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PH, ITECC, NEDA, NTC, PHILDAC, PICS, whewh!
Oakwood, Jose Pidal, the Joey-Kris split. With these attention grabbing headlines, few may have noticed that "minor news" about the Office of the President issuing a memo on this thing called "domain name registration". The memo reads:
"Pursuant to the 15 th Meeting of the Information Technology and E-Commerce Council (ITECC) held on 25 June 2003, it was agreed that the oversight function over the domain name registration and internet-related concerns shall be delegated to the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC). In view thereof, the NTC is hereby directed to draft the guidelines in the performance of its oversight function and conduct public consultations necessary thereto. An advisory board shall also be created to assist the NTC in the performance of this oversight function. The Board shall be composed of the NTC, ITECC Legal and Regulatory Committee private sector Co-Chair and representatives from the DOST-ASTI, the private sector and the academe."
The memo was meant to address issue on the Philippine country-code top-level domain (CCTLD) or .PH. To the common tao, the question is: What exactly is .PH and why are groups fighting over it?
Such simple question yet very difficult to answer - in simple terms.
The Internet is a network of networks which allow us to send and receive information in packets (parts). These packets are passed from one computer to computer, not necessarily using the same path, only to consolidated again at the point of destination.
To be able to do this, computers connected to the Internet are assigned specific IP addresses. These are in the form of four numbers separated by dots (23.45.65.98). Perhaps to facilitate recall, the domain name system (DNS) was adopted. It allows pairing of specific group of alpha-numeric characters (i.e. abc123) to a specific IP address (i.e. 23.45.65.98).
The DNS used to be managed by IANA. ICANN, or the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, took over IANA's functions. It is a non-profit organization which performs key internet functions like the DNS under a memorandum of agreement with the Bureau of Commerce (BoC) of the United States of America.
On top of the DNS are what we call top-level domains (TLDs). There are two kinds. First are generic top-level domains (GTLDs). They include .com, .org, .net and others. The second are country-code top-level domains (CCTLDs). For this, ICANN uses two-letter codes based on standard codes maintained by an organization under the United Nations (UN).
The top-level domains when paired with a specific group of alpha-numeric characters (secondary domains) are unique. To be able to claim and use one, one has to register and pay. For this purpose, ICANN contracted with certain organizations like NSI and Verisign, and persons to maintain the databases on servers (registry) and to accept registrations (registrars).
The two-letter top-level domain for the Philippines was assigned by the late John Postel of IANA to Joel Disini, one of the pioneers of the Internet here in the Philippines. To this day, he and his company maintains the .PH registry and accepts registrations for a fee.
Based on best practices documents of IANA and ICANN, Disini is holding .PH in trust of the Filipino nation and the local Internet community. For years, however, there has been many complaints about his administration with some groups advocating for its redelegation (transfer of administration) to a non-profit entity.
It is in response to these that the memorandum from the Office of the President was issued. In effect, NTC is being tasked to perform oversight functions over .PH. In the performance of these functions, it is mandated to create an advisory board composed of government and private sector representatives.
Lately, however, a position paper of the Philippine Internet Commerce Society (PICS) on this issue is circulating. If I understood it correctly, they are advocating for the redelegation of the .PH registry to a non-profit entity to be governed by a board where the local internet community is sufficiently represented. This is in line with the argument that .PH is to be held in trust of the local internet community.
I was told that the position paper had been submitted to ITECC. Whether PICS is for or against NTC's oversight function over .PH is not very clear to me.
There are of course legal issues with regards to NTC's assumption of the oversight (read regulatory) functions over .PH. Perhaps the most important question is, what really is .PH in relation to the Philippine government and the Filipino people.
I have written before and continue to take the position that .PH is national partimony. ICANN is simply using a two-letter code assigned by a body of the United Nations to the Philippines being an independent state. Of course, we all know that we became an independent state by the sweat and blood of our forefathers.
Another reason is the fact that, in the operation of .PH, particularly with regards to its registry functions, it is a natural monopoly. Our constitution is wary monopolies and calls for their regulation when necessary.
The ICANN itself considers the CCTLD as being held in trust in favor of the nation and the local internet community. It declared, "Concerns about 'rights' and 'ownership' of domains are inappropriate. It is appropriate, however, to be concerned about 'responsibilities' and 'service' to the community."
Have we seen the last on this issue? I have a strong feeling we have not.
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