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Couldn't agree more. Not sure why the task of operating DNS' isn't the domain of governments the world over. It's kind of like operating a post office. Post off

Couldn't agree more. Not sure why the task of operating DNS' isn't the domain of governments the world over. It's kind of like operating a post office. Post office's are the ones who have the routing information and capability to route physical messages and packages. They are still operated on a for profit model, but they are also generally very well regulated. Same thing should apply with registrars

zanny 8y ago
I believe that is how the country code TLDs do work, but most nations (who are given ownership of them) they just hire a corporation to sell domains and make rent seeking gross revenue off a few characters of a URL. But those are eclipsed by the generic TLDs where its just a happy accident registrars and rent seekers are making fortunes off of words with com or net at the end of them.
ehnto 8y ago
I am against privatisation of key infrastructure and I would certainly count the internet as key infrastructure. However I am not sure the government would be entirely benevolent. So I agree that some good regulations are probably a good start.
BurningFrog 8y ago
When you scan for uncorrupt institutions, how the hell do you end up on "governments the world over"?
- lukeify 8y ago
  Because some of us don't believe governments are inherently evil?
  - WillPostForFood 8y ago
    Almost no one believes governments are inherently evil, but that doesn’t mean many, or most, aren’t corrupt. How many anarchists are there in your neighborhood?
- minikites 8y ago
  I've never understood why governments (or labor unions) default to "corrupt" and private firms default to "virtuous".
  - cortesoft 8y ago
    I mean, lots of people think both are corrupt.
  - prewett 8y ago
    It seems to be that if you lean Republican, governments are corrupt and private firms virtuous because freedom and the magic of the Invisible Hand of free markets make private firms virtuous (individual choice) and governments corrupt (coercive force). If you lean Democrat, then governments are virtuous and private firms corrupt because the free market doesn't solve all the problems, and for those you need regulation (government: coercive force). In fact, the regulated free market leads huge wealth disparities, which leads to social problems, and since private firms that are seeking to maximize their wealth disparity, obviously they must be corrupt. Naturally, neither of these pictures is right, or rather, they are both partly right.
    - Retric 8y ago
      I don’t think that’s accurate. Companies and individuals benefit from outsourcing government work, that creates a huge incentive to paint government as incompetent. The US military which hands crazy money to private firms is viewed very highly by the Republican’s and less so by Democrats.
    - rectang 8y ago
      Power corrupts when governments extend excessive control over markets. Power corrupts when private firms extend excessive influence over government. The most consistent principle is to oppose concentration of power in all its forms.
  - deleted 8y ago
    [deleted]
  - 8y ago
- darpa_escapee 8y ago
  With the government, you get a vote. With other institutions, you have to hope their stakeholders' interests align with yours.
  - randiantech 8y ago
    I can have a vote, but government will still force me to pay tributes at gunpoint. On the other hand, im not forced to buy most of private goods. At the end, the evil organizations are those that became monopolies, no matter if it is public or private.
    - isostatic 8y ago
      Sure, I'm not forced to buy food, or medicine, or heat, or for somewhere to live, I could just decide to starve, or freeze, or die of plague.
    - darpa_escapee 8y ago
      > I can have a vote, but government will still force me to pay tributes at gunpoint No, at most you'll get a letter in a mail and a lien if you aren't actively trying to evade taxes. No reason to engage in hyperbole.
      - armenarmen 8y ago
        And then if you don’t leave your house you get put in the last socially acceptable debtors prison. And if you try leave that they will kill you. Ultimately the threat of murder and kidnapping are there
        anoncake 8y ago
        Or you could just be a decent person and pay your taxes.
  - BurningFrog 8y ago
    We're talking about "governments the world over", and they are typically not fairly run democracies.
- Pristina 8y ago
  most people are in the world are brainwashed by government propaganda to believe that the solution to any problem is more government power and control
  - Tepix 8y ago
    Source? Also what's the proof that private organizations are a better solution to the problem? Just look at the US prison system.
    - randiantech 8y ago
      Not to undermine your point, but you have used the worst possible example. In the top 1000 of worst prisons around the world, most if not all of them are not private. Just take a look a Brazil prison system as en example.
      - amdavidson 8y ago
        Does Brazil have private prisons that are much better than their public ones? If not, I don't think you have contradicted his point at all. There are not too many places that we can look at public vs private institutions for direct comparisons (in the contexts that they operate). Prisons are one, I can think of FedEx/UPS/DHL vs the Post Office as another, and it's difficult for me to come up with much after that.
      - Tepix 8y ago
        One glaring problem with private prisons is that it creates an incentive to put more people in jail and keep them there longer.
rafiki6 8y ago
The responses below are kind of funny. The government already runs key infrastructure. I'm not sure if the argument is government vs. Corp. Frankly governments are more likely to consider public interest than corps are. That's not to say that they always do, but corps almost never do. This is why government sells things like spectrum or land for railways if they don't own the rail themselves. They also own things like roads. It's important to realise that there is no incorruptible institution in the world. Maybe domain name management is actually a great use case for blockchain or some other truly democratic distributed accounting/ledger system.
forgottenpass 8y ago
>It's kind of like operating a post office. The reason that there is a namespace problem in the first place is that most people don't want the kind of domain name that post office numbering would give them. When the internet was newer, my school email address was @schooldistrict.k12.state.ca.us, by the time I graduated highschool it was @schoolname.org.

zanny 8y ago

I believe that is how the country code TLDs do work, but most nations (who are given ownership of them) they just hire a corporation to sell domains and make rent seeking gross revenue off a few characters of a URL. But those are eclipsed by the generic TLDs where its just a happy accident registrars and rent seekers are making fortunes off of words with com or net at the end of them.

ehnto 8y ago

I am against privatisation of key infrastructure and I would certainly count the internet as key infrastructure. However I am not sure the government would be entirely benevolent. So I agree that some good regulations are probably a good start.

BurningFrog 8y ago

When you scan for uncorrupt institutions, how the hell do you end up on "governments the world over"?

lukeify 8y ago
Because some of us don't believe governments are inherently evil?
- WillPostForFood 8y ago
  Almost no one believes governments are inherently evil, but that doesn’t mean many, or most, aren’t corrupt. How many anarchists are there in your neighborhood?
minikites 8y ago
I've never understood why governments (or labor unions) default to "corrupt" and private firms default to "virtuous".
- cortesoft 8y ago
  I mean, lots of people think both are corrupt.
- prewett 8y ago
  It seems to be that if you lean Republican, governments are corrupt and private firms virtuous because freedom and the magic of the Invisible Hand of free markets make private firms virtuous (individual choice) and governments corrupt (coercive force). If you lean Democrat, then governments are virtuous and private firms corrupt because the free market doesn't solve all the problems, and for those you need regulation (government: coercive force). In fact, the regulated free market leads huge wealth disparities, which leads to social problems, and since private firms that are seeking to maximize their wealth disparity, obviously they must be corrupt. Naturally, neither of these pictures is right, or rather, they are both partly right.
  - Retric 8y ago
    I don’t think that’s accurate. Companies and individuals benefit from outsourcing government work, that creates a huge incentive to paint government as incompetent. The US military which hands crazy money to private firms is viewed very highly by the Republican’s and less so by Democrats.
  - rectang 8y ago
    Power corrupts when governments extend excessive control over markets. Power corrupts when private firms extend excessive influence over government. The most consistent principle is to oppose concentration of power in all its forms.
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]
- 8y ago
darpa_escapee 8y ago
With the government, you get a vote. With other institutions, you have to hope their stakeholders' interests align with yours.
- randiantech 8y ago
  I can have a vote, but government will still force me to pay tributes at gunpoint. On the other hand, im not forced to buy most of private goods. At the end, the evil organizations are those that became monopolies, no matter if it is public or private.
  - isostatic 8y ago
    Sure, I'm not forced to buy food, or medicine, or heat, or for somewhere to live, I could just decide to starve, or freeze, or die of plague.
  - darpa_escapee 8y ago
    > I can have a vote, but government will still force me to pay tributes at gunpoint No, at most you'll get a letter in a mail and a lien if you aren't actively trying to evade taxes. No reason to engage in hyperbole.
    - armenarmen 8y ago
      And then if you don’t leave your house you get put in the last socially acceptable debtors prison. And if you try leave that they will kill you. Ultimately the threat of murder and kidnapping are there
      - anoncake 8y ago
        Or you could just be a decent person and pay your taxes.
- BurningFrog 8y ago
  We're talking about "governments the world over", and they are typically not fairly run democracies.
Pristina 8y ago
most people are in the world are brainwashed by government propaganda to believe that the solution to any problem is more government power and control
- Tepix 8y ago
  Source? Also what's the proof that private organizations are a better solution to the problem? Just look at the US prison system.
  - randiantech 8y ago
    Not to undermine your point, but you have used the worst possible example. In the top 1000 of worst prisons around the world, most if not all of them are not private. Just take a look a Brazil prison system as en example.
    - amdavidson 8y ago
      Does Brazil have private prisons that are much better than their public ones? If not, I don't think you have contradicted his point at all. There are not too many places that we can look at public vs private institutions for direct comparisons (in the contexts that they operate). Prisons are one, I can think of FedEx/UPS/DHL vs the Post Office as another, and it's difficult for me to come up with much after that.
    - Tepix 8y ago
      One glaring problem with private prisons is that it creates an incentive to put more people in jail and keep them there longer.

rafiki6 8y ago

The responses below are kind of funny. The government already runs key infrastructure. I'm not sure if the argument is government vs. Corp. Frankly governments are more likely to consider public interest than corps are. That's not to say that they always do, but corps almost never do. This is why government sells things like spectrum or land for railways if they don't own the rail themselves. They also own things like roads. It's important to realise that there is no incorruptible institution in the world. Maybe domain name management is actually a great use case for blockchain or some other truly democratic distributed accounting/ledger system.

forgottenpass 8y ago

>It's kind of like operating a post office. The reason that there is a namespace problem in the first place is that most people don't want the kind of domain name that post office numbering would give them. When the internet was newer, my school email address was @schooldistrict.k12.state.ca.us, by the time I graduated highschool it was @schoolname.org.