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From: dell@amelia.nas.nasa.gov (Thomas E Dell)
Newsgroups: comp.mail.misc,comp.mail.sendmail
Subject: Re: How serious is the at->@ problem?
Message-ID: <3945@amelia.nas.nasa.gov>
Date: 25 Nov 89 12:35:40 GMT
References: <3747@ccnysci.UUCP> <7867@ditmela.oz>
Reply-To: dell@amelia.nas.nasa.gov (Thomas E Dell)
Organization: NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA
Lines: 16

>Strictly speaking, Manchester's astronomers have registered a semi- illegal
>name. You are not allowed to register a domain name that is already used
>as a higher-level domain name. If the .at domain was registered in the
>British name scheme (it isn't - sigh), 'at.man.ac.uk' would be illegal.

This cannot be enforced, mainly because of the .us domain. Witness the
.il.us <=> .il Israel, .ca.us <=> .ca Canada, and .net.com <=> .net, among
other examples.

It does pose an interesting dilemma to DNS software run in the 
offending domains. My guess is that it will only be a problem if/when 
.ca.us and .ca both achieve large Internet populations.

                 ...Tom

dell@ames-nas.arpa | Abolish velcro before it's too late..