Icann tackles 'alternative' domain names

The board of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (Icann) is meeting today to try and head-off potentially damaging splits to the system of allocating top-level domain names.

Tackling 'rogue' top-level domain names is on the agenda of the Icann quarterly meeting today in Stockholm.

Icann president M. Stuart Lynn, this week urged internet users to ignore the "illusory short-term advantages of the alternative root movement", which is challenging Icann's authority.

Icann plans to set up an oversight panel to take a firm stance against the alternative movement, claiming that there are "solid technical grounds for a single authoritative root".

Lynn said that users needed a single authoritative root under the "assurance that the internet will continue to function in a stable and holistic manner that benefits the global community, and not become captured by the self-interests of the few".

But Icann's attitude has been dismissed by multiple root supporters which claim that Icann has been tardy in addressing the needs of the rapidly expanding internet.

David Hernand, chief executive of New.net, an alternative root domain name provider, has accused Icann of being too slow to create new top-level domains.

"We believe that the decisions about which top-level domain names to release and who should administer them would benefit tremendously from market forces, rather than central control by one organisation," he said.

Since Icann was appointed to oversee domain name policies in 1998 and more recently during the approval process for seven new top level domains, internet users unimpressed with the organisation's attitude to new domains have gone elsewhere to get their hands on alternative suffixes.

Although only accessible through specially configured browsers, there is a growing community of sites sporting alternative domains such as .god, .xxx and .kids.