RE: [ga] Older registrations

[Simon Higgs <simon@higgs.net>]

At 08:47 PM 3/23/00 -0800, Christopher Ambler wrote:

>I think you might recall (please say so if you do or do not) that at the
>meeting in question, the "or may not" didn't even come up. At the time,
>what Bill said was that it might take significantly longer than the
>October deadline they hoped for. His exact quote was, "perhaps even
>somewhat into next year," which would have been 1997.

Actually that was the first time I'd officially heard 10/1/96 confirmed as 
the deadline (i.e. the date the new iTLDs were to be introduced). My 
recollection was that it would only go over that deadline if IANA had not 
got it's legal umbrella by then. ISOC then took over right around the 
deadline in the guise of providing that legal umbrella, and we waited 
patiently for the IAHC to be announced. That timing fits with Bill's 
disclaimer, as the IAHC published their results in early 1997.

>Only later, when the IAHC process began, did IANA start saying "or may not."

I still don't remember IANA saying "or may not". Jon Postel published the 
iTLD applicant list to iahc-discuss, and then recommended that his draft be 
followed. Unfortunately, IANA was obligated (as it's role was reduced to 
that of a participant) to defer to the IAHC who then said "all your work 
has been for nothing - we rule you out of existence, your applications for 
iTLDs never existed, and we hereby claim the goodwill and underlying 
intellectual property rights that you have established in complying with 
the Postel-draft process, as our own - bye". Of course, the gTLD-MoU made 
it impossible for the original participants to continue without 
relinquishing (by signing the gTLD-MoU) the prior art that had been 
established under the Postel draft*. Sneaky.

And this prompted a lawsuit. Quite understandable really. Unfortunately, I 
think your argument was in the wrong area. But since they had no hope of 
actually getting into the root, the lawsuit was dropped.

*This explains the separation of the pre-IAHC and post-IAHC communities.

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