RE $50 Million NSF windfall??

[Jim Fleming]

On Thursday, March 13, 1997 10:43 AM, John Curran[SMTP:jcurran at bbnplanet.com] wrote:
<snip>
@ Jim,
@  
@    I've been trying to stay out of the DNS 
@ registry discussion as I don't see it as 
@ relevant, but alas, you've succeeeded in
@ drawing a response.  Your assumption above 
@ ("NSI has been working on other things, like
@ ARIN, and hence hasn't gotten the basics 
@ working") is so far out of touch with reality 
@ that it can't go unanswered.
@ 

John,

You keep repeating this "technical view" that
domain names and IP addresses are different.
Please understand that the issues here are not
technical. The issues are policy and business
related. Just because ARIN has a proposed
Board full of technical people, that does not
change the issues.

The InterNIC is a business...it is a lucrative business...

The InterNIC is structured as follows:

U.S. Government
	National Science Foundation (NSF)
		InterNIC
			IS - Network Solutions, Inc.
			DS - AT&T
			RS - Network Solutions, Inc.

Cloning the InterNIC means cloning the IS, DS, RS cooperative
structure. Cloning the InterNIC does not mean cloning Network
Solutions, Inc. (NSI) NSI is a private company that just happens
to have some contracts, which expire next year, with the
U.S. Government's National Science Foundation (NSF).

Network Solutions, Inc. is at <http://www.netsol.com>.
As shown in the following, Network Solutions, Inc. is
able to continue its own growth along with other private
companies (such as VeriSign) while it has a contract
with the NSF.

@@@@ http://rs.internic.net/nic-support/nicnews/mar97/shoppingcart.html

"Network Solutions, Inc., the company who operates
the InterNIC Registration Services, and VeriSign, Inc.
have teamed up to make the path to secure Internet
transactions much easier. Beginning this month,
Network Solutions' customers wanting to establish a
secure web site have access to "one-stop shopping"
for both domain name registration and a VeriSign
server Digital IDSM."

@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@

For people that assume that Network Solutions, Inc.
and the InterNIC are one and the same, these sorts
of relationships can be confusing. These relationships
are not between technical components they are
between business units and government agencies.


--
Jim Fleming
Unir Corporation

e-mail:
JimFleming at unety.net
JimFleming at unety.s0.g0 (EDNS/IPv8)