Re: Domain Name/Whois Data Element and Related Definitions

[Marcel Schneider <schneider@switch.ch>]

On Friday, 5 Jan 2001, "Ross Wm. Rader" writes:
>> 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...

We have long ago dropped the term 'administrative contact' because
it is ambiguous. We since then use domain name holder, see (with
a whois client whois.nic.ch or the search engine on 
http://www.nic.ch/search/).

The holder is the legally valid contact for the domain name.
Or more precise: the holder contact contains the legally valid
address information of a natural or legal person to which the
domain name has been assigned.

Native english speakers will find a better formula :). Hope
you know what is intended. Suggest not to use additional 
hierachical definitions, like SLD. A holder is a holder is
a holder :) and not an owner, btw. 


Marcel