Re: [idn] Registration rules and Canonicalisation rules

[ned+IDN@innosoft.com]

> Keith says that "registration rules" probably cannot be global.  Ran
> says that "canonicalisation/normalisation rules" must be global.  I
> happen to agree with both of them about this, and there's no conflict
> here, because registration rules and canonicalisation rules are not the
> same thing.

Nicely put. I also agree with both of them and agree that there's no conflict.

> Registration rules are administrative procedures that prohibit one
> person from registering a name that is too similar to a name that
> somebody else has already registered.  A silly example using the
> english/american language would be to say that the names "color" and
> "colour" may not be registered to different people.  A less silly
> example using the french language would be to say that the names "cafe"
> and "caf<e+acute>" may not be registered to different people.

Note that options other than outright prohibition exist. For example,
an attempt to register a similar name might trigger an automatic query
to the holder of an existing name asking for permission (or asking if
they want to block) to register the similar name.

Exactly what constitutes similarity and what is done about it are
administrative matters -- aside from noting that such issues exist and that it
is OK to deal with them we should stay out of this area. Our job is
hard enough without trying to specify such rules.

> Canonicalisation rules, in the present context, are rules about
> whether the DNS software thinks that two names (which might initially
> appear to be different) are equivalent.

> It's quite easy to imagine a world in which all DNS software thinks
> that "cafe" and "caf<e+acute>" have different canonical forms, yet
> some registries do and other registries do not permit "cafe" and
> "caf<e+acute>" to be registered to different people.

Yup.

				Ned