How relevant is open-source software to the DNS industry? It might seem like a minor issue, but it becomes important once you realize that the DNS underpins every online service, as every connection to a remote server starts with a DNS query. In other words, without DNS software there would be no Internet; thus, the sustainability of DNS software development and distribution models becomes fundamental to keep our digital society alive.
The question came up as a consequence of the renewed regulatory activism of several countries and regions. In particular, after two decades of laissez-faire, the European Union has spent the last five years conceiving and enacting a broad set of new laws that affect the Internet. One of the very last, the Cyber Resilience Act, imposes obligations and prescriptions on software developers for the first time.
As prescriptions come with a cost, during the law-making procedure, many parties raised the concern that the new law could make many open-source projects unsustainable. Software developed by companies has a clear funding model and could possibly survive a reasonable increase in production cost, but software developed by non-profits, by individuals or by groups of volunteers could end up being retired or abandoned as a way to avoid any liability. Indeed, without a reliable business model, the developer has no clear way to afford the expense of repaying potential damages to end-users or even the practical cost of the new bureaucratical requirements.
In the end, after long and complex interactions between the European open-source industry and the European institutions, the final formulation of the law included significant concessions. Non-profit and research projects are excluded, and there is now a lightweight regulatory regime for any effort hosted and supervised by a steward that does not distribute the result as an own product. However, this experience was a wake-up call on the need to engage pre-emptively with regulators around the globe and warn them in advance of the importance of preserving the open-source licensing and development model with all its peculiarities.
Given the potential impact on the Internet’s stability, ICANN’s SSAC—the Security and Stability Advisory Committee—created an ad hoc working group to draft a report that could prove the importance of open source for the DNS industry. Members of the DNS, standards, and open-source communities from multiple ICANN constituencies started writing text, but soon realized the importance of supporting any statement with adequate data.
So, here is where we call for your action. There is now an online survey, aptly hosted on the EU’s public surveying platform (no registration required). The group asks operators or vendors of DNS services and domain names to provide a succinct description of how open-source software is used in their infrastructure. The survey is open until the end of February, and any contributions would be much appreciated.
All in all, our experience shows that the major open-source DNS software projects cover a lot of the industry, perhaps most of it. We are nonetheless curious to see whether the information that ICANN gathers will support this assumption. Thank you for your help!
