At 16:18 21/06/98 +1000, Chris Chundry wrote:
>There have been several postings by (I would assume) US-based list members
>making the assertion that a domain is not official unless it appears in
>the InterNIC whois database!

Bit like the ambit claim that a Root Server isn't official unless it's in
the so called "official" Name Server Hints file.

I guess it very much DEPENDS on WHERE you LOOK for the INFORMATION you
require.

Wouldn't you day?

>Sigh...  If that was the case, then the great

Is this where I get to <sigh> as well?

>majority of domains in the world are not official.  Please remember that a

I guess the majority aren't.  

>large proportion of the Internet exists outside of the USA.  Just for a

Yes, and remember that the internet is an open protocol.

>start, it does not appear that most if not all subdomains of delegated ccTLDs
>are listed.  With the lack of a widely-used whois referral mechanism,
national
>and regional NICs are not tied back to the InterNIC in an automatic fashion
>(I for one would love to see this fixed).

Actually this use to occur.  It changed recently - (last two years)

>Chris Chaundy (Core Engineering Manager)

Makes me wonder some times.  The wild claims that come from people with
such interesting titles.