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North American Network Operators Group Date Prev | Date Next | Date Index | Thread Index | Author Index | Historical Re: Root Authority
Paul Vixie wrote: > > > An interesting question I've dealt with a few times: > > > > From whom do the root nameservers derive their authority? > > we (i'm speaking for f-root here) have no "authority". nobody has to > listen to us, we are the most powerless bunch of folks you'll ever meet. > > now if you'd asked where we derive our *relevance*, i'd say the same as > mr. bush and mr. kletnieks -- from all the root.cache files that point > at us. and as long as we don't do anything stupid i guess (and hope) > that this state of affairs will continue. (relevance trumps authority.) > > that having been said, f-root got its start as NS.ISC.ORG and the man > who said it was ok for us to be a root name server was jon postel. i'm > not sure he had any "authority" either, but folks "pointed at" him and > so what he said was relevant in spite of any authority he mightn've had. I think that testimony belongs in a collection of Jon Postel characterizations. I long for the days when people did things simply and only because they were the right thing to do. Thanks for the reminder, Mr. Vixie.
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