RE: [ga-roots] Jon Postel

["Josh Elliott" <josh@basicfusion.com>]

Patrick,

There are a few details I would dispute, but the only real important one is
that IANA only existed until late 1998, which is entirely incorrect.  The
IANA still exists today under ICANN management, and before ICANN took
control contractually for IANA, it still operated without the direction of
Jon Postel in late 1998.

Thanks,

Josh (former IANA Administrator)

Josh Elliott, President & CEO
Basic Fusion, Inc.

josh@basicfusion.com
+1 661 254 8701 (Work)
+1 661 287 3523 (Fax)
+1 818 470 1040 (Mobile)

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-ga-roots@dnso.org [mailto:owner-ga-roots@dnso.org]On Behalf
Of Patrick Corliss
Sent: Friday, May 25, 2001 7:50 AM
To: NameCritic
Cc: [ga-roots]
Subject: [ga-roots] Jon Postel


On Fri, 25 May 2001 04:10:16 -0700, William X. Walsh wrote:
Subject: Re[4]: (Fwd) Re: [ga-roots] alternate roots considered harmful

> Hello NameCritic,
>
> Friday, May 25, 2001, 3:41:28 AM, NameCritic wrote:
>
> >> You obviously do not know your domain history very well.
>
> > Or you do not William. Are you saying there was never a time when all
> > you had to do was ask Jon Postel for a domain name to get one?
>
> A top level domain?  Yes, I am.

http://www.cctec.com/maillists/nanog/historical/9603/msg00108.html
Just a small quibble David:  when you say "the IANA" decided, it gives
the impression that an august group of people like the IESG took action.
In reality "the IANA" is but a SINGLE person - John Postel.  If some
people are upset I suspect it might be because the power to make such a
decision is vested in the hands of ONE person rather than in a group.

http://www.tftb.com/ICANN.html
That the system has worked as well as it has is largely a tribute to the
work of one man, Dr. John Postel, the recently deceased director of the
Internet Assigned Numbers Authority.

http://www.u.arizona.edu/~wfoster/whogoverns.html
InterNIC gets its authority to delegate both IP address and domain names
from the Internet Assigned Number Authority (IANA). IANA, which is run by
John Postel, has historically been responsible for unique parameters that
are required by IETF protocols. Though IANA had given most countries the
right to operate their own TLD and assign secondary domain names within it,
the .com TLD has developed a cachet not only for United States businesses
but for businesses all over the world.

http://www.murdoch.edu.au/elaw/issues/v6n1/blakeney61_text.html
The IANA also allocated the right to administer country code TLDs to local
Network Information Centres (NICs) or to local corporations. For example the
<.co.uk>, <.ltd.uk>, <.plc.uk>, <.net.uk> and <.org.uk> domain names are
administered by Nominet UK Limited (Nominet).

http://www.isocnz.org.nz/international/cctld000728report-best-practice.html
CENTR's view is that complete authority was transferred by John Postel to
the local manager, and all issues, including re-delegation, are a matter for
the local courts in the country associated with the ccTLDs.

http://www.isocnz.org.nz/international/cctld000728report-best-practice.html
Nominet (the manager of .uk) has taken US legal advice, which is to the
effect that the UK registry has a contract with either the estate of John
Postel, or his employer (effectively the University of Southern California).
Nominet has not consented to any transfer of the benefits or obligations
under that contract to ICANN, and does not recognise any ICANN authority
over the UK registry.

http://www.zakon.org/robert/internet/timeline/
1988.  Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) established in December
with Jon Postel as its Director. Postel was also the RFC Editor and US
Domain registrar for many years.

http://www.zakon.org/robert/internet/timeline/
1989.  Countries connecting to NSFNET: Australia (AU), Germany (DE), Israel
(IL), Italy (IT), Japan (JP), Mexico (MX), Netherlands (NL), New Zealand
(NZ), Puerto Rico (PR), United Kingdom (UK)

http://www.iiia.org/lists/newdom/1995q3/0239.html
Actually, while the InterNIC processes the requests for the two-letter
country code TLDs and does the interactions with the applicants, the
IANA is in the loop on approving each one. So the ultimate approval of
each (ISO-3166) two-letter country code TLD has always and continues to
involve an approval step by the IANA.

http://www.itu.int/newsarchive/press/releases/1998/PostelLegacy.html
Few organizations have played as critical a role as the IANA. Unique numbers
and unique names must be assigned and managed. The IANA has allocated
Internet protocol addresses and maintained a registry of the unique values
required for the Internet to work. This has been IANA's task from the very
beginning.

http://www.net99.org/presentations/Bernard_Turcotte/tsld002.htm
The top level DNS system was under the administration of the Internet
Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) and its director John Postel until late
1998.  IANA administered the TLD system and the IP address system
internationally without any formal authority.

See http://www.auda.org.au/docs/letter-com.au.html
com.au Letter of Authority
15 November 1999

.au Domain Administration
255 Elizabeth Street
Sydney NSW 2000

Dear Sirs

The Internet Assigned Numbers Authority ("IANA") has delegated to
me the authority to manage the .au namespace.

I hereby now delegate to you full authority to manage the .com.au
namespace, which is a subset of the .au namespace (the "Domain").

<snip>

In the event that I am succeeded as the delegated authority for
the .au namespace, my successor shall assume all the rights and
obligations accruing to me under my arrangement with IANA and
this arrangement with you.

I trust that you will administer the Domain in a fair and
responsible manner.

Yours sincerely
Robert Elz


Regards
Patrick Corliss



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