IP: Who owns the domain name space?

[David Farber <farber () central cis upenn edu>]

This came via com-priv. Looks real. One of the interesting
items is that "profits"  "The remaining thirty percent will
be spent, with  guidance from an advisory committee drawn
from the Internet community, into  the intellectual
infrastructure of the Internet and will be publicly
accounted for. " One minor question asked often on the net
is "who dies and made the NSF boss" Why should the USA
control this etc. All quite good questions. djf




7.      DRAFT NEWS RELEASE


FOR RELEASE 6 A.M. EDT, MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 1995
Contact:        Dave Graves, Business Manager
                Network Solutions
                703-742-4884


INTERNET BEGINS FEE-BASED REGISTRATION




        (HERNDON, VA)  September 18, 1995 -- Internet domain name
registrants will begin paying registration fees immediately in order to
improve registration processing and fund Internet infrastructure
improvements. Beginning at 4 p.m. today, a $50 annual fee will be imposed on
all five top-level domains: commercial, educational, government, network and
non-profit organization (.com, .edu, .gov, .net, . org) domain name
registrations.  Until now, the National Science Foundation (NSF) has
subsidized these registrations, which currently total more than 100,000
domain names.  A five-week backlog has developed in processing domain name
registrations.


        The NSF will continue to subsidize the fees for the education
domain.  NSF will also continue to pay, on an interim basis, the fees for
government registrations until federal networking agencies determine how the
government will pay for the fee in the future.  Military registrant fees are
supported by the Department of Defense.


        The fee will apply only to domain name holders, not to typical
end-users who access the Internet through a commercial service like
CompuServe(tm), Prodigy(tm) or America Online(tm).  A domain name is the
Internet's equivalent of a real estate address.


        New commercial, network and not-for-profit registrants will pay a
$100 fee to register a name for two years; thereafter, they will pay $50
annually.  Existing registrants will owe the fee on the anniversary date of
their original registration. Registrants will receive three electronic
notices that their renewal is due on their anniversary date.


        Fees can be paid by check through paper mail. There also are
provisions for dealing with late payments and lapsed registrations; details
can be found in the written policy.


        The fees will be collected by Network Solutions, Inc., of Herndon,
Va., which has been funded by the NSF to be the Internet registrar since
1993.


        "Until now, taxpayers have funded the Internet's domain registration
process. This shift to user fees is consistent with and was anticipated in
NSF's original concept of developing support for the Internet," said NSF
program officer Don Mitchell.


        This will replace the current level of NSF funding, which now is
about $5.5 million from federal taxes.  Eventually, the registration process
will generate revenue which will be used to improve the Internet
infrastructure, including hardware, software, research and education.


        "In the last two years, registrations have jumped ten-fold," said
NSI spokesman Dave Graves.  "It's estimated that by the end of this year,
the figure will have topped 20,000 per month.  The volume has created a
five-week delay in registering new domain names.  By having those who
register for the Internet pay for the cost of that registration, we will
have enough resources to cut the backlog and begin planning improvements for
the Internet."


_______________


        Network Solutions Inc. (NSI) is a total quality network engineering,
integration and management firm, supporting some of the largest data
networks in the United States.  Networks Solutions has been the InterNIC
Registration Services provider for the Internet since April 1993.  An
Internet pioneer, NSI is a 15-year-old company headquartered in Herndon,
Virginia, with a nationwide workforce.  The company's specialties are
internetworking, interoperability, and life-cycle support solution for
diverse, distributed computer networks.  Since March 1995, NSI has been a
wholly owned subsidiary of Science Applications International Corp. (SAIC).


        SAIC provides high-technology services and products for government
and private industry in the areas of systems integration, national security,
health care, energy, environment and transportation.  With annual revenues
of nearly $2 billion, the employee-owned company has 20,000 employees in
more than 350 locations worldwide.


###


FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS (Still need answer to last one)


1. Q.   Why are you going to charge Internet users?


A.      To date, the National Science Foundation has subsidized the cost of
domain name registrations through a cooperative agreement with Network
Solutions, Inc.  With the explosive growth of the Internet, the costs have
exceeded NSF's ability to provide funding from taxpayers' money; therefore,
fees will be imposed on all users of the five top-level domains for which
Network Solutions is responsible (.com, .org, .net, .edu, and .gov).


        The fees will apply ONLY to second-level domain name holders in the
domain for which Network Solutions serves as the registrar.  The fees do not
apply to individual Internet users who get their network access from their
employer or who purchase individual accounts from an Internet providers such
as CompuServe, Prodigy and America Online.


2.  Q.  How is this going to work?


A.      Current domain name registrants will owe a $50 annual renewal fee on
the anniversary date of their registration.  The registrant will be notified
by e-mail 60, 30 and 15 days before this fee is due.


        New domain name registrants will pay $100 to register the first
time, which will cover a two-year period.  Before the anniversary date of
the second year, they will receive the same renewal notifications that we've
just discussed.


3. Q.   Why are you doing this now?


A.      The concept of user fees is not new.  How and when to charge for
domain name registration has been discussed in the Internet community for
more than a year. Network Solutions has worked closely with the National
Science Foundation to determine the requirements and processes necessary to
make the transition to user fees.  We believe the process is as fair as
possible for two reasons: first, existing domain name registrants will not
be billed until their anniversary date; second, Network Solutions will allow
an initial three-month grace period.  The current NSF-NSI cooperative
agreement extends until 1998, which allows the Internet community to
consider funding alternatives.


4. Q.   What is Network Solutions' role?


A.      Since March 1993, the National Science Foundation has funded the
administration of Internet domain name registrations through a cooperative
agreement with Network Solutions.  This agreement was awarded after a free
and open competition conducted by the National Science Foundation in 1992.
This agreement extends through 1998.  The original solicitation and the
cooperative agreement considered the ultimate shift to user fees for
Internet registration.  Obviously, the Internet is evolving, and the next
three years will give the NSF and the Internet community the opportunity to
consider financing alternatives.


5. Q.   Exactly how will the fees be spent?  What's the formula?


A.      All fees received will be considered "program income" under he NSF
General Conditions of the cooperative agreement and must be shown as
revenues and their disposition accounted for.  Seventy percent of the fees
collected will be retained by Network Solutions to cover operating costs and
will be audited by NSF.  The remaining thirty percent will be spent, with
guidance from an advisory committee drawn from the Internet community, into
the intellectual infrastructure of the Internet and will be publicly
accounted for.


        With regard to improvements, our first priority is to speed up
domain name registration time from five weeks to two days.  We hope the
backlog will be eliminated by the end of October.


        6. Q.   What about .edu, .gov and .mil?


A.      Consistent with its charter to support the higher education
community, NSF will continue to pay the fees associated with the education
(.edu) domain. NSF will also pay, on an interim basis, the fees for the
government (.gov) until the federal networking agencies determine how the
government will pay for these domains in the future.  These domain names,
however, represent only 2.5 percent of the total domain names.  The military
(.mil) registrants are supported by a separate registration service for
which the Department of Defense pays all fees.


7. Q.   Will NSI accept electronic payments?


A.      NSI cannot accept electronic payments initially because of security
concerns.  We are carefully considering it as one of the payment options,
and plan a phased introduction of electronic payments as part of the future
improvements.


8.  Q.  What happens after the agreement with NSF runs out?


A.      NSF is encouraging discussions within the Internet community to
answer this longer-term question.  We believe that organizations such as the
IAB and the ISOC and commercial providers as well as the more traditional
Internet research and education community must be involved in determining
the answer.


9.  Q.  Are any more fees anticipated?


A.      No, we believe that the $50 amount should be adequate to cover
reasonably foreseeable contingencies.  Any new fees or increase must be
approved by NSF.  The priorities and funding for improvements will be
determined by an advisory committee, reviewed by the NSF, audited and
publicly accounted for.


10. Q.  How did you come up with $50?


A.


COMPLETE QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS


1. Q.   Why are you going to charge Internet users?


A.      It's time for the Internet to move from taxpayer subsidies to user
fees. Until now, the National Science Foundation has subsidized the cost of
domain name registrations through a cooperative agreement with Network
Solutions, Inc.  The Internet has had explosive growth -- there are now
seven times more requests for domain names than a year ago.  The cost
exceeds NSF's ability to provide funding from taxpayers' money; therefore,
fees will be imposed on all users of the five top-level domains for which
Network Solutions is responsible (.com, .org., .net., .edu., and .gov).


        The fees will apply ONLY to second-level domain name holders in the
domain for which Network Solutions serves as the registrar.  The fees do not
apply to individual Internet users who get their network access from their
employer or who purchase individual accounts from an Internet providers such
as CompuServe, Prodigy and America Online.


1.5 Q.  Who put the National Science Foundation in charge of the Internet?


A.      In 1991 the federal networking agencies asked the National Science
Foundation to assume responsibility for supporting the non-military Internet
registration services.  In 1993, the NSF competitively awarded a cooperative
agreement to Network Solutions, Inc.  The award solicitation and resulting
agreement considered the possibility that ultimately, Internet domain name
registration would move from subsidy to fee-for-service.


2.  Q.  How is this going to work?


A.      Current domain name registrants will owe a $50 annual renewal fee on
the anniversary date of their registration.  The registrant will be notified
by e-mail 60, 30 and 15 days before this fee is due.


        New domain name registrants will pay $100 to register the first
time, which will cover a two-year period.  Before the anniversary date of
the second year, they will receive the same renewal notifications that we've
just discussed.


3. Q.   Why aren't you giving adequate advance notice?


A.      The concept of user fees is not new.  How and when to charge for
domain name registration has been discussed in the Internet community for
more than a year.  Network Solutions has worked closely with the National
Science Foundation to determine the requirements and processes necessary to
make the transition to user fees.  We believe the process is as fair as
possible for two reasons: first, existing domain name registrants will not
be billed until their anniversary date; second, Network Solutions will allow
an initial three-month grace period.  The current NSF-NSI cooperative
agreement extends until 1998, which allows the Internet community to
consider funding alternatives.


4. Q.   What do the domain name users think about this?


A.      Many domain name applicants/holders previously have indicated
they're willing to pay a fee for better service, and there are many who
understand the need to make the Internet self-supporting.  There are some
who feel that existing domain name users should be exempt from any fee and
that fees should only be charged to new domain name registrants.  However,
that would make new registrants pay for maintaining the 110,000 domain names
that already exist.  We don't think that's either fair or sustainable over