[FYI] New.net threatens to change Internet forever

["Axel H Horns" <horns@ipjur.com>]

http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/19876.html

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New.net threatens to change Internet forever  

By Kieren McCarthy  

Posted: 21/06/2001 at 15:46 GMT  

New.net has just opened a UK office, and in celebration offered a 
further 10 domain name extensions to its current 20. We popped along 
for a chat with the boys who ICANN have taken a disliking to and who 
Willie Black (head of Nominet in the UK) recently called nothing but 
script kiddies.  

First of all, you need to know what New.net is and what it does. The 
company offers people the chance to register new domains with endings 
like .shop, .family, . mp3, .tech and so on and so forth. Amazing, 
you say, and ICANN has been arsing about for well over a year on new 
TLDs with still nothing yet.  

Yes and no. The company does it but with a sleight of hand. The URL 
of www.pie.shop will in fact be www.pie.shop.new.net. This is the 
basis of every problem, debate and argument concerning New.net. In 
order for people to type in the shortened URL and get the site, 
New.net requires a modification to be made in how your browser 
searches for Web sites.  

You can either connect to the Net through an ISP that has partnered 
with New.net or you can add New.net to your operating system's Web 
site search tool. When looking for a Web site, if the URL can't be 
found on the Internet's main DNS servers, the computer then asks 
New.net if it knows about it.  

This is not only misleading to the average Joe but restrictive and 
threatens to destabilise the entire Internet, say New.net's critics. 
Twaddle, says New.net. And you know what, it's got a point.  

The future of the Internet? Put simply, New.net is selling itself as 
the future of the Internet. A future where the market controls the 
Internet's main product - domain names. Where competition and 
decision and capitalism decide the form of the Net in the future and 
not a bunch of old techies who appointed themselves to the leading 
role. [And while we're here, let the market sort out the domain 
dispute policies and Whois approach.]  

[...]

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See also

  http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/19882.html

"This is how Microsoft will end up running the Internet"