IP: NETWORK SOLUTIONS, U.S. GOV'T REACH AGREEMENT from Edupage

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

NETWORK SOLUTIONS, U.S. GOV'T REACH AGREEMENT 
The Clinton administration has reached a tentative agreement with Network 
Solutions, Inc. -- the Virginia-based company that up until now has had a 
legal monopoly on registering all ".com" Web addresses. Under the 
agreement, Network Solutions must allow other firms to offer registration 
services for ".com," ".org" and ".net" Web addresses, but for now it will 
continue to be the sole administrator of those address lists. In addition, 
the company must give the government the technical data it has related to 
the more-than-two-million registrations it has processed, although it will 
be allowed to keep any customer marketing data it's collected. Network 
Solutions will continue to act as the monopoly wholesaler of ".com" 
addresses until the new nonprofit organization now being formed to take over 
responsibility for Internet management decides what the firm's role should 
be. That organizational process could take several months. (Wall Street 
Journal 6 Oct 98)