ip: Re: EFF Position Statement on Internet Domain Name System

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

Date: Wed, 30 Apr 1997 23:37:35 -0400
To: farber () cis upenn edu
From: "Richard J. Solomon" <rjs () rpcp mit edu>
Subject: Re: ip: EFF Position Statement on Internet Domain Name System
Cc: ip-sub-1 () majordomo pobox com


Amazing how history is repeating itself. This is the 2d or 3d time,
depending how you count, that limited vision in telecom could not deal with
chaos. In the past, governments took complete control of things like
spectrum because unimaginative private entities became too greedy, too
fast. Indeed, the same thing happened to the railroads 100 years ago
because of chaos in ratemaking &etc. (See our book, Gordian Knot  for
documentation.)


One huge flaw in everyone's viewpoint re: the DNS issues is the assumption
that the parallel evolution of the "telephone" network (e.g., numbering
system, routing tables, bandwidth selection, tariffs, OA&M, etc.) has
nothing to do with the future of the Internet. An analogy might be made
with the separation of wireless and wireline regulatory issues when
spectrum was forced to fall under government control worldwide some 60-70
years ago, stifling coherent convergence for two generations.


I don't hold much hope for the current negotiations. No matter what
happens, we'll be at it again in full force in just a few years as the Net
matures and merges into basic telecom infrastructure. Do we end up with
monopoly once again because of the perpetual tragedies of the commons?


Richard