RE: [cobalt-users] H4CK3R5

[Reinoud van Leeuwen <rvanleeuwen@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

> > I would note that rfc920 described .com before there was any non-us
> > internet, and it wasn't until 1994 (rfc1591) that anyone 
> actually came
> > out and stated that 'yes, these are/were for anyone'
> >
> > (some of us have been around that long -)
> 
> gsh, I do regret ripping your head off. I'll admit to being slighly
> sensitive on the subject, since I'm from Guatemala and spent 10 years
> living in the USA. You get really tired of the "Is that in Africa?"
> comments and even the occasional "But don't you fall out of the trees
> when you're sleeping?" Even at Harvard, the cultural black hole was
> amazing.
> 
> But you're right... the com/net/org were created before the 
> ROW used the
> Net and thus have always been seen as US-based. In fact, I tell my

Hmmm. Over here in Europe we had Internet access as wel in those days (I am
talking about the late 80's in a university environment). 
In those days there were no real issues yet with domains. The com/net/org
domains (and .gov and .mil) were created for specific reasons, from a US
based vision. And then they realised that they needed top-level domains as
well for other countries.

Later people assumed that com/org/net were US. But over here we've allways
assumed they were global. the .net domains were reserverd for people that
"did maintenance on the Internet backbone". Nothing US in that phrase. 

The fact that .com domains still are subject to *US* jurisdiction is a point
of irritation in the entire world (except for a small country somewhere
north of Mexico :-) 
If I have a domain for 10 years, and European copyright on that brand, a US
based company can get US copyright on that same name, and claim my domain!
(see the etoys stuff a year ago). 
(note that the US only signed the Bern convention on copyright in 1986!
almost half a century after the rest of the civilized world...)

But let us not get caried away on how things got as they are now. We have to
live by the way it is now...


> clients that the USA got to use com/net/org as their default 
> since they
> got there first. Due credit given.
> 
> My first email was on a shell, via UUCP, in 1989. We *have* 
> come a long
> way.
> 
>