Re: Brands, TLDs, and Private Ownership (Was:Re: [wg-c] GTLDStraw poll)

["A.M. Rutkowski" <amr@netmagic.com>]

Hi Kevin,

> It's not a matter of religion.  If the
> steward is entrusted with 
> something of value and he converts it to his own personal

It's a religion when you deal with the issues with the
shrill zealousness frequently seen on these lists -
with a dialogue which admits and accommodates only one
correct order and one set of views.


> IMO, NSI's assertion that it owns .com and/or
> that it has any 
> property rights in the associated contacts database is a theft.
> The fact that the NSF has not done anything about it does
> not diminish the gravity of the wrong.

This is a typical example.  NSI received one of 5,772 NSF
computer science research (CISE) project awards over the 
past 15 years, receiving less than $ 4 million of 
approximately $ 2,500 million.  NSI's award was for one 
of three portions of the NIS research project.  

All of the 820 diverse awardees retained their project assets, 
not only including enormously valuable intellectual property, 
but also in several cases, hundreds of millions of dollars 
of physical assets and billions in continuing business arrangements,
as part of an explicit initiative to transfer these assets
entirely to the private-sector.  If you want to demand return
of assets, you might start at the top of the award list and
work down.  NSI ranks 84th.



--tony