Legal exposure (was: RIPE, High Fees and Cronyism)

[Stephen Satchell]

At 1:32 PM 1/19/97, davidk at ISI.EDU wrote:
>Don't forget the legal fees. RIPE still hasn't a legal department (I
>know, domain names tend to attract more lawyers then IPs).


Because this is a North American registry that's being proposed, I point
out that the only "normal" legal exposure that such a registry would have
is errors and omissions...and E&O liability insurance isn't all that
expensive.  That cost, though, *does* need to be factored into the business
plan and rationale as a necessary expense.

Abnormal legal exposure (embezzelment, tort, criminal activites on the part
of employees, &c) would be covered under general insurance.

On my back-of-the-envelope bid proposal, I allowed for $10 million in E&O
coverage -- this because a single mistake affecting two /8 sites would
require a *lot* of unnecessary work being performed by the allocation
holders and backbone support people.