[gnso-rds-pdp-wg] Why domain names are not like phone numbers (was Re: Some reg'n data I think necessary)

[Greg Aaron]

The analogy between domain names and IP addresses allocated by RIRs (and then SWIPed by those they were allocated to) is much stronger.


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Greg Aaron
Vice-President, Product Management
iThreat Cyber Group / Cybertoolbelt.com
mobile: +1.215.858.2257
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-----Original Message-----
From: gnso-rds-pdp-wg-bounces at icann.org [mailto:gnso-rds-pdp-wg-bounces at icann.org] On Behalf Of Andrew Sullivan
Sent: Tuesday, March 22, 2016 2:14 PM
To: gnso-rds-pdp-wg at icann.org
Subject: [gnso-rds-pdp-wg] Why domain names are not like phone numbers (was Re: Some reg'n data I think necessary)

On Tue, Mar 22, 2016 at 06:32:06PM +0100, Volker Greimann wrote:
> So your argument is that as the domain name node may contain 
> additional data, it should be treated completely different than a 
> phone number or an IP address?

My argument is that the analogy between domain names on the one hand, and your personal phone number or the IP that you get from your ISP when you use DHCP on the other, is not very strong.  There are significant dissimilarities.  The most important (as I think some of us have already argued) are these:

    1.  A domain name is not (necessarily) an end point identifier,
    whereas a phone number and individual IP address both are.

    2.  A domain name (with the possible exception of an entry in the
    reverse tree, and even that is controversial) is optional for
    Internet connectivity, whereas neither an IP address nor a phone
    number is optional for connectivity to their respective networks.

    3.  Domain names are primarily used to offer services, more like
    IP address allocations from RIRs or phone-number block assignments
    under the number portability authorities.

So, "treated completely differently", no; but if we're going to use analogies to inform how we ought to think about this topic we really ought to find ones without such significant dissimilarities.  As ever with analogies, the more dissimilarities one can find that are relevant to the considerations at hand, the more the analogy breaks down.  I therefore think the analogy between domain names and phone numbers or end-user IP addresses is pretty weak.

Best regards,

A

--
Andrew Sullivan
ajs at anvilwalrusden.com
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