Operators of country-specific domain names such as ".se" for Sweden aren't expecting the worldwide recognition that ".com" gets. But they wouldn't mind getting some respect.
They've resisted paying for Internet directory services they formerly got for free. Last weekend, they voted to pull out of a key Internet policy-setting group so they could set up their own.
Their protests may be paying off. It appears the rebels are beginning to be taken seriously by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, the US-based organization that oversees Internet addresses.
Karl Auerbach, an ICANN board member often critical of the agency, says either ``ICANN is going to realize that these interests exist or it will crumble.''
An outcry ensued last year when ICANN, which was selected by the US government in 1998 to oversee the domain name system, suddenly sent bills to the 244 country-code operators to finance ICANN's operating budget.
The operators complained they had not been consulted and for the most part refused to pay.
Some operators threatened at one point to go elsewhere for directory services and effectively split off into an alternative Internet.
After some shuttle diplomacy by ICANN officials, both sides now cite progress and say formal contracts could be finalized by the end of the year. Some operators are making interim payments on a voluntary basis.
"I think that it's on its way to being sorted out and ICANN will get their money," said Eva Frolich of the NIC-SE Network Information Centre Sweden, which manages ".se."
ICANN's budget for the fiscal year starting July 1 counts on US$1.3 million in revenues from the country-code operators, or 21 percent of the total.
The budget, approved Monday at a quarterly meeting in Stockholm, listed as a priority the need to strengthen services to the operators. ICANN is expanding its staff, adding a liaison for the country codes.
ICANN maintains the online national suffixes within a set of 13 root servers that function as the Net's master directories. Making the suffixes work is a matter of making sure they exist on the servers.
Before 1998, the regional operators got the services free from the US government, which had created the Internet as a research and military network. Some critics questioned whether the fees ICANN wants would subsidize tasks beyond entering names.
ICANN dispatched top officials to quell a potential rebellion.
"Last year because of the pressure of time and communication confusions, invoices were sent out where there weren't agreements in place and the groundwork hadn't been laid," ICANN's president Stuart Lynn said. "We're doing much more talking and trying to understand each other."
Lynn said he was satisfied with the interim setup but hoped for a general agreement to be reached in the next several weeks, which would be followed by individual discussions with operators.
But while praising ICANN's improved communication skills, many regional operators remain unhappy with their level of representation in the organization.
They complain that ICANN spends most of its time on global suffixes used primarily by US sites.
A group of the operators voted to withdraw from ICANN's Domain Name Supporting Organization and set up their own group in hopes of gaining more influence.
The move requires ratification after discussions with other members and the ICANN board and staff.
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