Re: [ga] Re: Board descisions

[Kent Crispin <kent@songbird.com>]

On Sun, Mar 11, 2001 at 02:59:15PM -0800, William X. Walsh wrote:
> I agree.
> 
> This new contract benefits Verisign/NSI the most.

That may or may not be true, but it is in fact totally irrelevant.  It
is very important to understand this:  It is quite possible that the 
new arrangement favors NSI, but is still the best for the Internet 
community.  This is NOT a zero sum game, and it is important not to let 
one's dislike of Verisign be the only deciding issue.

Please understand: I am *NOT* a fan of NSI. 

> They get to keep .com, they get to keep their registrar,

...under a set of restrictions, a material breach of which would throw 
the contract open to rebid.  Moreover, with the old contract they will 
almost certainly keep all three of .com,.net, and .org.  It is true 
that there is a rebid in 2007, but the terms of the contract include 
such factors as experience in running the registry, and the terms also 
contemplate only a singly award for all three TLDs.

>  and they get
> to have net/org spun off as restricted TLDs that do not compete with
> .com for registrations.

No, that is not true.  .org and .net are spun off with NO contractual
restrictions.  ALL the discussion of what might happen to them is
speculation, and ICANN has made it clear that NO changes in policy 
would be made unless the community decided it. (*)

> The changes are to the benefit of Verisign/NSI, not to the benefit of
> the internet community.
> 
> The original contract should be held up.

Perhaps.  I haven't made up my mind on the issue -- what I really would 
like is that no single entity should control more than one of a 
registry or registrar, but that is not one of the options -- the very 
worst that NSI can do is still awfully good for them.

(*) "Louis said in his posting that the issues about the future of .org
are policy decisions that should go through the consensus process."
 -- Joe Sims, in http://www.dnso.org/clubpublic/council/Arc04/msg00901.html

-- 
Kent Crispin                               "Be good, and you will be
kent@songbird.com                           lonesome." -- Mark Twain
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