<nettime> Re: domain game

[ronda@umcc.ais.org (Ronda Hauben)]

From: Chris Paul <idea@mcr1.poptel.org.uk>
>*** 5 to compete in domain name game

>>NEW YORK (AP) - Five companies will be chosen this week to compete
>>with Network Solutions Inc. in the business of registering Internet
>>addresses. But complicating the situation is the matter that Network
>>Solutions and the federal government have yet to reach an agreement
>>on how the company's rivals will get their hands on the domain-name
>>database.........

It's not competition - it is taking what is an administrative function
that needs to be done accurately and with concern that the people
registering names are giving their accurate information about how
to contact them, and is making this into a lucrative means of
abusing Internet users.

The problem that existed was that NSI was allowed to make
money off this administrative function, and instead of the 
U.S. government recognizing this problem and stopping it
in its tracks, it is now spreading the problem around the 
world and around the Internet.

The whole "domain name game" has only been covering up the real
problem with the essential functions of the Internet. These 
functions such as the IP numbers, domain name system, root
server system, and protocols are essential for the functioning
and scaling of the Internet. Instead of the U.S. government trying
to take the propoer concern and care for these functions, and 
instead of recognizing that these functions are crucial for
the essential Internet function which is *communication* to take
place, the U.S. government is putting these essential functions
into the hands of an entity with  only conflicts of interest
in how it deals with the Internet. This entity is ICANN.

There are a number of articles on this issue in the most recent
issue of the Amateur Computerist. The URL is 
http://www.ais.org/~jrh/acn/ACN9-1.txt

Also I did a paper about this situation last term which looks at
the broader issues involved and is at 
http://www.ais.org/~ronda/new.papers/internet.txt

ARPA was able to support the research work to create the Internet
because it was created to oppose "vested interests" that would
be a conservative force in the development of new science and 
new technology.

Science represents new viewspoints and new concepts and has many
enemies.

Now the U.S. government has created ICANN (the Internet Corporation
for Assigned Names and Numbers) to put those with a conflict
of interest or with the desire to only get profit out of the 
Internet, in charge of these crucial functions of the Internet.

The U.S. government is reversing all the principles that made
it possible to create the Internet by its creation of ICANN
and its plan to give away billions of dollars of public property
to the control of ICANN.

The U.S. is supposed to be dealing with a design and test
contract with ICANN, and instead there are no government officials
to be found who are responsive to the corruption that already
has reared its head as ICANN.

So science and communication which are the roots of the Internet
are to be replaced by corrupt conflict of interest practices 
via this activity by the U.S. government of creating and 
empowering ICANN.

And the integrity and ownership and control of essential functions
of the Internet are the stakes in this game that the U.S government
is engaged in.

Ronda
ronda@ais.org


-----------------
                 Netizens: On the History and Impact
                     of Usenet and the Internet
               http://www.columbia.edu/~hauben/netbook/
                      ISBN # 0-8186-7706-6

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