Namespace moves towards controlling ZA names

Johannesburg, 03 Sept 2001

The Namespace Company of South Africa on Friday moved closer towards establishing itself as the ultimate power over all domains under the South Africa .za suffix, including the popular.co.za area.

At its inaugural meeting, the company chose the seven directors and two appointees who are to see the company established legally, and then convince international regulatory body ICANN (the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) to give it administrative powers.

Namespace seeks to take over administration of the .za space from Mike Lawrie, the local Internet pioneer who has been handling it single-handedly since 1994. Lawrie started his search for a "suitable body" to which he could hand over his powers in 1998.

Although membership to Namespace is open to any individual or company with one or more registered domains in the .za space, and interested parties can join at a nominal R20 fee, the inaugural meeting was attended by little more than 50 people. Many among those had been involved in the three-year process of establishing the company.

With its directors selected, Namespace is to be registered as a non-profit section 21 company in the following weeks. Lawrie, who was selected to the board, has agreed to hand over his position to the company, but it may face substantial further difficulty in taking control. ICANN must accept the legitimacy of the company and delegate administrative powers to it before it can become operational.

The forming group believes Namespace conforms to all requirements ICANN may have, but "there is no clear and absolute indication of what ICANN will accept," said Michael Silber, chairman of the committee which drafted the company` constitution. He also raised the possibility that the government, through the department of communications, may ask ICANN not to officially recognise Namespace.

Silber says those involved do not perceive a battle raging between the government and civil bodies such as Namespace, despite government`s overt moves towards controlling the .za space. Yet the government has to date declined to make an appointment to the board of directors, a right granted in the constitution, and is instead represented by department of communications employee Envir Fraser in his personal capacity.

Silber says Namespace is seen as a temporary body, as pending e-commerce legislation could supersede it. Yet he says the effort of establishing the company would not be in vain, even if that were the case.

"We hope that this will bring stability," he says. "It is possible that government can just replace the board of directors, rip out this one and put in their own board, and leave the company in place.

Now for competition

Even if the reign of Namespace in its proposed format is brief, it is likely to introduce competition in the registration of at least the commercial .co.za domain.

"The Drafting Committee see both .za and second level domains [such as .co.za] as national assets, so they shouldn`t be a monopoly for any money-making organisations," says Silber.

The company`s policy sets out in exhaustive detail how registrars will be able to apply to the board for recognition and the right to accept domain registrations, and how the activities of multiple registrars are to be co-ordinated.

Currently registration of .co.za names is handled by Uniforum, a non-profit company. Should competition be introduced, Uniforum would likely transform itself into a for-profit company.

However, new domains such as seen internationally are unlikely to be introduced, despite persistent calls for the likes of .info.za or .biz.za to be opened up. The Namespace policy does make allowance for new second-tier domains, and using the somewhat uniquely South African example sets out how applications for a hypothetical domain for the use of criminals - crook.za - can be structured.

Such applications will be closely scrutinised and only allowed if their establishment is found to be in the public interest. Several board members have expressed the view that new sub-domains will not solve the problems of those who find their preferred domains already registered.

Namespace is expected to be legally registered by October, and is expected to make its application for control of the .za space to ICANN shortly thereafter.