From: Damaged Justice <frogfarm@yakko.cs.wmich.edu>
Date: Thu, 31 Jul 1997 07:28:26 +0800
To: cypherpunks@Algebra.COM
Subject: Get your house in order or we bulldoze it
Message-ID: <19970730193626.56428@yakko.cs.wmich.edu>
MIME-Version: 1.0
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                                    rule
                                      
              Internet groups seek consensus on domain name flap
                                       
     July 29, 1997
     Web posted at: 9:24 p.m. EDT (0124 GMT)
     
     WASHINGTON (Reuter) - A diverse array of Internet groups will meet
     Wednesday to try to hash out a consensus on the contentious issue
     of expanding Internet addresses.
     
     The online community has largely avoided government regulation on
     issues like privacy and indecency by forging broad agreements
     relying on private-sector solutions.
     
     But a red-hot feud has broken out over the seemingly mundane
     question of how best to expand the number of network addresses,
     like "cnn.com" or "whitehouse.gov," that direct e-mail, Web surfing
     and all other Internet activity.
     
     The mess is already drawing substantial attention from the
     government.
     
     The Clinton administration has formed an inter-agency task force to
     examine the address issue, and in June the Commerce Department
     asked for suggestions on how the system could be fixed. Earlier
     this month, the Justice Department confirmed it was conducting an
     antitrust probe into address registrations.
     
     The Commerce Department's comment period ends next month, so with
     further government involvement imminent, several Internet groups
     outside of the dispute arranged two days of meetings this week at a
     Washington hotel to bring together the warring factions.
     
     "If we can lower some of the divisiveness and get people talking in
     a constructive way, we'll feel we've accomplished something," said
     Harris Miller, president of the Information technology Association
     of America, which is co-sponsoring the meeting.
     
     "We hope at the end of the conference that there is a constructive
     dialogue under way," Miller said, noting that his group has no
     official position on the Internet address question.
     
     Currently, all Internet addresses end with two or three letter
     designation known as a "top-level domain."
     
     Although each country has its own top-level domain, many addresses
     are registered in a handful of generic domains including ".com" for
     commercial sites, ".edu" for schools and ".org" for non-profit
     groups.
     
     Network Solutions Inc. of Herndon, Virginia, has an exclusive
     contract from the National Science Foundation to register addresses
     in the most popular generic top-level domains. But the agreement
     expires in March 1998, and the science agency has said the contract
     will not be renewed.
     
     Available addresses in the popular domains are shrinking fast,
     leading to bidding wars over desirable names and, in some cases,
     lawsuits by trademark holders claiming infringement.
     
     Network Solutions has also been criticized for charging $100 for a
     two-year registration, and a recent computer error by the firm
     scrambled the 'Net for hours and highlighted the vulnerability of
     the current system.
     
     In February, a group of traditional Internet standards-setting
     bodies agreed on a plan to add seven new top-level domains and add
     up to 28 competing registries. The plan gained the support of some
     major players, including MCI Communications Corp, but failed to
     garner the backing of online services such as America Online Inc.
     
     The plan is still expected to form the basis of an eventual
     compromise, but Network Solutions has its own plan, as does a group
     of small Internet Service providers known as the Enhanced Domain
     Name Service.
     
     Copyright 1997 [7]Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.
     
References

   1. http://cnn.com/index.html
   2. http://cnn.com/MAPS/9707/navs/basic.map
   3. LYNXIMGMAP:http://cnn.com/TECH/9707/29/internet.addresses.reut/index.html#map
   4. http://cnn.com/MAPS/9704/explore.map
   5. http://cnn.com/MAPS/9704/spotlight.map
   6. http://www-cgi.cnn.com/cgi-bin/redir?SpaceID=61&AdID=1974&URL=http://www.rs6000.ibm.com
   7. http://cnn.com/interactive_legal.html#Reuters