The Iperdome Story
Iperdome formed in January of 1997 to offer Personal Domain Name
services under the .per(sm) brand and TLD (Top Level Domain). It was
one of the first new registries on the Internet, one that offered many
firsts to its clients.
For example, Iperdome was one of the first
companies to offer domain name branding services, including web and email
redirection services. It was one of the first to offer Discrete Domain Name Assignments (a process that allows
millions of individuals to share common family names). And it was one
of a handful of companies that joined together
to create eDNS, the world's first not-for-profit, private root server
systems. Iperdome even hosted the eDNS formation meeting in Atlanta.
After enjoying initial success, Iperdome and the small companies behind eDNS came under attack from the
supporters of a competing name space expansion plan known as the
gTLD-MoU. These attacks were so severe, that the fight was commonly
referred to as the "Domain Name Wars" in the press.
While many thought the fight was over domain names, it soon became
apparent to Jay Fenello (Iperdome president and founder) that the fight was
really over who would control the Internet, a process he called Internet
Governance. Although this was extremely controversial at the time,
many now consider this to be true.
In response to the assault, Iperdome
joined the calls asking
the U.S. Government to intervene. On July 7th, 1997, they did as they
began the first of three proceedings! And for over two years,
Iperdome and others participated in good faith in each of these proceedings.
(For an example, see Jay's Congressional testimony)
This process resulted in the formation
of ICANN (the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers),
an organization that was recognized by the U.S. Department of Commerce as
the coordinating body for the Internet. ICANN now controls many of
the technical parameters for the Internet, and is responsible for many
policy decisions that apply to the Internet world-wide.
Unfortunately,
ICANN is structured much like the WTO (World Trade Organization), and has
effectively eliminated civil society and end-user representation. It
is apparently run by big corporations and big government through an
obscure, arbitrarily defined consensus process. It has repeatedly
been called before Congress to justify it's egregious actions, and today
remains mired in controversy. Examples include it's ongoing disputes
with the Country Code Registries, and its alienation of the few members of
the Board actually elected by Internet users.
For its part,
Iperdome suspended operation after it became apparent that ICANN had been
captured, and that its decision-making processes were corrupt. Today,
ICANN has continued to consolidate power, as it removed user representation
from its Board, and implemented a taxation scheme that all domain name
holders now pay on an annual basis.
If you'd
like to learn
more about the history behind the takeover of the Internet, please read the
historical record as summarized on this web site, on the Personal Domain
Name Holders Association web site (PDNHA.org), or read the details in
this Harvard
Law interview.
