[Politech] Odd restriction on IPv6 domains: no care.bears.want.to.evicerate.us [fs]

From: Declan McCullagh (declan@private)
Date: Thu Jan 13 2005 - 22:24:58 PST


Here's some background on IPv6, the "next generation" Internet Protocol:
http://www.ipv6.org/
http://playground.sun.com/pub/ipng/html/ipng-main.html

-Declan

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: submission: ``DNS spam'' forbidden on OCCAID
Date: Thu, 13 Jan 2005 18:48:59 -0500
From: Miles Nordin <carton@private>
To: declan@private

OCCAID, an experimental contributor-based IPv6 ISP in the US, has just
published a policy saying that DNS reverse-lookup hostnames like:

   care.bears.want.to.evicerate.us

meaning, long DNS names that spell out words or phrases, are forbidden
on their network.  They even have an autocensor program that
calculates if a hostname is so-called ``DNS spam'' or not:
http://spamcalc.net/

The policy was adopted on 2005-01-11.  The DNS spam stuff is in
section 14.  Here is the policy:

  http://www.occaid.org/proposals/eintap.txt

Here's an archive of the discussion of the policy on their members
mailing list:

  http://web.Ivy.NET/~carton/occaid/msg00553.html

Here's James Jun's opinion of it on the ``unofficial'' #occaid channel
on efnet:

  http://web.Ivy.NET/~carton/occaid-irc.txt

The thing that disturbs me most is that the policy is dumb, and that
the IPv6 Innurnet is starting to have all the same Interweb
quasi-censorship problems of the regular Internet, where ISPs block
port 80, where downstream is way cheaper than upstream, where
always-on IPs are dynamic for no good technical reason, and so on.

Libertarians may object more to the way a small inner-circle is making
decisions that aren't subject to debate on the list where all the
financial, transit/colocation, and technical contributors discuss
things.  Politech readers might be disappointed by technical people
saying ``i'm not interested in politics---it's not my problem.''

Or maybe it is just some local quarrel, and you don't care at all.
Anyway.  there it is.  sorry for the noise if you don't want it.


Background:

OCCAID is an experimental IPv6 network in the US.  Anyone can join for
free, and they are much better than other ways to get IPv6:

  freenet6.net:  very slow.  no BGP.
  he.net:        blocks tcp port 6667.  (i've never tried them)
  6to4:          very slow.  no BGP.  no reverse-DNS.

One can connect to OCCAID using a gif IPv6-over-IPv4 tunnel, and the
network is very well-run with low latency, diverse peering, and good
reliability.

The requirements for membership are: (1) you must be genuinely
interested in network experimentation, like learning BGP, OSPF, IPv6,
and helping other members, and (2) you must have a mostly-static IP
because unlike the other three tunnels, they configure their tunnels
manually, and (3) noncommercial use.

OCCAID has both end-node members like people with DSL and cable
connections, but they also peer with big ISPs in carrier-neutral
colocation facilities all over the US.  If you have a rack in such a
facility you can order an Ethernet cable to OCCAID for IPv6 transit,
and if you are an ISP you can peer with them to give IPv6 connectivity
to your customers.

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