Re: [wg-c] Eureka?

[dwmaher@ibm.net]

At 07:57 AM 8/9/99 -0400, A.M. Rutkowski wrote: 

>
> Check out the NIS solicitation.  It was one of several thousand
> research projects to companies and institutions, and the
> intellectual property goes to the awardee.  You may not like it,
> but that's the way it works. 


If the "intellectual property goes to the awardee", one wonders why the
Cooperative Agreement includes section 10 (e), which provides:
   "The Awardee shall submit electronically and in ten hard (10) 
copies a final report to NSF at the conclusion of the
Cooperative Agreement. The final report shall contain a
description of all work performed and problems encountered
(and if requested a copy and documentation of any and all
software and data generated) in such form and sufficient
detail as to permit replication of the work by a reasonably
knowledgeable party or organization."
        The Cooperative Agreement was clearly intended to cover services to the
NSF for a definite, and limited, period of time. When the term of the Agreement
ends, as it will, the work done is to be replicated by another party, and the
Awardee, NSI, must enable the other party to take over. 
        The official spokesman for NSI has said that in the worst-case
scenario...that being that the Commerce Department decides to strip [NSI] of
its right to control the registration of domain names, “we’ll just take our
customers — all 5.2 million of them — and go elsewhere.” 
        This cynical threat to destabilize and fracture the Internet puts in
perspective the statements of NSI consultants on this subject.
        David Maher