Re: [wg-c] Pre-sold TLDs

[Kent Crispin <kent@songbird.com>]

On Mon, Apr 10, 2000 at 03:06:07PM -0700, William X. Walsh wrote:
> 
> On 10-Apr-2000 Kent Crispin wrote:
> > CORE has taken *no* registrations.  Period.  Zilch.  Nada. The big 
> > Goose egg.  Zero.  None.
> 
> Semantics Kent.  

Yes, you are playing silly semantic games.

> As you and others have pointed out several times, CORE IS ITS
> REGISTRARS.

No -- I haven't pointed that out, and no one with any connection to
legal reality has pointed that out, either.  CORE is a non profit swiss
association, distinct from its members.  A legal contract with CORE is
not a contract with any of its members.  This is fact.  CORE is distinct
from its members, legally and actually.  This is fact.  It is simple and
obvious fact.  It wouldn't even occur to me to say otherwise, except 
maybe as some poetic hyperbole.

> So the registrars make up CORE and they have accepted
> registrations.

A CORE member could sell shares in the Brooklyn Bridge.  That doesn't
mean that CORE sold the shares.  CORE members are distinct businesses
from CORE.  A CORE member can sign a contract for janitorial services;
that doesn't mean CORE is involved in the contract.  Some of the CORE
members are huge corporations (eg Deutsche Telecom) -- that doesn't mean
that CORE controls the actions of those corporations -- the idea is 
ludicrious. 

CORE has not accepted any money from anyone for registration services in
the IAHC TLDs.  It does not provide public DNS services for the IAHC
TLDs.  It does not provide whois service for those TLDs.  It does not
provide alternate root service for those TLDs.  It has not charged any
money for any of these things it is not providing.  Since it hasn't sold
ANYTHING, it obviously is not "pre-selling" registrations. 

Furthermore, the queues that some of the CORE registrars may have are
doodoo when it comes registration in an ICANN approved TLD.  They convey
no guarantee whatsoever of registration in a real TLD; they carry no
presumption of priority over the registrations of any other registrar;
they have no more weight than a list that you or I might have that we
could submit to some other registrar.  Perhaps CORE, or some of the
registrars, would like things to be different, but it aint gonna 
happen. 

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