IDNA2008: concerns about inconsistent mappings, and german sharp s
Alireza Saleh
saleh at nic.ir
Thu Dec 11 11:48:49 CET 2008
Markus,
I have suggested the contextual rule, because I thought it may fall into
that category such as Arabic-Digit sets. So the protocol can do the
mapping instead of the registry.
Best
Alireza
Vint Cerf wrote:
> Markus,
>
> this has been reviewed repeatedly and the conclusion is that because
> the sharp S is used differently in different jurisdictions, this needs
> to be a choice made at registration time, not at protocol time. Some
> jurisdictions will bundle the sharp S form and the "ss" form so that
> both forms of the domain name are registered in the name of the
> registrant. Upon introduction of sharp S, registries may need to use
> an introductory process that alerts all registrants relying on the
> mapping to register the sharp S form as well. This is "sunrise-like"
> in its behavior.�
>
> vint
>
>
> Vint Cerf
> Google
> 1818 Library Street, Suite 400
> Reston, VA 20190
> 202-370-5637
> vint at google.com <mailto:vint at google.com>
>
>
>
>
> On Dec 11, 2008, at 12:42 AM, Markus Scherer wrote:
>
>> Dear IDNA-updaters,
>>
>> I recently learned about some details about IDNA2008 and was
>> encouraged to voice concerns on this list.
>>
>> If I understand correctly, IDNA2008 -- unlike the 2003 version --
>> will not prescribe a particular set of character mappings. I am
>> concerned that this will lead to implementations behaving
>> inconsistently, and, for users, unpredictably, leading to navigation
>> to the wrong web sites or getting an error message for what seems
>> like (and used to be) a minor variation (for example, a casing
>> difference).
>>
>> In particular, as a native German speaker, I am concerned about what
>> I understand to be the effect on using German domain names --
>> regarding the '�' ("sharp s", also mis-named "eszett").This character
>> is mostly equivalent to "ss", and normal uppercasing turns it into
>> "SS" (except maybe on passports). Because of this near-equivalence,
>> there is some amount of confusion about when to use "�" vs. "ss". In
>> particular,
>>
>> * In Switzerland, "�" is never used and always replaced with "ss".
>> * The orthography change of 1996 changed the rules about � vs. ss
>> and changed many very common words. Anyone who learned to write
>> before the reform (like me) is prone to either still write the
>> old way or be inconsistent, in addition to normal
>> spelling�imperfections.
>> * For several years, prominent newspapers and publishers refused
>> to adopt the new orthography or flip-flopped in their adoption.
>>
>> The old IDNA standard mapped "�" to "ss". I understand that IDNA2008
>> does not include this mapping (or indeed any other), but does permit
>> � in unmapped domain names. This means that it will be possible for
>> equivalent domain names (flu�.de <http://fluss.de> vs. fluss.de
>> <http://fluss.de>) which used to be mapped to the same form (fluss.de
>> <http://fluss.de>) to now point to unrelated web sites (where one
>> might be a phishing site mimicking the other), or a user who used to
>> be successful following a link "flu�.de <http://fluss.de>" may now
>> find that their browser fails to connect.
>>
>> Please review this decision!
>>
>> It seems like for best consistency and interoperability, the updated
>> IDNA standard should include mappings that are compatible extensions
>> of the 2003 version, except to fix errors and security issues, and in
>> particular should maintain the folding of equivalent domain names to
>> a common representative.
>>
>> Failing that, it would help to continue to not allow the "�" in
>> domain names, except as input to an implementation which maps it to
>> "ss" as before.
>>
>> If that were not adopted either, then users can only hope that all
>> registrars either automatically treat all equivalent forms as aliases
>> or forbid registering a domain name if an equivalent one exists
>> already. (A connection error would be better than a phishing trap.) I
>> am pessimistic about all relevant registrars to learn about this (or
>> anything that's not required by the spec), understand it, and apply
>> it consistently.
>>
>> Sincerely,
>> markus
>>
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