Eminent Domains

Cyberspace has long been a seamless world, where data packets’ only allegiance is to the imperative of quick transmission. A centrally administered addressing system has kept it so.

Now, however, a tug of war rooted in nationalism is threatening to disrupt that system and snarl efforts to make the Internet a more universal medium.

The struggle pits VeriSign Inc.--the U.S. company that keeps track of addresses with those well-known endings such as “.com” and “.org”--against China’s government.

The issue: Who has the right to register Chinese-language Internet addresses?

Last month, VeriSign, based in Mountain View, Calif., announced it would begin accepting Web addresses written in Chinese as well as Japanese and Korean.

The China Internet Network Information Center, the government agency that oversees the registry in China, quickly responded by unveiling a competing system.

Officials quoted in state-run media called the system China’s sole legal cyber-registry.

State-run newspapers, ever given to nationalistic passions, stoked the controversy. They proclaimed that the Chinese language belongs to China and that VeriSign was trampling on Chinese sovereignty.

There was even talk in the press of blocking access in China to addresses using VeriSign’s system, as Beijing does now for Web sites of some foreign media and critics of Communist rule.

That raised the prospect of China cutting itself off from the rest of cyberspace.

“This could confuse or even fracture the Internet. It poses real problems,” said Bjorn Stabell, technology director at Beijing-based Web Technology Solutions, a consulting firm.

Here’s the rub: The Chinese government’s system threatens to use the same domain names as one of VeriSign’s partners, a Singapore-based start-up called I-DNS.net.

That means users in different geographical locations who type in the exact same address might be led to different Web sites.

That would occur if the computers on the Internet that direct traffic--they are called domain name servers and they are everywhere--begin disagreeing on the individual numerical Internet addresses associated with each name.

China could have its computers point to one set of servers, while the rest of the world uses another.

The U.S. government historically has been the ultimate arbiter, but it is trying to wean itself of that role. It designated the Internet Corp. for Assigned Names and Numbers in 1998 to oversee the Net’s addressing system, but the U.S. group’s jurisdiction and scope still aren’t clear.

As the Net’s importance grows in everything from commerce to political expression, the world’s governments are getting more involved. But China is upping the ante by claiming the right to govern Web use in

an entire language, regardless of where the users or sites are based.

“Chinese domain names are a matter of China’s sovereign rights,” proclaimed a state media report posted on the China Internet Network Information Center’s Web site. Agency officials refused interview requests.

There is room for compromise, however.

The rivals are talking about how to make their systems compatible, and some technical hurdles must be overcome, anyway, before non-English domain names can be used.

“What you may see right now is a lot of confusion and ill will,” said Doug Grabe, general manager for I-DNS. “These will all be resolved favorably . . . over time.”

Still, the nastiness of the spat and the overtones of national sovereignty illustrate the growing pains the Internet can expect as it goes multilingual.

“Chinese is the first foreign language we’re dealing with. This is the test bed,” said Brian O’Shaughnessy, a spokesman for VeriSign.

Until now, Web addresses have been written solely in English--reflecting the Internet’s birth as an outgrowth of a U.S. defense program. But that is apt to change radically as the Internet is more widely embraced.

Researchers at Global Reach estimate that English speakers now make up only half the online population.

China was a natural place to begin to add other languages to the Internet’s architectural lexicon.

For China to truly mesh with the Internet, its 10,000-plus characters had to first be converted into computer code. Now, domain name servers worldwide will need to be taught to read them.

If China were to get sole control of registering Chinese-language addresses, there is concern that its Communist government could use that power to bar groups it doesn’t like.

Already, the Chinese government system won’t accept domain names ending in the Chinese equivalent of .org--the address favored by political activists elsewhere in the world.

In commercial terms, Chinese-language domains look to be a gold mine. Though it won’t disclose exact figures, VeriSign says it already has signed up hundreds of thousands of users.

One argument Chinese officials have used in opposing VeriSign’s role is that the U.S. company doesn’t offer enough protection from cyber-squatters who pilfer corporate brand names.

What recourse VeriSign’s arrangement does offer, they point out, usually involves the U.S. courts or international arbiters in places like Geneva--distant, alien environments for most Chinese companies.

A plainer motive may rest beneath all the talk of sovereignty and cyber-squatting: the profits from Internet registry.

VeriSign has made registry a $120-million-a-year business, taking $6 for each name registered.

“I think it boils down to money,” said Duncan Clark, managing director of BDA China, a Beijing-based Internet consultant.

“Both sides want to cash in on a great business, selling little pieces of computer code.”