Second Amendment for Domain Names

The First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which guarantees freedom of speech, the press, and religion, has been described as itself being guaranteed by the Second Amendment, which guarantees the right to bear arms.  Without the people being able to exert force upon a tyrannical government, the Constitution is just a piece of paper.  Policy from ICANN, ITU, and the UN that guarantees Internet freedom is also just verbiage that the December 2012 WCIT meeting in Dubai showed will change over time.  Rootless TLDs, as implemented by ShofarDomain, are a force of technological arms.  This is part of the arsenal to combat the creeping tyranny threating Internet freedom.

What is at stake?

If I have a product or service to sell, friends to communicate with, or an issue to promote, I may set up a website at “Example.com”.   My site might be there for years until something is found to be offensive and force is applied to take my site down by using the centrally controlled domain name.

For example, concerns were raised in early 2012 that the SOPA and PIPA bills before the US Congress opened the door to a site being shut down if it had a link to another site with illegal copyrighted material.  This led to the unprecedented online protests on January 18, 2012 including Wikipedia going offline for 24 hours and Google blacking out its logo.  The bills died, but new ones are coming.  History demonstrates that given time policies will creep in to an oppressive level.

Rootless domains as bullets

There is a difference in the response of government when you compare “don’t do that or we will sue” versus “don’t do that or we will shoot.”  While the contention may be costly, without it American independence would not have happened in 1776.  Similarly the current DNS is centrally controlled and therefore policy rules.  To change things you have to do the equivalent of suing.  Current DNS software submits to ICANN’s root and therefore ICANN’s authority.

Rootless TLDs do not submit to ICANN’s root.  Those who use rootless DNS software essentially turn the table and make the root submit as a peer to other rootless TLDs.  While there are other issues with central control to address, ICANN becomes more impotent and free Internet users have a round in the chamber.

Pandora’s Box for domains

It is a wee bit difficult to put things back into Pandora’s Box once released.  That is exactly what happens with a rootless TLD once released. It is now “in the wild” and it is rather difficult for a central authority to eliminate every copy around the world since they keep replicating.

Take up arms to keep the Internet free

The mantras of “put it in the cloud” and “let someone else manage it” simply feed the central authority.  When any organization or even individuals do for themselves with their down copy of the DNS data, the central authority is neutralized.  The absolute power of centrally controlled domain names will lead to absolute corruption.  Lock and load!

ShofarCoin™