draft-liman-tld-names-00.txt and bidi

[James Seng]

John,

1) While one may argue that DNS is not "words" nor does one has
"rights" to what "words" in DNS,  the fact is is that people do use
"words" in DNS and trademark owners are asserting their rights, as
well. I am sure you are aware of these, whether the reality is
something we like or not.

2) The debate whether people can make (or should make) money out of
DNS is over - fact is people already have and will continue to do so.

3) Like you, I am interested to know what valid uses of digits in
TLDs. I couldn't imaging one myself but perhaps I am missing
something.

-James Seng

> Unicode doesn't have code points for some of these, although I'm
> sure they could be proposed, others are bad ideas, and still
> others are just unnecessary.  If the IETF is living up to its
> responsibilities, the relevant question is "what is necessary
> for people to make effective use of the DNS and for the DNS to
> function effectively".  The statement in 1123 to which you
> indirectly refer above says "alphabetic".  It didn't say, e.g.,
> "unless, by using some heuristic or calculation, it could not be
> part of an IPv4 address".  That was very intentional.   I think
> the answer to "is it necessary for effective use to allow IDNs
> at the top level" is "yes", even though I have some misgivings
> about it.   But I have yet to see even at attempt at a
> persuasive argument about why digits are _needed_ for effective
> use and functioning of the DNS.
>
> Personally, having listened to several years of ICANN debates
> about new TLD policies (IDN-related and not), I'd like a
> top-level domain consisting of the single character U+261D, only
> with a slightly different choice of digit.   I think I could
> make a lot of money with that domain name, thereby enhancing
> competition.   I would also like it delivered on a new pony.
> Fortunately for (almost) everyone, IDNA2008 bans symbols and the
> code point I would need is not, as far as I know, part of
> Unicode or planned for an upcoming version.  So, of those things
> that I "want", the pony is the most realistic and I'm not really
> expecting it (on the other hand, for USD 135000 or thereabouts,
> perhaps ICANN would ship me a pony).
>
> Given that it is long-established that there is no "right" to
> particular names, that the DNS is not about "words" or proper
> spelling (not that there are any actual words in any natural
> language or writing system that I know which contains embedded
> digits), I would like to hear what range of things cannot
> plausibly be accomplished in the DNS without digits in the
> native-character form of the TLD label (the ASCII string
> (NR-LDH-label) for ASCII TLDs or the U-label for IDN ones), not
> what about various people's fantasies about how they could make
> money with things they "want".
>
>    john
>
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