IP more on IP: Domain names and "The Network $olution", from

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

From: Dave McClure <dpmcc () bellatlantic net>


The National Science Foundation, moving rapidly to privatize the Internet, 
has approved the ARIN proposal advanced by Network Solutions, Inc.  In that 
proposal, a group of seven Trustees selected by NSI and including Dr. 
Donald Telage and Kim Hubbard of that company will manage a monopoly that 
will have complete authority over the assignment of IP addresses in North 
America.


The proposal was drafted by NSI, largely authored by Hubbard, and submitted 
to the NSF for approval by Network Solutions.  Kim Hubbardwill be the 
president of ARIN, and some seven other current NSI employees will become 
the staff of ARIN.


The ARIN Board of Trustees, having selected itself, will continue to elect 
itself.  The Trustees will not be elected by the membership under current 
plans, and will not be accountable to anyone for its actions.  ARIN will 
immediately begin charging fees for IP registrations and annual 
maintenance, with the base fee for a single Class C (/24) set at $2,500. 
 Large IPSs will pay for IP address assignments on a sliding scale 
depending on the block size, from $2,500 to $20,000 per year.  It is 
anticipated that these costs will be passed along to smaller ISPs and 
organizational users, as will the annual maintenance fees.


To sell the proposal, NSI has claimed that:


** It will operate as a non-profit, though it does not currently meet the 
requirements for a non-profit set forth in section 501(c) of the US tax 
code.  It will have difficulty qualifying, since its only purpose for 
existence is to sell IP allocations and registrations.


** That it will have a minimal affect on the industry, and on most ISPs. 
 Except, of course for the estimated $3.5 million they will pay in its 
first year.


**  That it will be accountable to the industry.  There is no mechanism for 
accountability to anyone in the current ARIN proposal.


**  That ARIN is similar to RIPE and APNIC.  Except, of course, that those 
organizations (which manage IP registrations for Europe and Asia) elect 
their officers and Board members, have bylaws and a mission, and are 
operated under the direction of the ISPs who pay for their services.


As we have consistently stated, we support the formation of a non-profit to 
coordinate IP addresses and allocate them effectively.  Nor do we 
particularly have a problem with either Dr. Telage (by all accounts an 
honorable man) or even Kim Hubbard (who does have experience managing the 
current database).  Our objection is to the structure of ARIN, not its 
intent.  But the devil is in the details, and in the case of ARIN the 
details are a problem for our industry.


FYI, we spoke last week to Edelman PR, who have been brought in to help 
clean up the dismal public communications at NSI.  We have asked them to 
broker a meeting between Dennis and Donald Telage in an effort to clear up 
these problems so we can support ARIN.  Our efforts to do so in the past 
have met with silence or ridicule, but NSI has a new president and we 
remain hopeful.






-----Original Message-----
From:   Sky Dayton [SMTP:sky () earthlink net]
Sent:   Monday, July 14, 1997 12:25 PM
To:     exec () aop org
Cc:     farber () cis upenn edu
Subject:        Re: Any idea what this means


Dave,


Can you shed more light on this? cc Dave Farber <farber () cis upenn edu> on
the reply. Thanks.


Sky



--


> > > =============================================================
> > > AOP Bulletin        Monday, July 11, 1997        Volume 97:25
> > > =============================================================


...


> > > The investigation comes as NSI has made a bold bid to retain
> > > exclusive control of the world's most popular top-level
> > > domain names after its contract with the National Science
> > > Foundation ends next March.  *******In addition, NSI executives have
> > > won approval of a scheme to give a small group of NSI
> > > employees a monopoly over the sale of Internet IP addresses.*********




...







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