RFC 2240 (rfc2240) - Page 1 of 7


A Legal Basis for Domain Name Allocation



Alternative Format: Original Text Document



Network Working Group                                         O. Vaughan
Request for Comments: 2240                           Vaughan Enterprises
Category: Informational                                    November 1997


               A Legal Basis for Domain Name Allocation


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 (1997).  All Rights Reserved.

Table of Contents

   1.   Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

   2.   Overview of the domain space . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

   3.   Possible solutions to name exhaustion  . . . . . . . . . . . 3

   4.   Proposed creation of new SLDs  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
   4.1   The world is not flat so why should domains be? . . . . . . 4
   4.2   The case for legal names  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
   4.3   Allocation of legal SLDs  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
   4.4   Allocation of miscellaneous SLDs  . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
   4.5   Identifiers in non-ASCII languages  . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
   5.   Security Considerations  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

   6.   References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

   7.   Authors' Address . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

   8.   Full Copyright Statement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

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. No proposed solutions in





Vaughan                      Informational