Re: [registrars] verisign.com

[Eric Brunner-Williams in Portland Maine <brunner@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

I'm looking at the 21 April 1999 document "ICANN Names Competitive Domain-Name
Registrars" [1], which reads in part:

(WASHINGTON - April 21, 1999) The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) today announced the five companies that have been selected to participate in the initial testbed phase of the new competitive Shared Registry System for the .com, .net, and .org domains. These five participants will be the first to implement the new system for competition in the market for .com, .net, and .org domain name registration services. Currently, registration services in the .com, .net, and .org domains are provided by Network Solutions, Inc. (NSI), which has enjoyed an exclusive right to handle registrations under a 1993 Cooperative Agreement with the U.S. Government.

The five registrars participating in the testbed are, in alphabetical order:

    * America Online
    * CORE (Internet Council of Registrars)
    * France Telecom/Oléane
    * Melbourne IT
    * register.com

The VGRS/NSI deal that Scott just noticed appears to be consistent with the
regulatory environment prior to Phase 1 of the Cooperative Agreement between
NSI and the U.S. Government, so today's date is probably late 1998, or the
first few months of 1999.

On the plus side, George W. Bush is still the Governor of Texas, the tech
economy is still healthy, there is a chance Ira Magizeener, Mike Roberts,
Ester Dyson and Loui Touton won't make the same mistakes, and we can eject
NSI from the registrar's constituency because it is a registry.

Now we need to get a motion drafted, endorsed and balloted to notice the
ICANN BoD that the equal access provision is in breech. I'm on my first
cup of coffee, but my bet is more litegation.

Eric

[1] http://www.icann.org/announcements/icann-pr21apr99.htm