[ih] Internet should be in private hands

[John Day]

> On Dec 7, 2022, at 16:18, Brian E Carpenter <brian.e.carpenter at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> On 08-Dec-22 07:54, John Day via Internet-history wrote:
>> That is an odd error in ISO in ISO 3166 given the organizations involved.  (Being pedantic.)
>> Great Britain is a geographical term, while UK designates the political unit, which was what was of concern to the organizations involved.
> 
> "GB" was long established as the sticker you had to put on the back of your vehicle when you took it across the English Channel and drove it in continental Europe. According to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_vehicle_registration_code

O, that is right! I had forgotten about that!!

> it dates back to 1909, at which time it was short for "Great Britain and Ireland". Then in 1924 it was redefined as "Great Britain and Northern Ireland" (geographically and politically identical to the modern UK, following Irish independence in 1922).
> 
> So ISO 3166 didn't invent "GB". JANET invented ".UK" because by the time DNS came along, the Irish Republic existed, the Northern Ireland troubles were ongoing, and asserting that Northern Ireland was part of "GB" was a political hot potato.

Well, apparently 3166 used GB in 1974, which predates JANET and DNS.
> 
> I have just learned that the vehicle sticker for the UK was finally changed from "GB" to "UK" in 2021, presumably as a side-effect of Brexit, rather than to celebrate 99 years of Irish independence.

;-) lol  I bet you are right!

These things are always interesting.

Thanks,
John
> 
>  Brian
> 
>> 3166 was developed by TC46 which does documentation, libraries, museums, etc "in collaboration with the following International Organizations: Customs Cooperation Council (CCC), [since 1995: World Customs Organization (WCO)], United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (ECE), Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), International Air Transport Association (IATA), International Chamber of Commerce (ICC), International Chamber of Shipping (ICS), International Federation of Library Associations (IFLA), International Labour Office (ILO), International Telecommunication Union (ITU), International Union of Railways (UIC), United Nations Organization (UN), United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), Universal Postal Union (UPU), World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), and World Health Organization (WHO).”
>> You would have thought one of them would have caught it.  ;-)
>> Also, I remember seeing the initial CC TLD list at the time that had Switzerland as .sw, rather than .ch, which would have been familiar to any stamp collector. ;-)
>> Everyone learned something.  ;-)
>> John
>>> On Dec 7, 2022, at 12:14, Ole Jacobsen via Internet-history <internet-history at elists.isoc.org> wrote:
>>> 
>>> Jon Postel also wanted ccTLDs to use the official ISO 3166
>>> list of countries, which became a problem for the UK whose
>>> ISO 3166 code is GB, so Jon had to make an exception.
>>> 
>>> Life was simple back then :-)
>>> 
>>> Ole
>>> 
>>>> On Dec 7, 2022, at 08:29, Craig Partridge via Internet-history <internet-history at elists.isoc.org> wrote:
>>>> 
>>>> On Tue, Dec 6, 2022 at 8:47 PM John Gilmore via Internet-history <
>>>> internet-history at elists.isoc.org> wrote:
>>>> 
>>>>> 
>>>>> I recall a time when the Domain Name System top-level domain (TLD) for
>>>>> each country had to be handled by a private party, not by the government
>>>>> that ran the country.
>>>>> 
>>>>> 
>>>> As I recall, Jon Postel didn't object to a government handling -- he simply
>>>> wanted a responsible custodian.  In most cases, governments weren't
>>>> prepared.
>>>> 
>>>> The reason for this recollection is that I believe some European
>>>> governments took a role in designating who ran their initial TLD and that
>>>> CSNET did a certain amount of mediating (and I worked for CSNET at the
>>>> time).  But my memory may be conflating multiple issues as there were also
>>>> European governments who argued over who controlled their CSNET connection
>>>> to the Internet.
>>>> 
>>>> Craig
>>>> 
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>>> 
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