Re: Domain Name/Whois Data Element and Related Definitions

["Ross Wm. Rader" <ross@tucows.com>]

> Using the term SLD is difficult as sometimes what is registered is
> not an second level domain, but instead a third level domain.

True. ICANN made a small mistake when they put their various operating
agreements with DOC/NSI/Registrars in place. Prior to that, "domain holder"
and "registrant" were used somewhat interchangeably to describe the entity
that held the domain. When ICANN started producing contracts, they defined a
new term "SLD Holder" to mean the same thing. The problem was that people
stopped using "domain holder" and started using the unwieldly newer terms.
As such, the more understood and universally used term "domain holder" has
largely been dropped from the vocabulary of domains. I think it's time that
we bring it back ;)

I'll annotate the next version to include a variant of the above. If anyone
has any suggestions as to what the def'n of a "domain holder" should be, or
rather, where the definition may be materially different from that of SLD
Holder, please drop me a line. I'll start wordsmithing in the meantime...

-rwr