Re: [ga] Advisory Regarding the .us TLD

[Jeff Williams <jwkckid1@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Danny and all,

  I agree with your brief analysis of NeuStar and .us, however
I strongly disagree with your conclusion in respect to the
management of .us and the USG's involvement of same
via DOC/NTIA.  NeuStar has clearly shown it's poor
managing of .us ccTLD and in doing so has exposed
registrants, and american as well as non american consumers
in doing such a poor job in a number of ways in which
exposing said consumers to miscreant privacy violations
recently reported to be in the millions of occurrences.
For instance see:http://blogs.govexec.com/techinsider/
and
http://www.govexec.com/story_page.cfm?articleid=37175&sid=60

  So from where I sit as american voters, and also even
those whom are non americans, we should and would
be far better off demanding that our government servants
do a much better job of selecting it's contractors such as
NueStar, and demand of them to uphold the principals
which America was founded upon for the greater good,
uphold the laws which were created for that good purpose
without prejudice or timidity.

Danny Younger wrote:

> 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?
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Regards,

--
Jeffrey A. Williams
Spokesman for INEGroup LLA. - (Over 134k members/stakeholders strong!)
"Obedience of the law is the greatest freedom" -
   Abraham Lincoln

"Credit should go with the performance of duty and not with what is
very often the accident of glory" - Theodore Roosevelt

"If the probability be called P; the injury, L; and the burden, B;
liability depends upon whether B is less than L multiplied by
P: i.e., whether B is less than PL."
United States v. Carroll Towing  (159 F.2d 169 [2d Cir. 1947]
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