WHOIS data
>> available about their registrations; if anyone knows of additional such
>> registrars, please send details.
>>
>> The Experimental Cross-Registrar WHOIS is at
>> <http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/icann/whois>.
>>
>> Ben Edelman
>> Berkman Center for Internet and Society
>> Harvard Law School
>
>Regards,
--
William X. Walsh
General Manager, DSo Internet Services
Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Fax:(209) 671-7934
"The fact is that domain names are new and have unique
characteristics, and their status under the law is not yet clear."
--Kent Crispin (June 29th, 1999)
