U.S. Claims Super Ownership Of All COM NET ORG Domains

It seems someone has made a(nother) blunder in the U.S. They let the cat out of the bag that the U.S. ultimately has final say on what happens to a U.S. registered and controlled domain name: we own you.

Or as someone posted anonymously on slashdot.org “I imagine that someone thought this was a creative way to attain a short-term objective (shutting down a web site) without regard to the long-term impact (loss of trust in the US).”

I was about to re-new a domain I had with namecheap when I noticed this headline and it stuck in the back of my mind. Knowing now (though it was probably buried deep within the Terms of Service somewhere all this time anyway) that all .COM, .NET, .ORG domains I might have are actually within the ultimate control of the U.S., I will not be re-newing them anymore once they expire and I’ll let them turn into link farms by the registrars. Yes, that includes this current domain.

Instead, I’ll use .INFO and .TK from now on. I’m not engaged in commerce and therefore do not run a COMmercial operation, I run my own kind of network within a .COM, so I do not use .NET and haven’t for years. Of course, knowing the U.S. want to claim ultimate jurisdiction on non-profit organisations means I will let the registration on a  .ORG I have expire without renewal as well.

Good one guys, at a time when many people are pointing and laughing at many things the U.S. do and have become, the immense naive short sightedness of some bureaucrats once again shows no bounds and makes even more people lose trust in America.

The .INFO administrators are based in Dublin, Ireland and .TK (from Tokelau) is based in New Zealand.

You can find out more here and here.

Since the last post about TinyCore Linux.

Since the last post, I had changed my mind about CorePkg. I went GPL v2 (only) with it as that was all that the TinyCore Linux project would accept. So I did that.

But then I was told that they didn’t want it. That’s ok, I decided to branch off Tiny Core Linux with my own set up, all GPL so they would be happy with me mentioning it on the forums so TCL users could choose which system they wanted.

Then the rabid GPL hounds came after me, so with good intentions I went after all the sources with a fine tooth comb to make sure all sources were accounted for. Then I was accused of taking their project with no attribution, by Robert Shingledecker no less! Why was this silly? Because I mention TinyCore Linux practically everywhere on the Nucleus Desktop website! You’d have to be blind not to see it! (I mean this figuratively speaking, and is NOT a jab at Robert’s actual muscular distrophy in his eyelids).

So what can you do with people who will outright reject all well planned, well thought out, good intentioned efforts to help a project? If anyone knows, reply here. I was even writing a nice long detailed essay about why TinyCore Linux as a distro is so much better, more practical and more logical for everyone to use, but I would not be able to help not mentioning the politics of it. Instead, I’ll write it about Nucleus Desktop.

Really, still no ill will against Robert. Even after all this. I am incredibly angry at his great exercise of jumping to negative conclusions so quickly (great workout!). I am irritated at the situation, and it made me want to give up on TinyCore Linux and all GPL related work.

But I love the small, no nonsense, practical and flexible approach of TinyCore Linux, so I don’t think I could ever leave the concept or foundation it provided. Who knows how it will go, but for as long as I can find a way to allow people to benefit from CorePkg, I will still be working on it.

See Robert, again, how is this NOT acknowledging TinyCore Linux?!

PS: A follow-up. I borrowed the ideals from TinyCore Linux and used them in Nucleus Desktop.

On the subject of software licensing…

I have a new found philosophy in software development. Software to me has always been an intellectual exercise; once I have it right how I want it, I would probably lose interest in it unless it was very popular or I later needed it to do something else that it doesn’t currently do.

This means I have a lot of software, mostly utilities, that I have created which have never been released. I feel disappointed in that and try to release what I can, when I can.

Most times, the source is (more…)

MK Technology Research for sale

Due to the economy and other circumstances beyond our control, MK Technology Research and related Intellectual Property is up for sale. The sale includes:

  • The MK Technology Research name (if you want to use it)
  • Exclusive rights to the NetGate project, all source code, full rights and IP
  • Exclusive rights to the DesktopXPress project, all source code, full rights and IP
  • Inclusive rights to the AusWebIndex aka Finda.WebSite general search engine project and source code (includes search engine, web crawler, website submission tool and an existing database of over 500 Australian and international URLs).

Serious offers and enquiries only please. Respond here or at MK Technology Research if you are interested.