Domain names and "The Network $olution", from The Netly News

[Declan McCullagh <declan@well.com>]

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http://pathfinder.com/netly/opinion/0,1042,1155,00.html

The Netly News Network (http://netlynews.com)
July 10, 1997

The Network $olution
by Declan McCullagh (declan@well.com)

        It could have been the perfect way to liberate the Net from the
   much-reviled monopoly of Network Solutions Inc., the company that
   handles almost all U.S. domain name registrations. Backed by
   well-regarded groups such as the Internet Society, the seven-page
   proposal promised to reduce prices, increase choices -- and best of
   all, really put the screws to everyone's least favorite domain name
   registrar.
   
        But a month before the curtain is set to lift on a host of new
   domains to supplement .com and .org, the ambitious plan suddenly seems
   as doomed as the recently extirpated Communications Decency Act. Not
   only did just one government, Albania, sign the "Memorandum of
   Understanding" (MoU), but the U.S. actively opposed it. So did Network
   Solutions, after they realized with gut-wrenching dismay the
   consequences of losing their lucrative monopoly on .com.
   
        Yesterday another group of MoU critics met in Washington to form
   the Open Internet Congress, which hopes to wrest control of Net
   governance from "hobbyists" and "volunteers" and haul it into the
   mainstream. "I don't want a bunch of volunteers playing around and
   trying to run the show. I don't want petty battles over who's in
   charge and who's keeping the lights on," says Andrew Sernovitz, the
   president of the Association for Interactive Media, which organized
   the summit. Sernovitz envisions a ruthlessly commercialized cyberspace
   that's safe for companies like IBM, Intel, NBC and Time Warner
   (Netly's corporate big brother) that cough up $9,000 a year to be
   governing members of AIM.
   
        The talk yesterday was of revolution. Sernovitz spoke about
   holding an Internet "Constitutional Convention" this fall. He passed
   out supportive columns quoting from "Common Sense" by Thomas Paine. I
   even heard folks call the MoU the move that will spark the online
   equivalent of the Boston Tea Party. (Led, presumably, by firms like
   Time Warner? Since that media giant also owns CNN, you can be sure the
   revolution will indeed be televised.)

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