Subject: There is no "legal umbrella" for NSI

From: Jim Fleming <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 26 Feb 1998 00:32:29 -0600

On Wednesday, February 25, 1998 5:03 PM, Steven M. Bellovin[SMTP:[email-masked]] wrote:
@>One wonders why, of course. I mean, so far as I can tell there is no
@>legal basis for his involvement. It appears that he's decided to
@>insert himself.
@
@Your other points notwithstanding, there is indeed a very clear and
@compelling reason for White House involvement -- the NSI contract.
@NSI is operating .COM under a contract from NSF.  This contract expires
@March 31.  And NSF has previously shown that they can assign that duty
@to whomever they please -- SRI was the previous operator.  IANA is also
@government-funded.  *Something* has to be decided; retaining the status quo
@is also a decision.
@

@@@@ http://rs.internic.net/nsf/review/section6.html

"The panel was disturbed to hear that the NSF and/or the
U.S. government does not provide a legal umbrella under
which NSI can manage the Internet domain name space."

@@@@@@@@@@@@@@

Jim Fleming
Unir Corporation
IBC, Tortola, BVI

---

From: "Steven M. Bellovin" <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 26 Feb 1998 12:24:00 +0000

At 12:32 AM 2/26/98 -0600, Jim Fleming wrote:
>On Wednesday, February 25, 1998 5:03 PM, Steven M.
>which NSI can manage the Internet domain name space."
I'm not sure what your point is.  When I read the entire section,
the "legal umbrella" seems to be referring to the entire legal
structure surrounding the name space, including trademarks, fees,
etc.  The report is over two years old, and isn't really related
to what's going on now -- except to note that in the intervening
time, very little has happened to set up any such framework.