Re: [idn] opting out of SC/TC equivalence

[John C Klensin <klensin@research.att.com>]

--On Wednesday, 08 August, 2001 05:24 -0400 Edmon
<edmon@neteka.com> wrote:

> From: "Eric Brunner-Williams in Portland Maine"
> <brunner@nic-naa.net>
>> What is the key value for users "opting out" of SC/TC
>> equivalences?
> 
> There are two main scenarios that I could think of that I would
> like to see SC/TC opted out.
> Say I wanted to have different online identities in the PRC,
> HongKong and Taiwan with two Chinese charcters.  And I want to
> use: <SC><SC> in PRC
> <SC><TC> in HK and
> <TC><TC> in Taiwan
> 
> I want them to resolve to different places. If SC/TC is folded,
> I will not be able to do so.  Which means if I have an employee
> John in both the PRC and Taiwan, I could not use John@<SC><SC>
> and John@<TC><TC> at the same time and use it for different
> person.
> 
> Scenario two:
> If I have a franchisee/partnership operations in the above
> three regions and the ownership of each is very different, but
> we want to maintain the name. We wont be able to use the
> SC/TC/mix to distinguish our domains.

Edmon,

I think we have been here before --in terms of things the DNS
can't do and should not be expected to do-- in only slightly
different form.

Briefly, either SC and TC are equivalent, or they are not.  If
they are, we shouldn't be having this discussion.  If they are
not, we shouldn't be having this discussion either.  In the
particular case of TC and SC, what we have been told, repeatedly,
is that people (normal human beings, not computer experts), will
expect to be able to use them interchangably.   If you try to do
this, you will get errors in the hosts or sites that are found
when people forget your subtle distinctions/ clues and get them
wrong.

What you are asking for is, IMO, really 

Scenario one: 
  Different resolution for <name> based on whether it is resolved
wrt a site in PRC, HK, or Taiwan.

Scenario two:
  Different resolution for <name> based on whether it is resolved
by a user located in PRC, HK, or Taiwan.

Both of those desires generalize to other places, other scripts,
and other languages.  Both are legitimate.  But they require
information about context, not little tricks of script-choice,
especially on a per-character basis.

Now, while I don't think the idea is satisfactory for many
reasons, you could get that context from the TLD.  <name>.CN,
<name>.HK, and <name>.TW are clearly different; we would expect
them to resolve differently (although they could be made to
resolve to the same target if someone wished).  And we would
expect that behavior whether we fold SC and TC together or not.  

Otherwise, IMO, you need to get the context from something else,
and that means "outside the DNS".

    john