 DNS through a policy for the accreditation of registrars and a shared registry system for the .com, .net, and .org domains. As a result of competition, numerous domain name registration service providers from around the world are providing .com, .net, .org, .biz, and .info domain name registration services. The Accredited Registrar Directory provides a listing of ICANN-accredited domain name registrars that are currently taking domain name registrations (see www.icann.org). The Value of Domain Names The small Pacific Islands country of Tuvalu, population 10,600, was assigned the country code .tv. Naturally, .tv is a very appealing domain. It has relevance to entertainment, streaming media, and screaming multimedia, and it also has a global context: Once you registered something as .tv, you would no longer be able to alter it by appending another country code because it already is a country code. Of course, many entrepre- neurs developed an interest in Tuvalu, and many companies approached the country to acquire its domain name, so Tuvalu auctioned the name. A company called .tv bought Chapter 8 The Internet and IP Infrastructures the name for roughly US$1 million quarterly-adjustable for inflation-with a US$50 mil- lion cap over 10 years. In addition, Tuvalu holds a 20% stake in the company. This auc- tioning of the country's domain name produced four times the country's GDP. The island is richly developing its transportation, educational, and health care facilities. On the .tv domain, some domain names are quite expensive, with bidding starting at US$250,000 for broadband.tv, for instance. On the other hand, some creative and descriptive domains haven't yet been registered, and you could acquire those for as little as US$50. A lot of money is tied up in domain names, and the process of creating new domains will make identifying the best branding strategy a further challenge. The Organization of the Internet It is important to understand what the Internet infrastructure is composed of and how it is structured in