IP: Companies to give money to new net names authority

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

Companies to give money to new net names authority 
By Aaron Pressman 
WASHINGTON, Sept 8 (Reuters) - A group of leading high-tech companies 
will unveil on Wednesday a plan to raise "seed money" to back 
private-sector efforts to reform the Internet's name and address system. 
The group, called the Global Internet Project, hopes to raise about 
$500,000 in pledges from major Internet companies to cover the initial 
expenses of a new nonprofit corporation that will oversee net names and 
addresses as the U.S. government phases out its support. 
"We're going to raise some start-up money to get things off the ground," 
said a person involved in the fund-raising. The money will be donated 
"with no strings attached" to the new nonprofit corporation, the person 
said. 


"The Clinton administration threw down the gauntlet and we're trying to 
pick it up and provide the support necessary," said another person working 
on the effort. 


A variety of companies and interest groups have been working to craft a 
consensus reform plan since June when the Clinton administration issued its 
final plan for ending U.S. government management of the Internet's most 
basic functions. 


The Clinton plan was short on details and avoided answering some of the 
most controversial questions, such as whether new top-level domains should 
be added and how disputes over names that are trademarks should be 
resolved. 


Top-level domains are the two or three letter suffixes at the end of 
every Internet address whether used to reach an electronic mailbox, World 
Wide Web site or other Internet resource. 
While many individual Internet users want more top-level domain names 
and lower fees for registering their names, companies with well-known 
trademarks have sought to limit new domains and to establish a system 
resolving disputes over use of trademarks in their favor. 


The new nonprofit corporation will have to address the tough issues as 
well as the future role of Network Solutions Inc.<NSOL.O>, the Herndon, 
Va., company that has exclusive authority to register names in the in the 
most popular top-level domains ".com", ".org" and ".net". That authority 
expires on Sept. 30 but could be extended during the transition to a new 
system. 


Clinton officials have warned the Internet community that if a consensus 
is not reached soon, the U.S. government might be forced to continue 
overseeing the system. 


Under a recent proposal, the new nonprofit corporation would be based in 
California and headed by a transition board of directors of up to 19 
people for one year. 


People involved in the Global Internet Project said the group wanted to 
support the reform process without dictating the end result. One person 
compared the situation to the interest of airlines in the air traffic 
control system. 


"The airlines don't run the air traffic system but they depend on it, 
just like we depend on the Internet," the person said. "We just want it to 
work." 


The Global Internet Project is comprised of 13 large corporations, 
including IBM Corp.<IBM.N>, MCI Communications Corp.<MCIC.O>, GTE 
Corp.<GTE.N>, and Netscape Communications Corp.<NSCP.O> The group also 
includes British Telecom Plc<BT.L> and Deutsche Telecom AG<DTEG.F>. 
((Aaron Pressman, Washington newsroom, 202-898-8312))