Domains
Your correspondents Sean Dodson and Patrick Barkham assert, in their article Why the net is not invited to Sydney (September 14), that "although Planet Scotland is not trading in the US it is still subject to US jurisdiction because the domain, like all other domain names, is ultimately US registered".

But all domain names are not ultimately US registered. Domains that are country-specific such as theguardian.com or amazon.fr are registered in their respective countries, and each country maintains the right to create sub-domains of its own national top-level domains (TLDs).

I doubt that Britain had to consult the US for permission to create the domains royal.uk or parliament.uk!

As for the traditionally "American" TLDs such as .com, .org and .net, these are no longer under the sole control of Network Solutions, and you can register a domain under one of these TLDs in a number of countries, including Britain, France and Australia.

Dr David Harper
adh@sanger.ac.uk

BT defended
Reading in your columns the various moans from disaffected internet users, you would think that British Telecom was guilty of single-handedly holding back hi-tech Britain. This, obviously, is not so. That honour has to be shared, surely, between the dot.com companies with such dubious ideas, a heavy handed government and, most of all, all those here-today-gone-tomorrow internet service providers who promised net users the earth, but delivered nothing. In all this, British Telecom might have acted slowly with things like high speed internet access and a flat rate for internet calls. But at least it has not acted in haste and promised what it could not deliver or, even worse, endangered the telephone system. Who would you rather have running Britain's telephone network: BT or AltaVista? Robert Osborne
robertosborne51@hotmail.com

Mac problems
Online's comment about Mac users having fewer problems may well be true, though I have to say that I've had more problems with my iMac than with earlier models. However, it cannot be said loud enough that the Mac system files are very easy for an amateur to get the hang of, and when there are problems there is an excellent library of advice on the Apple website: www.apple.com/support.
Philip Bowler
pgbowler@emirates.net.ae

CD right
George Kitchin (Feedback, September 14) thinks it hardly worth bothering to buy CD-roms any more.

The fact that CD-RWs are usable only on the machine that wrote them is a reason to bother, I would have thought, especially, perhaps, if you are using CD-RW for backup.
Conrad Cork
conradcork@tadleyewing.co.uk

Paid for letter
Simon Bisson's article, An easier way to turn clicks so cash, featured details of WorldPay as an example of a provider of online payment solutions.

However, Planet Payment outperforms WorldPay in all the areas mentioned in the article.

Planet Payment operates in 140 countries; takes a lower handling fee than WorldPay; through partnerships offers e-business solutions in all five continents; is allied with a large, international network of acquiring banks, including NatWest; offers its payment solutions to the mobile internet; and can multi-currency enable any merchant within minutes

OK, I'm biased as I represent Planet Payment. But let the above facts speak for themselves.
Darren Nesbeth
darrenn@buchanan.uk.com