On Sat, 20 Sep 2003, Masataka Ohta wrote:
Dean;
The "set" is the set of *registered* names. The proper and only way to
query this set is through whois.
The only reason to have domain names registered is to use it
through DNS.
The only reason we have DNS is to associate information such as IP
addresses with names. Registration is far more important than the
protocol.
Whois may be a useful tool for registration convenience but is of
secondary importance.
This is the tail wagging the dog.
If you disagree, let me control DNS reply of your domain "av8.com",
while keeping whois response to "av8.com" as is.
I also say that power is of secondary importance to computing. What we
are interested in is the result of computing. We do not care about power,
unless I give you control over the power switch.
DNS has nothing to
do with registration
If you are arguing that verisign registration has nothing to do
with DNS, I have no reason to disagree.
I think you missed this:
Registration -> DNS
DNS !-> Registration
The symbol '->' is read to mean "implies something about".
You are correct that Registration has a lot to do with DNS. But DNS has
nothing to do with Registration, as I said. You cannot check a
registration via DNS. This is what abusers of reverse DNS are doing, or
rather, were attempting to do.
Then, for DNS use, we need another registration which has much
to do with DNS.
Verisign can still continue to operate their current registry
for "com" and "net" for their whois query, though it has nothing
to do with "com" and "net" TLDs in DNS reply.
Masataka Ohta