Tensions increase between domain name groups

A serious row is brewing between two organisations responsible for the allocation of addresses, or domain names, on the World Wide Web.

US company, Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), internationally recognised as the self-governing global authority for domain name registration, and CENTR, a Europe-based affiliate organisation have fallen out over fees ICANN is levying from CENTR member-countries for the maintenance of name servers in the US.

ICANN has sought $500,000 (€535,000) each from the UK and Germany, and $25,000 from the Republic for hosting country specific or country code Top Level Domains (ccTLDs) on its servers. However CENTR, which increasingly includes non-EU member countries, is objecting to the levy because ICANN is refusing to draw up full service commercial contracts for ccTLDs in return for the payment.

According to Mr Mike Fagan, chief executive officer of the ieDR, (Irish .ie Domain Registry): "ICANN was set up in the US two years ago after it paid a number of fat-cat lawyers nearly $4 million to get up and running, and now it expects the ccTLDs to fund it."

CENTR has recommended individual countries to offer ICANN just 50 per cent of what's being levied as a one-off donation, and only when they offer proper services should they discuss annual contracts.

ICANN, a not-for-profit organisation, was chosen by the US government in 1998 to take over Internet naming duties from Network Solutions. It is responsible for the domain endings approved since the late 1980s, which include .com (company), .mil (military), .int (international), .gov (government), .org (non-profit organisation), and .net (generic organisation, profit or non-profit). It also oversees more than 240 country-specific codes such as .us (United States) and .ie (Ireland).

Because of the pressure exerted on the .com domain name, with most possible names now filled, at a conference in Japan at the end of July, ICANN approved the creation of a series of new TLDs. The move will bring new endings to existing website suffixes like .com and .org.

This is the first time new domain suffixes have been approved since the late 1980s. Suggested handles include .shop (online shop), .travel (travel agency), .news (news groups), .sex or .xxx (sex-oriented), .web (web-only business), .arts (artistic works), and .store (online store).

The new resolution, passed unanimously by ICANN's 19 member board, calls for the introduction of new names in "a measured and responsible manner". The group has set a schedule for phasing in the names, with a target date of December 31st for finalising agreements on additional Internet labels.

However the move has drawn criticism from a number of quarters, particularly for the lack of clarity on how the process would be implemented. It was not indicated how many new Internet labels would be approved, and whether they would be specific, for example only available to travel agencies, or available to any individual who applied.

The addition of new names is understood to be aimed at bolstering competition among companies that sell and register domains for website owners, and at giving customers more names and vendors to choose from.

According to Mr Cormac Callanan, chairman of the Internet Service Providers Association of Ireland (ISPAI), the move is expected to relieve a lot of current pressure on the .com domain name, but there is no indication whether people will be able to register the names on a first come first served basis, or if the process will be more structured.

He adds: "The devil is in the detail of how the tendering process will be managed. It would be encouraging to see ICANN offer a more international flavour to its administration, by offering administration of at least one new domain name to a non-US country. There is concern worldwide that ICANN is increasingly US focused."

According to Mr John Cunningham, director of e-commerce and website hosting company, IE Internet, the addition of new domain names is a welcome move, but companies specialising in domain name registration are likely to be the biggest beneficiaries.

"Domain aggregators have developed software that runs through every word in the dictionary and identifies those that have not been registered as Internet domain names. They will apply this to the new suffixes and buy up all the available names very quickly," he says.

IE Internet already registers website domain names for its clients, and Mr Cunningham says it intends to buy up the appropriate new version domain names for its clients. The process of introducing the new TLDs is expected to be quite protracted given the absence of any clear strategy. Mr Cunningham says there will be issues around protecting the copyright of existing domain names, and its success will depend on whether the service will be offered on a first come, first served basis.

He warns: "Without controls cybersquatters will soak up every name available and create an industry for the lawyers. This is potentially valuable real estate that could be bought for $50, and sold overnight for millions."

Meanwhile, the EU Commission said a year ago, a new TLD -.eu for Europe-based sites - would be up and running by the end of the year. However there has been little progress since, despite a strong support base in Europe for the idea.

The Commission initially applied to ICANN to register the new domain through CENTR, but ICANN responded saying because the EU is not a specific country it could not register .eu as a country code TLD (ccTLD). However it might be possible to register as a generic TLD, similar to the US administered TLDs, .com, .org and .net.

Mr Fagan says the Commission has been slow to challenge ICANN, and appears to support its current efforts to levy a fee on CENTR member-countries. Industry sources have suggested the Commission is hoping if it backs ICANN through that battle, it will look favourably at introducing the .eu TLD.