Re: [ga] Advisory Regarding the .us TLD

[Danny Younger <dannyyounger@xxxxxxxxx>]

Karl,

Before we address the issue of "authority", or the
lack thereof, let's put some of the pieces of the
puzzle together first.

(1)  Neustar is party to a contract with the US DOC.
(2)  The base period of the contract was 4 years.
(3)  The contract included 2 one-year options.
(4)  The final option expires on 25 October 2007

In my mind the following questions arise:  who is
actually the manager of the .us TLD?  The IANA lists 

NeuStar, Inc.
Loudon Tech Center
45980 Center Oak Plaza
Sterling, Virginia 20166
United States

as the sponsoring party.  So, is Neustar the ccTLD
manager, or is the manager the US DOC via the NTIA?

If NeuStar is the manager, will they continue to have
management rights if the contract with the USG
expires, or if the DOC names another entity to perform
the back-end registry work?

I have to admit that I'm not delighted with the way
that .us has been managed... I point to the failures
of the .us Policy Council, the loss of privacy rights
in the .us namespace and to excessive governmental
involvement in decision-making relative to this TLD.

One thing is certain, the heavy hand of the U.S.
Government will interject itself into ICANN/IANA
matters before long and this TLD will continue to
suffer.

In my view, it's time to ask the USG to back off.



 
--- Karl Auerbach <karl@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> Danny Younger wrote:
> > The Department of Commerce/ National
> > Telecommunications and Information Administration
> > issued a "sources sought" notice of an intention
> to
> > procure centralized management and coordination of
> > registry, registrar (where specified), database,
> and
> > information services for the usTLD.
> 
>  From the "synopsis" I do not see that NTIA has
> indicated that is has a 
> statutory basis upon which it can base any authority
> to run .us, much 
> less to contract-out for its management.
> 
> I did not see any reference to the full non-synopsis
> as perhaps it 
> answers that question.
> 
> However, given that the Congress' GAO has *twice*
> failed to find any 
> source of authority for NTIA in these matters, the
> absence of an answer 
> would not be surprising.
> 
> A lack of authority would potentially render null
> and void all of NTIA's 
> agreements including those it has with ICANN,
> Verisign, and others.
> 
> 		--karl--
> 



      ____________________________________________________________________________________
Luggage? GPS? Comic books? 
Check out fitting gifts for grads at Yahoo! Search
http://search.yahoo.com/search?fr=oni_on_mail&p=graduation+gifts&cs=bz