The Two-Decade Fight for Two Letters on the Internet 價值何在?兩個字母的網域名讓人爭20年


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2024/04/19 第481期 訂閱/退訂看歷史報份
 
 
紐時周報精選 The Two-Decade Fight for Two Letters on the Internet 價值何在?兩個字母的網域名讓人爭20年
Ukraine's Deepening Fog of War 俄烏戰爭情勢 更加撲朔迷離
紐時周報精選
 
The Two-Decade Fight for Two Letters on the Internet 價值何在?兩個字母的網域名讓人爭20年
文/Jacob Judah
譯/羅方妤

價值何在?兩個字母的網域名讓人爭20年

The South Pacific island of Niue is one the most remote places in the world. Its closest neighbors, Tonga and American Samoa, are hundreds of miles away. The advent of the internet promised, in a small way, to make Niue and its 2,000 or so residents more connected to the rest of the world.

南太平洋島嶼紐埃是世界上最遙遠的地區之一。紐埃最近的鄰居東加和美屬薩摩亞,也在數百英里之外。網際網路的出現,有望讓紐埃島及其2000多名居民和世界其他地區略為加強連結。

In the late 1990s, an American businessperson offered to hook up the island to the internet. All he wanted in exchange was the right to control the .nu suffix that Niue was assigned for its web addresses. The domain did not seem as lucrative as .tv — which was slotted to Tuvalu, another South Pacific nation — and the leaders of Niue signed off on the deal. But the two sides were soon at odds.

1990年代後期,一名美國商人提議讓紐埃島連上網際網路。他要的交換條件是控制紐埃島被分配到的網址域名詞尾.nu的權利。這個域名似不像另一個南太平洋島國吐瓦魯的網域名.tv那麼值錢,而紐埃領袖也簽下合約。但雙方很快發生爭執。

Now, after more than two decades of back and forth, the disagreement is finally nearing a resolution in a court of law. Disputes over domain names were not uncommon during the internet's infancy, but experts are hard pressed to recall one that has lasted this long.

現在,歷經逾20年的來回反覆,這個分歧終於幾乎要在法庭上得到解決。網際網路發展初期,關於網域名的爭端並不罕見,但專家很難回想起世上曾發生過持續這麼久的爭端。

It turned out that .nu was, in fact, very valuable. "Nu" means now in Swedish, Danish and Dutch, and thousands of Scandinavians registered websites with that suffix, creating a steady business for Niue's business partner, Bill Semich.

事實上,.nu其實非常有價值。在瑞典語、丹麥語和荷蘭語,Nu的意思是現在,成千上萬斯堪地那維亞人用這個域名註冊網站,為紐埃的商業夥伴塞米奇創造穩健業務。

Niue felt it had been cheated out of a reliable stream of cash that would have helped it reduce its reliance on tourism and foreign aid.

紐埃覺得被騙走可靠的現金流,這些錢能讓他們減少對觀光業和外國援助依賴。

Niue canceled the deal with Semich in 2000 and has since been attempting to reclaim .nu — which is now operated by the Swedish Internet Foundation, a nonprofit. It is seeking about $30 million in damages, an amount that could be transformative for a tiny island that was recognized by the United States as a sovereign state only in 2023. The dispute has landed in the Swedish courts, and a ruling is expected in the coming days.

紐埃2000年取消與塞米奇簽訂的合約,並一直試圖收回.nu,該域名目前是由非營利組織瑞典網際網路基金會營運。紐埃正尋求約3000萬美元賠償,對於一個直到2023年才被美國承認為主權國家的小島而言,這筆錢能帶來徹底改變。這場爭端已被提交至瑞典法庭,判決預計在未來幾天出爐。

"This is a unique, complex, and somewhat strange case," said David Taylor, an intellectual property and domain name expert at the law firm Hogan Lovells, adding that this made it extremely difficult to predict the outcome.

美英法律事務所「霍金路偉」智慧財產與網域名專家泰勒表示,「這是個獨特、複雜且有點奇怪的案件」,讓預測判決結果變得困難。

Websites using the domain are not expected to face any changes even if Niue wins.

即使紐埃勝訴,使用該網域名的網站預料不會面臨任何改變。

 
Ukraine's Deepening Fog of War 俄烏戰爭情勢 更加撲朔迷離
文/Marc Santora
譯/周辰陽

俄烏戰爭情勢 更加撲朔迷離

The forecasts are anything but optimistic: The best Ukraine can hope for in 2024, many Western officials and analysts say, is to simply hold the line.

預測絕對不樂觀:許多西方官員與分析師表示,烏克蘭在2024年可以期望的最佳狀況,就是守住戰線。

Only a year ago, Ukraine was brimming with confidence. It had defied expectations, staving off Russia's attempt to take over the country. Western nations, buoyed by Ukraine's success, promised aid to help Ukrainians break through Russian lines.

僅僅一年前,烏克蘭正洋溢著信心。該國曾出乎意料,擊退俄羅斯接管企圖。西方國家受到烏克蘭成功的鼓勵,承諾援助以協助烏克蘭人突破俄羅斯防線。

But the flow of much-needed weapons from allies was unpredictable and slow. Ukraine's own domestic arms production was mired in bureaucracy, top military officials have said. And the command structure of the army was not changing quickly enough to manage a force that had expanded from 200,000 troops to nearly 1 million in a matter of months.

但是,盟邦提供的急需武器流量,既難以預測又緩慢。高層軍事官員表示,烏克蘭自己的國內軍火生產陷入官僚主義泥沼。軍隊指揮架構改變得不夠快,無法管理在幾個月內從20萬官兵擴大到近1百萬的武力。

Those weaknesses, and some strategic battlefield missteps, stymied Ukraine's widely telegraphed counteroffensive, which resulted in only marginal territorial gains. At the same time, Russia was fortifying its defensive lines, converting its economy to war production, conscripting hundreds of thousands of fighters and adjusting its strategy for renewed offensives this winter.

這些缺點和一些戰略性戰場失策,讓烏克蘭大肆宣揚的反攻陷入困境,結果只是微不足道的領土戰果。在此同時,俄羅斯正在加強自己的防線,將經濟轉換為戰時生產,徵召數十萬名戰士,以及調整戰略準備今年冬季恢復攻勢。

Now, as the war enters its third year, leaders in Kyiv are trying to find a new path forward amid ferocious Russian assaults, while facing a series of daunting unknowns.

如今隨著俄烏戰爭進入第三年,在俄羅斯猛烈的襲擊之下,基輔領導人正在努力尋找一條新的前進道路,同時面臨一連串讓人氣餒的未知。

Can its civilian leaders muster the will to enact a potentially unpopular mobilization plan to replenish its depleted forces? Can the military command and the civilian government mend the rifts that have divided them and that led to the recent firing of Ukraine's top general?

文職領袖可否凝聚意志,制定可能不得民心的動員計畫以補充耗盡的部隊?軍事指揮部與文人政府,可否修補讓他們對立且導致最近烏克蘭最高將領解職的裂痕?

Even as he presses the case for more Western support, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is starting to take steps to improve some of the systemic problems under his control.

總統澤倫斯基竭力爭取更多西方援助之際,也開始採取行動,改善在他控制下的一些系統性問題。

For instance, Ukraine has added several command headquarters to oversee brigades more efficiently. And while the new top general, Gen. Oleksandr Syrsky, is a product of the Soviet military system, Zelenskyy has installed a younger generation of generals under him who he hopes will bring more innovation to the battlefield.

舉例來說,烏克蘭已增設幾個指揮總部,以便更有效的監督各旅。雖然新任最高將領瑟爾斯基將軍是蘇聯軍事體系的產物,澤倫斯基已在他麾下安插年輕一代將領,希望他們把更多創新帶到戰場。

The minister of defense, Rustem Umerov, has vowed to accelerate the development of ammunition production in Ukraine. He has also introduced a new procurement process to replace a post-Soviet system that was slower and more susceptible to corruption.

國防部長烏梅洛夫誓言加快烏克蘭的彈藥製造發展。他也已經引進新的採購流程,以用來取代較慢、且較容易受到貪腐影響的後蘇聯系統。

 
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