http://www.betanews.com/article/With-three-months-to-go-to-DNSSEC-someones-f... To summarize: last week, an anycast instance of the I root server stated exhibiting a strange behaviour. Some replies appeared to be spoofed. Autonomica, the Swedish company managing the I root, claims their anycast instance in China is identical to the other instances they have around the world. In other words, they serve the same root zone, not something that would be "adapted" to the Chinese Internet regulations. CNNIC, on their side, say they are just supplying the power and the bandwidth. There is a lively discussion on the origin of this malfunction on the SSAC list. Opinions differ, but the research is going on. However, some raised the issue of the accountability of root server operators, and the fact that the absence of a contractual framework (minus L-root) between them and ICANN means that no-one is able to formally complain and seek redress. It is all a question of good faith and willingness on the side of the rootops. I think indeed that ICANN will have to think about a contractual framework with the root zone operators in the future, along the lines of the registry agreements. After all, the Internet users deserve the same level of service from the root that they get from gTLD operators. I am not saying that the rootops have done a bad job. Quite the contrary. They have done an outstanding volunteer job. However, there should be a mechanism to replace a root operator that fails for whatever reason. -- Patrick Vande Walle Blog: http://patrick.vande-walle.eu Twitter: http://twitter.vande-walle.eu Facebook: http://facebook.vande-walle.eu