Re: [wg-c] breaking up (names) is hard to do

[Kent Crispin <kent@songbird.com>]

On Mon, Aug 23, 1999 at 04:33:38PM -0400, Mikki Barry wrote:
[...]
> 
> I don't think anyone is living in denial of lock-ins.  My point is that
> changing domain names can adversely affect corporations, small businesses,
> indivduals, schools, etc. etc.   It isn't just a "large business" issue.

You are 100% correct -- indeed, small businesses are just as 
vulnerable -- perhaps more so, since they can't afford legal 
recourse.  

Furthermore, the issue isn't just about price gouging -- 
it is about policy manipulation, as well.  For example, I can well 
imagine the following from NSI:

  Dear Small Business Owner 

  We are pleased to announce our new "Small Business Special"! Yes,
  our brilliant software engineers have worked out a way to split our
  dns servers across several backend machines, which gives us the
  opportunity to further enhance our service.  For only $200/year we
  will put your domain on our new High Availability Servers, with a
  guaranteed 99% uptime for your domain name resolutions.  Blah Blah
  Blah

  Yours
  Network Solutions, Inc.

  PS.  Should you elect to not use our "Small Business Special" your 
  domain will be moved to our normal "Personal Service Grade" 
  servers, with a 75% uptime guarantee.  Of course, this will make 
  your business look like crap, but we have to put all those old 486 
  machines we bought to some kind of use...

The creativity of monopolists is legendary.  Several times 
performance and other contractual guarantees have been mentioned as 
a means of controlling such abuses.  But the fact is that a monopoly 
provider has nothing better to do than to think of ways around the 
letter of such contracts.  When one reads about the great 
monopolists of the past one comes away deeply impressed with how 
thoroughly they managed to work around the controls placed on them.


-- 
Kent Crispin                               "Do good, and you'll be
kent@songbird.com                           lonesome." -- Mark Twain