Anyone trying to STEAL NSI's COM
NSI does not own the root domain .com .org .net or any other TLD.
I agree this needs to be posted elsewhere, but it started here. Disclaimer: I am not in the legal profession nor (any longer) contracting services to the US Government.. BUT I won't let that stop me from giving my $0.02 I believe there is a leagally sound (and often used) claim which NSI can assert regarding their rights in this matter. When the NSF cut back on its willingness to fund the Internet cooperative agreement and the InterNIC was shifted to a fee for Domain Registration service, it was known by and agreeable to all parties of the agreement that NSI would potentially invest considerable sums to bridge the gap between reduced NSF subsidy and the revenues generated by the fees. I believe, this gap in operating revenues was large at the time NSF announced its reductions in funding. I think it is fair to assume NSI has always covered some expenses not considered part of the contract. I believe that the gap remains large today, and the gap is projected into the next few years. The government frequently encounters this kind of situation. Federal Acquisition Regulations address the rights of the government and the rights of the contractor in this event. Any claims will be resolved in the context of FAR and the NSF-NSI agreement - - not in the context of NANOG or any other list. There was no one yelling at NSI when they invested their capital and resouces to carried the Internet through periods of reduced Federal funding. There has never been any hint of improper charges or business practices. Now, they have stated their position and, in the honored tradition of the Internet, offered it for public review and comment. I, for one, think NSI's management is acting appropriately as the NSF announces the final termination of the NSF-NSI cooperative agreement. Furthermore, the troops who man the trenches day-and-night at NSI to keep the Internet running are generally competent and respected by their professional peers. Mistakes? Deplorable condition of the database? Incompetence? I do not think so. Yea, things are tough, people and resources are never adequate to feed the bandwidth monster we (willingly) serve. I have, personally, operated large, multi-cpu distributed databases with 20M+ records, many diverse views of the data, and real-time updates. I know from experience it is a *hard* job. Therefore, before we talk any further about a world in which another group takes on operation of TLD registries or takes over operation of .com / .net / .edu, I suggest some serious consideration be given to the migration methodologies and costs of bringing up those new operations. I see not consensus on a set of STANDARDS by which a new TLD operator can be accessed. The simple econimics of today's Internet cannot accept any more gross instability which *might* result if this transition to multiple commercial domain registries is not done properly. To some of you, the following probably sill seem unusual from one who has been pioneering the new ATM Internet technology but I, too, believe in open expression of opinions: Network stability should be our industries' highest quality goal. NSI's contributions to Internet stability weigh heavily in their favor on this matter. ..mike..