[ga-full] Re: [ga] Older Registrations

[Simon Higgs <simon@higgs.net>]

At 12:30 AM 3/29/00 -0800, William X. Walsh wrote:

Let me waste one more futile effort on this... ;-)

> > ftp://ftp.internic.net/nsf/nren-solicitation.txt
> > ***Start Quote***
> > This  project  solicitation is issued pursuant  to  the  National
> > Science  Foundation Act of 1950, as amended (42  U.S.C.  1861  et
> > seq)  and the Federal Cooperative Agreement Act (31 U.S.C.  6305)
> > and is not subject to the Federal Acquisition Regulations.

This documents authority from the US Government via the National Science 
Foundation, and this authority comes from the United States Code (for those 
outside the US this is the big book of Federal "rules").

> > [SNIP]
> > 1.  (P) Registration Services
> > The provider of registration services will function in accordance
> > with  the provisions of RFC 1174.

RFC1174 is mandated under the above authority. Pretty clear cut so far.

> > As stated in RFC 1174,  "[T]he
> > Internet system has employed a central Internet Assigned  Numbers
> > Authority  (IANA)  for the allocation and assignment  of  various
> > numeric  identifiers needed for the operation  of  the  Internet.
> > The  IANA  function  is performed by the University  of  Southern
> > California's  Information Sciences Institute.

This describes the organization authorized to perform the IANA functions. 
The University of Southern California's  Information Sciences Institute 
puts Jon Postel in charge of IANA (this we know from other sources).

> > The IANA  has  the discretionary   authority

Here discretionary authority is granted (which allows decision making to be 
largely independent of USG/NSF/USC/ISI).

> > to   delegate   portions   of    this
> > responsibility   and,  with  respect  to  numeric   network   and
> > autonomous  system  identifiers, has lodged  this  responsibility
> > with  an Internet Registry (IR)."

Here delegation authority is granted. This means IANA can delegate out 
registration authority, as evidenced by the delegation of various TLDs to 
independent registries.

What "numeric network and autonomous system identifiers" refers to is the 
registration of both numeric and textual identifiers for the internet (do 
not confused with "Autonomous System (AS) numbers" - see RFC1930). This 
includes unique port assignments, directory system names, character sets, 
IP addresses, domain names, etc. This is explained here:

http://www.iana.org/numbers.html

Note the many references to DNS and Host Table content.

>Moreover, in cooperation  with
> > the  IANA,  the IR may create delegate registries  to  carry  out
> > registration services for specified domains.
> > ***End Quote***

The delegation of the domain names themselves are to an Internet Registry. 
This requires the delegation of the top level domain to that registry, and 
is covered under other agreements (such as the NSF-IANA-NSI co-op agreement).

> > http://www.isoc.org/isoc/media/releases/iana.shtml
> > ***Start Quote***
> > The IANA has managed the root of the DNS to promote stability and
> > robustness. This role is primarily one of making minor technical decisions
> > about the location of root nameservers, the qualifications of applicants to
> > manage country code top level domains, and evaluating any additions to the
> > established generic top level domains which are proposed by the
> > community.

This confirms the validity of the pre-IAHC work. The Internet Society, who 
are providing the legal umbrella for IANA, acknowledge the authority for 
IANA to "established generic top level domains which are proposed by the 
community". The work that is being incorrectly disputed is to "established 
generic top level domains which are proposed by the community" during 
1995/1996. No more, no less.

> > [SNIP]
> > The IANA is the name for the function for the allocation and
> > assignment of various identifiers needed for the operation of the
> > Internet, which function was assigned by DARPA to the
> > Information Sciences Institute (ISI) of the University of
> > Southern California pursuant to contracts between DARPA
> > and ISI. Under the DARPA contracts, ISI (through the IANA
> > function) has the discretionary authority to delegate portions of
> > this function, and has delegated that portion of the
> > responsibility concerning some aspects of numeric network and
> > autonomous system identifiers to an Internet Numbers Registry
> > (IR), previously performed by SRI International and currently
> > performed by NSI. See RFC 1174 and Section H.1., NSF
> > Solicitation for Network Information Services Manager for
> > NSFnet and the NREN ("ISI (as the IANA) ha[s] delegated
> > to the DISA NIC (currently NSI) the registration of users for
> > the Internet").
> > ***End Quote***

This explains the prior history of IANA, and it's establishment under a 
DARPA contract. Note the discretionary authority has been around for a long 
time. Without it the internet would not be a coherent set of communication 
standards, and would not be as economically buoyant as it is today.


Best Regards,

Simon

--
"First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, and
then you win. And once you have won, they join you." - Mahatma Gandhi

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