A Convention For Using Legal Names as Domain Names
RFC 2352
Document | Type |
RFC - Informational
(May 1998; No errata)
Obsoletes RFC 2240
|
|
---|---|---|---|
Author | Owain Vaughan | ||
Last updated | 2013-03-02 | ||
Stream | Legacy | ||
Formats | plain text html pdf htmlized bibtex | ||
Stream | Legacy state | (None) | |
Consensus Boilerplate | Unknown | ||
RFC Editor Note | (None) | ||
IESG | IESG state | RFC 2352 (Informational) | |
Telechat date | |||
Responsible AD | (None) | ||
Send notices to | (None) |
Network Working Group O. Vaughan Request for Comments: 2352 Vaughan Enterprises Obsoletes: 2240 May 1998 Category: Informational A Convention For Using Legal Names as Domain Names Status of this Memo This memo provides information for the Internet community. It does not specify an Internet standard of any kind. Distribution of this memo is unlimited. Copyright Notice Copyright (C) The Internet Society (1998). All Rights Reserved. RFC Editor's Note This RFC is an independent submission that discusses a possible convention for allocating domain names based on corporate and other names as registered by law. It appears to depend on corporations changing their domain names from their present form to more cumbersome handles, such as changing cisco.com to cisco-systems.co.ca.us or ibm.com to international- business-machines.co.ny.us, without giving them an incentive to do so, such as deprecating the .com and .net gTLDs. It also appears to legislate the structure each national registry applies to its name space, something which the document itself asserts is within national purview and not for global standardization. It may not be politically feasible to implement as described. Vaughan Informational [Page 1] RFC 2352 A Convention For Using Legal Names as Domain Names May 1998 Table of Contents 1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 2. Overview of the domain space . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 3. Possible solutions to name exhaustion . . . . . . . . . . . 4 4. Proposed solution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 4.1 The world is not flat so why should domains be? . . . . . . 4 4.2 The case for legal names . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 4.3 Allocation of legal sub-domains . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 4.4 Allocation of miscellaneous sub-domains . . . . . . . . . . 6 4.5 Identifiers in non-ASCII languages . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 4.6 Non-textual identifiers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 5. Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 6. References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 7. Authors' Address . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 8. Full Copyright Statement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 1. Introduction The purpose of this memo is to focus discussion on the particular problems with the exhaustion of the top level domain space in the Internet and the possible conflicts that can occur when multiple organisations are vying for the same name. The proposed solutions in this document are intended as a framework for development, such that a general consensus will emerge as to the appropriate solution to the problems in each case, leading eventually to the adoption of standards. 2. Overview of the domain space Presently the domain space is organised as a heirarchical tree- structured namespace with several top level domains (TLDs), and sub- domains beneath them. The initial TLDs allocated and rationale are documented in RFC 920 [1]. The TLDs are functionally split up into 'generic' top-level domains (gTLDs) and two-letter ISO 3166 country domains for every country in which Internet connectivity is provided. The allocation of sub- domains under these TLDs is entirely up to the registry for that TLD. The registry may decide to allocate further levels of structure or merely allocate domains in a 'flat' manner. Vaughan Informational [Page 2] RFC 2352 A Convention For Using Legal Names as Domain Names May 1998 Example: +-----+ +----+ +----+ | COM | | UK | | FR | +-----+ +----+ +----+ | | | | | +---------+ +----+ +----+ +--------------+ +-----+ | VAUGHAN | | AC | | CO | | UNIV-AVIGNON | | AXA | +---------+ +----+ +----+ +--------------+ +-----+ | | | | | +------+ +---------+ +----------+ +-----+ +------+ | UNIX | | NEWPORT | | CITYDESK | | SOL | | MAIL | +------+ +---------+ +----------+ +-----+ +------+ | | +----+ +-----+ | NS | | FTP | +----+ +-----+ 1. Flat gTLD 2. Heirarchical country 3. Flat country In the example we see that the gTLDs are inherently flat, as organisations are allocated domain names directly under the TLD.Show full document text