At 11:54 PM 3/18/99 -0500, Gordon Cook wrote:
>the root. What this meant was that the US Government Interagency committee
>on domain names put things on indefinite hold so that the politicos could
>decide who would be allowed to to control the addition of domain names to
>the root.
The primary reason given by the government for the directive to NSI was to
afford NSI additional protection from anti-trust suits, by formally
documenting that NSI only responded to government directives.
There are some anomolies to this situation, as with so many others
involving NSI.
1. Directives for changes to TLDs always came from IANA; NSI was and is
nothing more than an operator and they have never had any responsibility
for the content of the root zone. The letter from the US government
actually served to CHANGE the administrative model for root zone contents.
2. The letter from the government was quite firm and explicit. Oddly, NSI
then proceeded to continue to add TLDs at IANA's direction, without
obtaining further approval from the U.S. government. The TLDs were all
part of the ccTLD space, and NSI's post-hoc explanation has been that this
activity was "already" authorized under the cooperative agreement. However
there is no documentation that substantiates this interpretation. So, the
US government issued a restriction and NSI never got documentation for its
otherwise independent interpretation of that restriction.
>an NSI that was EAGER TO OPEN THE ROOT FOR COMPETITION from doing so.
Since NSI has never had anything at all to do with decisions about root
content, their eagerness or lack of it is irrelevant, instead serving only
as a posturing behavior.
>Allowing the NSI to be excoriated for almost two more years as the greedy
>evil bastards who really wanted to keep the whole thing for themselves.
Have you looked at their Wall Stree valuation lately, as well as their
closed decision-making practises?
>After all who can forget the rabid attack leveled against NSI by EFF last
You mean like the rabid attacks some reporters choose to lodge at others?
d/
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Dave Crocker Tel: +1 408 246 8253
Brandenburg Consulting Fax: +1 408 273 6464
675 Spruce Drive <http://www.brandenburg.com>
Sunnyvale, CA 94086 USA <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
