Interesting People mailing list archives
IP: pgMedia sues NSI and NSF for antitrust violations
From: Dave Farber <farber () cis upenn edu>
Date: Fri, 15 May 1998 12:36:50 -0400
******* http://cgi.pathfinder.com/netly/opinion/0%2c1042%2c1995%2c00.html time.com / The Netly News May 15, 19098 While everybody was sitting and waiting for nothing to happen in Washington yesterday, they missed the other antitrust lawsuit. A company called pgMedia wants the right to create its own top level domains (TLDs) for the Internet, to rival .com, .edu. and the four other generic TLDs (gTLDs) controlled by Network Solutions Inc. and the National Science Foundation. pgMedia argues that there are "no technical or functional barriers" to opening up the "root server file" where gTLDs are listed. Paging Spencer Tracy. pgMedia makes the case that the gTLDs constitute an "essential facility," and therefore that NSI and NSF are obligated under antitrust laws to make the root servers open to all comers. Not a new argument, certainly, but a potentially powerful one. Just ask Intel: A court recently ruled that its microprocessor architecture was an "essential facility," like a railroad switching yard. NSI does have some legal recourse, however: Antitrust law says that "the court must take proper account of the monopolist's justifications for denying or restricting access," according to "Antitrust Law and Economics" by Ernest Gellhorn and William Kovacic. In other words, NSI could claim that a gTLD free-for-all would result in sheer chaos. (Forget about netly.com, how about netly.netly?). [...remainder snipped...] ----------------------------------------------------
Current thread:
- IP: pgMedia sues NSI and NSF for antitrust violations Dave Farber (May 15)