Subject: RE: There is no "legal umbrella" for NSI

From: Jim Fleming <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 26 Feb 1998 08:29:38 -0600

On Thursday, February 26, 1998 6:24 AM, Steven M. 
Bellovin[SMTP:[email-masked]] wrote:
@At 12:32 AM 2/26/98 -0600, Jim Fleming wrote:
@>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."
@>
@>@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
@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.
@

What is going on now is partly the result of the NSF's attempt to
help set up that framework. It takes the U.S. Government a long time
to make things happen. The final chapters are now being written.

For some reason, it appears that IETF members think this happened
over night. This may be because the IETF lags the market as a
group that endorses change after it happens. (Example: WWW and HTML)

My point was to help provide some of the IETF people with some
*history*, so that they can understand why things are playing out
the way they are. There is obviously much more history than the
above document. It is good that you reviewed the entire review. I
also suggest that IETF members review the following documents
to get a complete history. This might help them offer more intelligent
responses.

@@@ http://rs.internic.net/nsf/solicitation.html

"This solicitation invites proposals for one or more NIS Manager
organizations to: extend and coordinate directory and database services
and information services for the NSFNET; and provide registration services
for non-military internet networks now performed by the Defense Information 
Systems Agency Network Information Center (the DISA NIC). The DISA NIC
will continue to provide for the registration of military networks."

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

Here is the link to the NSI Proposal (i.e. their submission)
	http://rs.internic.net/nsf/nis/proposal-toc.html

Note, this link comes from the first page below. Unfortunately, the
page below is very hard to find. It used to be one link from the
main InterNIC page. Some time last Summer, that changed.
The link to the second page shown below was put in place which
makes it harder to find the NSI Proposal, but easier to see the
AT&T Proposal. I am sure this was a webmaster error.

@@@@ http://rs.internic.net/internic/

Documents about the InterNIC project
Original NSF Solicitation for Network Information Services Manager, NSF 
92-94 (March 1992)
Network Solutions, Inc. Proposal for Network Information Services Manager 
(October 1992): Table of Contents
NSF Cooperative Agreement (effective January 1, 1993): Table of Contents
InterNIC Midterm Evaluation and Recommendations (December 1994): Table of 
Contents
Intellectual Infrastructure Funds

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

@@@@ http://www.internic.net/ds/about.html

Documents about the InterNIC project
Original NSF Solicitation for Network Information Services Manager, NSF 
92-94 (March 1992)
AT&T's Directory and Database Services Proposal to the NSF
NSF Cooperative Agreement (effective January 1, 1993): Table of Contents
InterNIC Midterm Evaluation and Recommendations (December 1994): Table of 
Contents
Reports from InterNIC Directory and Database Services to the NSF
Recent InterNIC Directory and Database service logs

@@@@@@@@@@

Jim Fleming
Unir Corporation
IBC, Tortola, BVI