ftp://ftp.loc.gov/pub/thomas/cp106/hr398.txt tells us: > The conferees direct the General Accounting Office to review the > relationship between the Department of Commerce and the Internet > Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) and to issue a report > no later than June, 2000. The conferees request that GAO review: [...] > (4) whether the Department has the legal authority to transfer > control of the authoritative root server to ICANN. In addition, the > conferees seek GAO's evaluation and recommendations regarding placing > responsibility for U.S. participation in ICANN under the National > Institute of Standards and Technology rather than NTIA, and request that > GAO review the adequacy of security arrangements under existing > Departmental cooperative agreements. Perhaps ftp://ftp.merit.edu/nren/nii.1993/s4.txt is one reason why the US Executive Branch believes that the NTIA is the appropriate entity to oversee ICANN, etc. (Note the provisions of Sec. 702, where both the NTIA and NIST are mentioned.) Gordon Cook is much more informed on this NREN stuff than I am; perhaps he has uncovered more pertinent info. Anyway, I'm interested in knowing what the NIST's opinion is of ICANN, etc., so please forward their reponse if possible. --gregbo
