N s registrars and why do they matter?

So it's important.

Understand with how networking technology functions is that theoretically, you do not need anybody from the outside world to allow you to build your own network.

So if you want to build your own internal network, whether it's in your house or whether it's for a corporation or some kind of military organization or something like that, you can build that out without needing any authorizations from anybody outside of your corporation.

So you can set up your own swick.

Is your own routers your own D.

N S and D H cp servers, even your own internal websites.

And if all you're trying to do is connect your local computers to other local computers and servers, you can do that without any type of outside authority.

The issue happens is that when you try to connect your computers in your network toothy Internet.

So this is the network of all of the computers and all the different networks spread throughout the world.

You need some type of authority to make sure nobody does anything stupid, so we're talking about things such as allocating I p addresses.

So there's only so many i p v for I p addresses that exist.

And so to allocate, who gets those i p addresses, you need some type of authority to do that.

Also, if you're going to be doing a global d.

N s.

So if you wanna deal with domain names, so it's the domain name service.

What that does is that associates domain names with I p addresses.

So fail normal dot com is associated with a particle particular i p address.

In order to do that on a global scale, you need some type of authority to say what is legitimate and what is not.

And that's where something called I Can Comes in So I can is called the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers.

They're a nonprofit organization that has overall responsibility for who gets aside i p addresses and overall, how the D.

N s system works.

But they're rather a small nonprofit organization, and for many functions they don't want to have to actually do the functions themselves.

And so they farm out a particular components of the I P address scheme and the D N s service is out to other companies so that these other companies can handle it.

This is where d and s registrars come in.

So if you want to have a domain name, you would not go to I can itself to purchase a domain name.

You would goto a registrar.

So outrageous drawer would be somebody like Go Daddy or host Gator or even Google is a registrar.

Cloud flares, a registrar.

Basically, these are private or public companies that you're able to purchase D.

N s service is through and then they maintain and make sure that the information that you give them is correct.

So there's something called a who is database so that who is database says that when you buy a domain name, you have to give accurate information on how somebody can contact you.

Give a company name given address, give a phone number, that type of thing.

So if there's a trademark issue with a domain name, then that is the information on public record.

So somebody could contact you about your domain name and you could figure out the trademark issues.

And so this type of thing is dealt with with the registrar's.

So whenever you go to bio domain name, such as failed normal dot com or geek field notes dot com, you would go to go, Daddy, you will go to host Gator.

You'll go to possibly Google or one of these other registrars, and you would purchase the domain name from them, and then they would do the administrative upkeep on the domain name.

So when you go into configure things like the sea name record or the MX record or any of the other D.

N s records, you would go through their platform to configure that information and then they are then able to tell I can what is going on for the overall D and s system?

And so this has worked very well and has been very seamless for a long time.

Now, D.

N s Dennis is kind of like the water of the Internet world.

You may be able t o buy Deanna.

Service is from different registrars, but most people never really thought about it a lot.

Some registrars arm or expensive, so they're able to get the domain names for a specific price, and then they add their own mark up on that.

So some some registrars, I think Cloudflare is now selling domain names for the exact price they get it for some other of registrars Tack on a little bit of profit market on there, so they make money off of it.

And so some people, when they look at who they go to for registrars, they look at things like, What is the price they're selling domain names for?

What are the other service is?

So if you go to Cloudflare and you buy a domain name from Cloudflare because they are a registrar, that's more or less all they do.

So you got your domain name and your ableto point that domain name two different I P addresses for MX records and see names and that type of thing, but they don't provide.

Hosting service is they don't provide.

Email service is they don't provide.

The other sweets of service is that folks may need.

So if you're an enterprise company, come a customer.

You're running your own Microsoft Exchange server.

You're running your own Web servers.

You're running, you're your own infrastructure.

Then you may go to Cloudflare by a domain name from Cloudflare for the minimum price and then point all the D.

N s configurations to your own servers.

And that may make a lot of sense.

On the other hand, if you're a small business client or if you're just an individual person who wants to have an email address with your own domain name and have a little website, you may go to someplace like Go Daddy, your host Gator someplace else where they may charge a little bit more for the domain name, they do make a profit off of it.

But you can, then also in the same in the same panel.

Being by hosting service is be abi email service is that type of thing.

And so, basically, that's what we've been looking at for using D.

N s registrars.

Everybody has their own opinion on who was best.

Realistically, most of them they're the same.

You get, you get better customer support with some, get better prices with some you get different type of D.

N s service is that get kind of specific with others, but with a lot of people, they pick their d.

N s provider.

You know, 20 years ago, when they stick with it.

They don't think about it again.

It's much like water.

You may abide by different types of water, but you just turn on the tap and it just runs and you don't really think about why this is becoming significant now is because these registrars are their own individual company.

So it's important, understand, with ICANN, the Internet corporation for assigned names and numbers, that they're a nonprofit organization that many times gets put under the microscope by governments and countries to make sure that they're doing things legitimately.

So there's a lot of questions with how they do things in regards to free speech issues, especially since they're in the United States.

And so, basically, if I can does something weird, the government can come in and bad things can happen.

Well, when the curious things is is, since they are essentially outsourcing, the service is for doing the D.

N s registration.

Thes de ns registrars are their own private companies.

For the most part, if you look at go Daddy, if you look at Google, if you look at Cloudflare, if you look at host gator so so forth.

These are companies.

These are corporations they're not nonprofits.

And so they have their own rules for doing business in their rules for doing business are usually stipulated in what's called a terms of service.

And so, in terms of service, is essentially an Internet type contract where they say, as long as you follow these rules, we will continue to provide Service is and again, for the most part, nobody ever really thought too much about it.

You know, you figure, you know, you doe, you don't try toe.

Try to use your D.

N s in order to to pirate Disney movies.

You don't use your d.

N s in order to promote Al Qaeda or Isis.

And for the most part, the D.

N S D.

N s question that really hasn't been a lot of question in the past.

Domain names have been revoked and domain names have been forcibly acquired by the government.

So you're talking about law enforcement actions.

So if the FBI or the Police Department is going after what they consider a criminal organization, they can go to the court to get an order to be able to revoke thes domain names or again cos going after people who own domain names that are violating intellectual property.

So you know all all Disney movies for free dot com, pointing to the torrents of Disney movies.

Disney would go.

They would sue.

They would be able to acquire that domain name.

And again there could be some questions were formed from the anti authoritarian folks.

Yes, some people out there may say Why?

Why am I not allowed to own all Disney movies for free dot com?

And that's a look that that's an argument.

That's an argument.

But I would argue, I would say that most people would side with the Yeah, if we want this whole Internet system to work, it makes sense that this this type of action can happen.

What's getting interesting now, though, is that these private corporations have these terms of service is that most of us have never read it never really cared about, and now they're starting to use them against people who use their D N.

A service is so you may have heard this from the daily Stormer, so the daily Stormer was, to be clear, a horrible neo Nazi probably still around horrible neo Nazi website.

I do not support daily Stormer at all to be clear.

Basically neo Nazi website.

Lots of bad stuff.

And so people had tried to be de platform them in the past in many ways.

Get Twitter accounts revoked to get PayPal accounts revoked that type of thing.

But they were able to stay on line as long as they could figure out how to get money from somewhere, whether it's checks or whether it's cash or whatever else the idea is.

As long as you have your D.

N s name, you can point that that domain name to anything you can point out domain tame to another hosting provider.

You appoint that domain name literally to a server running in your own basement it as necessary de platforming something like daily Stormer may may make.

The quality of their service is inferior, but theoretically they could still stay online.

Well, what happened is go.

Daddy decided that they violated their hate speech policies and therefore go Daddy then said we will no longer be atyour registrar.

So theoretically, this is not revoking their domain name, but again, the registrar is what documents all the information that makes the D N a system work.

So if your register ours no longer willing to host your domain name for you, that becomes a problem.

And so the idea with a lot of people is that they could then transfer the domain name somewhere else.

So if go Daddy doesn't want to be a registrar, you can transfer that to host skit.

Or you could transfer that to any of 1000 different registrars.

One of questions that comes up, though, is if somebody is significant as go Daddy says we were.

If you refuse to be the registrar for your D.

N s name, then it's very likely that Host Gator will also refuse to be a registrar.

And the next person refused to be right story, and the next person will be refused the registrar.

And so, by going after the D.

N s registrars, this could be a significant way to literally try to take sites, entire organizations off the Internet.

We're now seeing that with a company called gabbed dot cops.

A gap dot com created an alternative to Twitter.

Ah, lot of people say there's a lot of hate speech on there, but that's what also happened with go Daddy is.

There was recently an attack at a synagogue on the person before they went and attacked the synagogue.

They put a lot of nasty stuff on the gap dot com.

Now people are stating that gap dot com is facilitating hate speech.

So Pay PAL revoked access to gap dot com.

But then not only did pay PowerBook access, but then go.

Daddy also stated that they do not want to be the registrar for gabbed dot com, and now they're being forced to go and find another register, which which becomes a very curious issue.

What happens when we have I can so I can is under the microscope again, whether whether or not it has to completely abide by by free speech and First Amendment.

Maybe a little bit of a question mark, but Maur or less, they have to abide by the rules and what's required in the United States.

But I can.

Basically what they're doing is they're subcontracting out there.

They're handing off the service is to allow other corporations other companies to provide.

The service is, and those corporations are public.

Four private companies or for profit companies that have their own reasons for doing whatever they're doing and so they don't have to work under the same rules as I can specifically.

And that is where things get to be curious.

Get to be curious.

So that's what D.

N s registrars are really All they are.

Is there the place that you go to buy your domain name?

They collect your information for What's that called the Who is database So that if somebody needs to get in touch with you with your domain name, for some reason they have the information to do that, they also allow you to go in and change all the configurations.

You're gonna change your MX records.

We're gonna be changing what's called your C name records.

Any of these records, you'll go to your registrar to do that.

All of that gets inked up with a global D.

N S servers, domain name system servers, which associate your domain name with the I P address.

And that's how it works.

Why this is coming up now is to be clear.

For decades, this has been a rather seamless just kind of works.

It's like turning on your tab.

It's water.

Nobody thinks twice about it and all of a sudden in the past few years, with what's going on with the free speech debates.