Treaty to increase Internet addresses

     Associated Press
      GENEVA -- Worldwide clamoring for short, snappy names for Internet sites has led to a new system to go into effect next month, two U.N. agencies said Thursday.
      The advantage to a name such as "www.ibm.com" is that it is easy to remember or even guess if someone is searching the World Wide Web, said Robert Shaw of the International Telecommunication Union, a U.N. agency.
      "People want to have these very short addresses on the Internet," he said.
      The new addresses will be available after the signing of an international agreement in Geneva on May 1.
      The current system of names dates from 1984, when the Internet was still small and almost exclusively in the United States. The plan is to open up the registration system, currently controlled by one corporation, the Virginia-based Network Solutions, Inc., or NSI, under contract with the U.S. National Science Foundation.
      Internet addresses now end with an "extension," .com (pronounced "dot-com") for commercial businesses, .org for nonprofit organizations, .net for networks, .edu for educational institutions, .gov for government operations, .mil for the military, or a two-letter country code, such as .us for the United States or .uk for the United Kingdom.
      The new system will add seven new extensions: .firm for businesses, .store for companies selling products, .web for sites emphasizing the World Wide Web, .arts for cultural sites, .info for information services, .nom for individuals and .rec for recreational activities.
      People who already have a "domain name" will be able to keep it.
      Albert Tramposch of the World Intellectual Property Organization, the U.N. body responsible for international copyrights and patents, said the plan is opposed by some individuals and the current registrar, but that there is no major organization, group or corporation standing in the way.
      The U.S. National Science Foundation has spoken favorably of the plan and has announced that it will not renew the agreement with NSI when it expires next year, clearing the way for the new system.
      When the contract started in 1993, NSI was registering about 400 names a month. But growth became so rapid, the company was allowed to start charging $100 for the a two-year registration.
      Last month NSI registered about 100,000 names, for an income of $10 million, Shaw said.
      "This is turning into a huge cash cow," he said. "Suddenly people are saying I'd like to get into this business, too."
      When the system starts this summer, there will be four registrars per region, for a global total of 28. Later, Shaw said, "there could be hundreds if not thousands of registrars around the world," all of them reachable by Internet so that customers can pick the best price to register a name.
      About 45 major communications firms and others have already said they will sign, he added. Governments have been invited, but are expected to take awhile to decide. The organizers want to keep government intervention to a minimum, because the intent is to have "a new type of global self-governance."
      The plan also is to have an arbitration system to resolve disputes, especially over trademarks.