It's a little difficult to know where to start with Mr. Bruen's list -- it's wrong in several significant ways. .MD has been run by a group blessed by the Moldovan Gov't since 2003. http://iana.org/reports/2003/md-report-22oct03.html .LA, while sold as "Los Angeles" (not very successfully) is run by Laotian Gov't. Presumably, they can do what they want with it, including selling it to Angelinos. http://iana.org/domains/root/db/la.html Assuming that a secondary DNS server located in the U.S. doesn't mean that the TLD is "run from" the U.S., then just about all of the names on this list are wrong. Some on the list have no connection at all to the U.S. -- .AL - Albania, the first on the list, is an example. On the other hand, if "run from" means that the registry operations are fully or partially located in the U.S., then there are some missing. Curiously, these missing ones have a theme -- they are run by large registry incumbents: -- The ccTLDs for whom Afilias provides registry services are missing (e.g., .MN, .VC) -- see http://www.afilias-grs.info/public/homepage -- The ccTLDs for whom Neustar provides registry services are missing (e.g., .US, .CO). -- The ccTLDs for whom VeriSign provices registry services are missing (e.g., .TV, .CC). Even the provision of registry services by these U.S.-based companies does not mean that they are "run" from the U.S. It just means that a piece of technical infrastructure has been outsourced to them. Mr. Bruen's list is almost a mirror image of the reality. There is no U.S. involvement in .CU (Cuba). There is no U.S. involvement in .LI (Liechtenstein). Or .NA (Namibia). The list goes on and on. This can be verified by going through the IANA database, looking at who the contacts are where the nameservers are. http://iana.org/domains/root/db/ Antony Van Couvering On Oct 3, 2009, at 1:04 PM, Garth Bruen at KnujOn wrote:
Thanks Danny,
There are many ccTLDs not directly controlled by the actual country, some by choice, but maybe not if their citizens knew the whole story.
Among the more egregious examples are Moldova (.MD) which is run by someone in New Jersey and used to market "medical professional" sites and Laos (.LA) which is used as the TLD for "Los Angeles", go the the .LA root site and there is nothing about Laos rather traffic and weather for Los Angeles.
List of ccTLDs completely or partly run from the U.S.:
Albania (.al) Andorra (.ad) Antarctica (.aq) Armenia (.am) Azerbaijan (.az) Bahamas (.bs) Botswana (.bw) Canada (.ca) Catalonia (.cat) Central African Republic (.cf) Chile (.cl) Christmas Island (.cx) Costa Rica (.cr) Cuba (.cu) Cyprus (.cy) East Timor(.tl) Egypt (.eg) Fiji (.fj) Ghana (.gh) Guinea (.gn) Guyana (.gy) Haiti (.ht) Heard Island and McDonald Islands (.hm) Hong Kong (.hk) Iceland (.is) Israel (.il) Kiribati (.ki) Lebanon (.lb) Lesotho (.ls) Lesotho (.ls) Liberia (.lr) Liechtenstein (.li) Malawi (.mw) Maldives (.mv) Mali (.ml) Malta (.mt) Mauritius (.mu) Moldova (.md) Montserrat (.ms) Namibia (.na) Nauru (.nr) Nepal (.np) Netherlands (.nl) Nigeria (.ng) Palestine (.ps) Philippines (.ph) Pitcairn Islands (.pn) Portugal (.pt) Puerto Rico (.pr) Saudi Arabia (.sa) Serbia (.rs) Solomon Islands (.sb) South Africa (.za) South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands (.gs) Sri Lanka (.lk) Swaziland (.sz) Switzerland (.ch) Tanzania (.tz) Thailand (.th) Trinidad and Tobago (.tt) Tunisia (.tn) Ukraine (.ua) United Arab Emirates (.ae) Uruguay (.uy) Venezuela (.ve)
-------- Original Message -------- Subject: [NA-Discuss] LACTLD Statement From: Danny Younger <dannyyounger@yahoo.com> Date: Tue, September 29, 2009 7:15 am To: na-discuss@atlarge-lists.icann.org
[excerpted from the governance list]
LACTLD Statement on ccTLD. HN situation
To the international community
By this note, we would like to inform the international community about the current situation in the ccTLD .HN, which is managed by RDS-HN, associated member of LACTLD , organization that informs us about this situation.
The current Honduran government has informed RDS-HN that it must hand over the ccTLD operation due to Article 79B of the Reglament of the Telecommunications Act (of the year 2002). This rule says that "CONATEL controls the regulation and administration of the domains and IP directions within the national territory. CONATEL will be able to take the necessary measures so that the administration of domains and IP addresses can be executed through from other public or private institutions, for which agreements will be signed and the corresponding regulations will be issued."
Last Friday, and based in the above-mentioned article, national authorities arrived at the ccTLD. hn office stating: "Until now, CONATEL has not signed any agreement with any public or private entity. Therefore it is necessary to order the institution, which has been managing and delegating domains. HN, to suspend the management immediately, given that it develops outside the provisions of Article 79B of the Reglament of the Framework Law for Telecommunications Sector". In the same way, they order ccTLD .HN "1. To immediately suspend all activities related to registration and delegation of new domain names under the domain .HN, and 2. To hand a list of domains .HN and records, that the institution have been conferred, to CONATEL."
The Red de Desarrollo Sostenible - RDS (Sustainable Development Network) http://www.rds.org.hn maintains the operation of ccTLD. hn since April 1993, date when this organization received this delegation and, in July 2006, signed an Accountability Framework with ICANN (http://www.icann.org/en/cctlds/hn/hn-icann-af-20jul06.pdf), which explicitly recognizes that relationship and work. Furthermore, RDS is also a leading civil society organization that facilitates connectivity to Honduras as well as provides various tools and services to the community of Honduras and Central America and, for this reason, RDS is being recognized as a pioneer in the region.
The management and operation of the DNS follow internationally accepted and recognized processes, primarily based on RFC 1591 . Because of the stability importance of the Internet global system and ccTLD work, RDS is due to its local and international community on the Internet.
In addition, we indicate that the action that tries to carry out CONATEL is against of the constitutional guarantees and the guarantees of the Pact of San José de Costa Rica. Therefore, it violates the relationship that has been conducted peacefully and technically efficient and is based on existing contractual agreements and relationships.
LACTLD expresses its strong concern regarding the events that have unfolded in the request made by the Government of Honduras to take in a sudden and abrupt way the operation .HN due to the fact that it will be detrimental to the users of domain name system in Honduras which primarily require stability for the adequate access of Internet resources.
LACTLD is committed with its partners and members, and primarily seeks to maintain the stability of the Domain Name System for the correct running of the Internet. We hope that the wisdom will prevail between two sides in order to solve this delicate situation.
Sincerely,
Council of LACTLD Latin American and Caribbean ccTLD Association
------ NA-Discuss mailing list NA-Discuss@atlarge-lists.icann.org http://atlarge-lists.icann.org/mailman/listinfo/na-discuss_atlarge-lists.ica...
Visit the NARALO online at http://www.naralo.org ------
------ NA-Discuss mailing list NA-Discuss@atlarge-lists.icann.org http://atlarge-lists.icann.org/mailman/listinfo/na-discuss_atlarge-lists.ica...
Visit the NARALO online at http://www.naralo.org ------