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Netizens-Digest Volume 1 Number 291
Netizens-Digest Friday, March 26 1999 Volume 01 : Number 291
Netizens Association Discussion List Digest
In this issue:
[netz] Benton: Bill on Protecting Databases Resurfaces in House
[netz] [IFWP] InterNIC changes
[netz] (Fwd) Re: InterNIC changes
[netz] Mahathir ends net censorship
[netz] Battle Over the Future of the Internet: ACN v.9.no 1
[netz] Judiciary Committee Plans Y2K Litigation Bill Vote
[netz] Re: [webwatch] all: boiling mad at internic (fwd)
[netz] Request for help
[netz] Re: [IFWP] then ICANN is in the fire
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Fri, 19 Mar 1999 18:59:55 -0004
From: kerryo@ns.sympatico.ca (Kerry Miller)
Subject: [netz] Benton: Bill on Protecting Databases Resurfaces in House
BILL ON PROTECTING DATABASES RESURFACES IN HOUSE
I ssue: Intellectual Property
Representative Howard Coble (R-NC)(http://www.house.gov/coble),
Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee's subcommittee on
intellectual property, has introduced legislation (H.R.354) that has
re-ignited a debate on how to balance protection of databases and
preserving access to information in the public domain. Companies
have sought the legislation for some time so they can protect
public domain information they compile, catalogue and resell.
Opponents to the legislation say it will create electronic toll gates
to information that is now widely available free on the Internet --
from scientific research to stock quotes, telephone and e-mail
listings, even directories of Internet domain names.
Rep Coble says his new bill strikes a balance between the two
sides: "The balance provides adequate protection to insure there is
an incentive for companies to invest in the development of
collections of information, without inhibiting members of the
scientific, library and research communities from carrying on their
work." A coalition of more than 100 companies, education
institutions, nonprofit and trade associations signed a paper given
to the committee that said the proposal remained too broad, and
would change the basic information policy of the country. The
Clinton Administration has echoed their concerns.
[See http://www.house.gov/judiciary/sub106.htm for a list of the
subcommittee members]
[SOURCE: CyberTimes, AUTHOR: Jeri Clausing
(jeri@nytimes.com)]
(http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/99/03/cyber/articles/19data.ht
ml )
------------------------------
Date: Sun, 21 Mar 1999 11:39:26 -0004
From: kerryo@ns.sympatico.ca (Kerry Miller)
Subject: [netz] [IFWP] InterNIC changes
>
> Date: Sat, 20 Mar 1999 17:54:16 -0800 (PST)
> From: "William X. Walsh" <william@dso.net>
> Subject: [IFWP] FW: heads up: internic changes
>
> The dissatisfaction and concerns are growing.........
>
> Date: Sat, 20 Mar 1999 17:56:39 -0800 (PST)
> Sender: owner-nanog@merit.edu
> From: Marc Slemko <marcs@znep.com>
> To: nanog@merit.edu
> Subject: heads up: internic changes
>
>
> Just FYI, if your company relies on any service that the internic
> provides
> WRT domain registrations to help your own customers in registering
> domain
> names, you should check to make sure everything still works. You also
> probably want to be sure you don't let your customers anywhere near the
> InterNIC's web site, since they have gone even further in their attempts
> to confuse and trick people into paying for extra NSI services.
>
> http://www.internic.net/ now redirects you to
> http://www.networksolutions.com/ with many or most of the old URLs
> invalid. Things like web based whois, access to forms, etc. are now
> entirely different and it doesn't appear any attempt has been made at not
> breaking sites that link to them. In fact, the opposite seems true.
>
> Also, their finger-based frontend to their tracking system is
> coincidentally broken.
>
> Also, they conveniently don't have a ftp server accessible at
> ftp://ftp.internic.net/ but only on rs.internic.net. In addition, the
> templates that used to be easily accessible from their website aren't
> any
> more, and you are now almost forced to go through their web based
> registration system which tries to lead you astray to their extra "value
> added services" at every step, unless you know you can get the templates
> via ftp at rs.internic.net.
>
> Also, they have deliberately obscured the line between their extra
> money-grubbing services and a basic domain registration even more.
>
> Also, their telnet based whois is no longer available, and with it goes
> the last hope for getting info of if a domain is on hold or not or
> of accessing whois during their frequent outages.
>
> Unfortunately, none of this has helped their online payment system which
> is still horribly slow or down most of the time.
>
> It is quite obvious they are running scared for their future.
> Unfortunately, they still don't realize that providing good customer
> service is their best way to ensure a future.
>
> - --------------End of forwarded message-------------------------
>
------------------------------
Date: Sun, 21 Mar 1999 22:24:27 -0004
From: kerryo@ns.sympatico.ca (Kerry Miller)
Subject: [netz] (Fwd) Re: InterNIC changes
May be useful:
- ------- Forwarded Message Follows -------
At 11:39 AM 3/21/99 -0004, Kerry Miller forwarded:
>> Just FYI, if your company relies on any service that the internic
>> provides
>> WRT domain registrations to help your own customers in registering
>> domain
>> names, you should check to make sure everything still works.
You may want to use http://www.domainsurfer.com instead. It is much easier
to use than internic, and as of last week, it still worked.
For those who use Windows, you can try using the Internet Maniac package --
the author had a page at http://www.csee.usf.edu/~birla/ --- it has moved
from there, but there should be a redirect operational.
...
------------------------------
Date: Sun, 21 Mar 1999 23:00:06 -0004
From: kerryo@ns.sympatico.ca (Kerry Miller)
Subject: [netz] Mahathir ends net censorship
http://technology.news.com.au/techno/4346944.htm
Mahathir ends Net censorship
By IAN STEWART Kuala Lumpur
18mar99
JUST days after the Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad complained
that people were using the Internet to spread lies, the Malaysian
Government has announced that users of the World Wide Web will
be free from any form of censorship.
Othman Yeop Abdullah, executive chairman of the Multimedia
Development Corporation, which oversees Malaysia's burgeoning
Multimedia Super Corridor, said that at the direction of Dr Mahathir,
all existing curbs would be removed, including a requirement
introduced in December for cybercafes to register all users. The
move reflects Malaysian concern over the impact on potential
investors in the MSC of signs of creeping censorship, such as the
cybercafe plan and a statement by the Deputy Home Minister,
Mohamad Tajol Rosli Ghazali, that police would "check every bit of
information and leaflet" posted on
the Internet.
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 23 Mar 1999 23:32:48 -0500 (EST)
From: Jay Hauben <jay@dorsai.org>
Subject: [netz] Battle Over the Future of the Internet: ACN v.9.no 1
Announcing:
Amateur Computerist Vol 9 No 1 Battle Over the Future of the Internet
http://www.ais.org/~jrh/acn/ACN9-1.txt
Nineteen ninety eight marked 25 years since Robert Kahn and
Vinton Cerf first presented the ideas they had worked on to solve the
internetting problem. That work lead to the development of the TCP/IP
protocol suite. Nineteen ninety eight also witnessed the
intensification of a battle over the future of the Internet TCP/IP
made possible. On June 5 the US government issued a White Paper
describing its intention to privatize the ownership, control and
administration of the crucial elements of the Internet. These include
the allocation of Internet Protocol (IP) addresses, the allocation of
Internet domain names, the maintanence of the Internet protocol and
other numbers and pararmeters, the oversight of the protocol and
standards development process, and the maintanence of the root name
servers, especially the Authorative root name server, all crucial to
the existence and operation of the Internet. Privatization would
represent a major change for the Internet and there has been an
international fight over what should happen. The Amateur Computerist
Vol 9 No 1 is a celebration of the 25th anniversary of TCP/IP and an
examination of questions raised by the U.S. government's efforts to
privatize the Internet.
In this issue, Robert Kahn, Ronda Hauben and Robert Shaw take on
the question of the proper role for governments in maintaining and
scaling the Internet. The article by Kahn, first published in 1994
provides an important description of the changing role that the U.S.
government has played in the creation and development of the Internet.
It raises the question of what role will government, both the U.S.
government, and other governments around the world, need to play in the
further development of the Internet in order for these networking
developments to continue to grow and spread more broadly and widely.
Ronda Hauben raises the question, "The Internet: Public or
Private?" In testimony submitted to the U.S. Congress, in a proposal
for a scientific research prototype to protect the Internet as an
International Public Treasure, and in a letter to U.S. Congressman Tom
Bliley, she argues that the communications essense of the Internet
requires public protection. She also provides historical perspective
in the first installment of an analysis of the MsgGroup mailing list
that helped establish the foundation for the worldwide success of
email and communication in general using the Internet.
Robert Shaw's article documents some of the complexity and
duplicity in the battle that started as if it was over domain name
allocation and administration but is really over the control of the
Internet itself. He calls it "Herding Cats and Sacred Cows". In it he
wonders what all the talk about 'governance' is really about and says
he has "become a profound cynic about private-sector self governance."
An article in the issue by Ted Byfield takes a long range look
at the domain name system. Byfield looks at the history of telephone
call naming and numbering to suggest that the domain name problems of
today may have only a short life.
The issue also contains reports from INET98 and the IFWP meeting
in Geneva and letters from Congressman Tom Bliley to Ira Magaziner and
U.S. Secretary of Commerce William Daley. The contents help broaden
the basis to look at and understand what is at stake in the battle
over the future of the Internet.
The issue is available via email from:
jrh@ais.org
It can also be accessed at:
http://www.ais.org/~jrh/acn/ACN9-1.txt
The individual articles can be accessed at:
http://www.ais.org/~jrh/acn/acn9-1.articles/
- ---------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 23 Mar 1999 22:11:09 -0004
From: kerryo@ns.sympatico.ca (Kerry Miller)
Subject: [netz] Judiciary Committee Plans Y2K Litigation Bill Vote
www.newsbytes.com
Judiciary Committee Plans Y2K Litigation Bill Vote
WASHINGTON, DC, U.S.A., 1999 MAR 22 (Newsbytes) -- By
Robert MacMillan, Newsbytes. Senate Judiciary Committee
Chairman Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, today told Newsbytes he expects
the committee will vote Thursday on his Year 2000 litigation bill,
unless anyone "gives me any trouble about it before then."
Speaking today at an unrelated press conference, Hatch said the
Thursday markup is all but assured. He acknowledged, though,
that concerns still exist from Democrats who believe the bill
provides a loophole for businesses to ignore their Year 2000
compliance requirements, knowing they will be shielded from
immediate lawsuits.
Hatch's bill also is on a collision course for trouble because of a
rival -- and nearly identical -- measure sponsored by Senate
Commerce Committee Chairman John McCain, R-Ariz.. McCain's
legislation was forced through that committee on a strict 11-9 party-
line vote.
A source close to McCain told Newsbytes that McCain's bill, which
is awaiting debate on the Senate floor, stands a chance of being
brought up sometime after the Senate recess, which begins next
Monday and lasts for two weeks.
[...]
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 24 Mar 1999 11:46:22 -0500
From: "P.A. Gantt" <pgantt@icx.net>
Subject: [netz] Re: [webwatch] all: boiling mad at internic (fwd)
Unfortunately Network Solutions is a puppet
of the federal government (specifically the FCC)
trying to give sole source to ICANN which is attempting
to privatize the Net Domain assignments.
The danger is a non-controlled private group beyond the reach
of citizen oversight that will decide who or who does not
qualify for Net Domains.
Expect this NetWork Solutions slowdown to continue
to speed the giving away of taxpayers' Internet
to the control of this select business group, ICANN.
If you are interested in learning more join:
Telecom Regulation & the Internet
cybertelcom-l@listserv.aol.com
or
webconsultants-l
You are not alone in your anger.
Congress is receiving a record number of complaints about:
FCC
ICANN
FCC Commissioner Kennard
Deregulation of Telecoms [specifically long distance charge
agreements to the deteriment of small ISPs and ultimately consumers]
Access fees being charged by Telecoms
Telecoms creating monopolies with Cable Companies
State Internet Taxes now being imposed
> Subject: all: boiling mad at internic
>
> network solutions just screwed us big time.
>
> part of my business is hosting and designing web sites.
>
> to register a new domain name you go to network solutions, fill
> out an on line form. the output of the form is emailed back to
> you and you submit it to hostmaster@internic.net.
>
> up until now, the site at
> http://rs.internic.net
> was pretty accessible and i had no problems with it.
> now...
> their site is full of weird forms where i guess alignment and
> images guide you. well i got some of the way thru until i hit a
> script that left me on a blank screen. dead end.
>
> i have to use this site to earn a living. it was fine, now it is
> useless.
>
> i use the internet professionally. i am excellent at filling
> out even complex forms with speech, so they can't say it's me.
> i can't even find the downloadable off line forms.
>
> network solutions is an agent of the u s government.
> what can be done?
Write your Senators immediately and complain.
They are currently having hearings re: the FCC's corruption.
- --
P.A. Gantt, Computer Science Technology Instructor
Electronic Media Design and Support Homepage
http://user.icx.net/~pgantt/
mailto:pagantt@technologist.com?Subject=etech
http://horizon.unc.edu/TS/vision/1998-11.asp
~~ Jargon ~~ Any sufficiently advanced terminology
is indistinguishable from magic words. ;^P ~~ Daily Whale
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 25 Mar 1999 11:22:05 -0500 (EST)
From: Jay Hauben <jay@dorsai.org>
Subject: [netz] Request for help
Hi,
I am a student of the Free University of Brussels, Belgium. I wanted to ask to
the members of the Netizens community if they can help me to find very
interesting stuff (contacts, websites, reports,...) about the Cyber
citizenship.
Thank you very much in advance,
Nordine Hadi
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 26 Mar 1999 09:06:18 -0500 (EST)
From: Ronda Hauben <ronda@panix.com>
Subject: [netz] Re: [IFWP] then ICANN is in the fire
Bob Allisat <bob@fcn.net> writes:
>Dave "Pot, Kettle, black" Crocker says
(...)
>+ In particular, what are the 'serious operational impacts' that
>+ could develop? There is a long-standing claim that services of
>+ the type offered by NSI are fine left without special handling
>+ (oversight, assistance). To the extent that problems to such a
>+ company can have far-reaching impact on Internet operations, it
>+ would be extremely helpful to understand them before the fact.
>+ This might permit consideration of methods to avoid such fall-out.
> Gee Dave, without NSI under lock and key we'd be
> in deep trouble. However and even more importantly,
> unless ICANN is somehow stopped and dismantled we'll
> be facing an ever greater disaster than anything NSI
> could ever do. See NSI is just a company which can
> be replaced. What your blessed ICANN is attempting to
> do displace everyone else in control of the namespace,
> simultaneously attempting to control IP addressing,
> RFC generation, dispute resolution and Internet tax
> generation. Pretty heady stuff, Dave. And it gets
> ever scarier, Dave. Much more frightening, Dave.
> ICANN was founded in an unknown process and has
> decided to function in secret. The people on the
> ICANN board of directors is supposed to be an *INTERIM*
> body whose primary task is to set up the full-time,
> permanent body in consultation with the world. So
> far there are no concrete timetables for a membership,
> elections or guidlines for accountability, conflict
> of interest declarations or openess anywhere in sight.
> Further frigtheningly more this "Interim" Board is
> making some pretty darned important decisions that
> will end up costing "We the people" hundreds of
> millions of dollars. Like setting up the first
> competing Registrars to NSI. Like setting "competitive"
> standards for Net DNS Commerce. Like walzting around
> the world making deals and raising funds as if they
were the members of the Olympic's IOC! Verry scarrrry!
> These activities are being pursued by a temporary group
> with no membership, no elections, zero accountability,
> Nul conflict of Interest statutes, negative oversight
> and a history that spans, gee, maybe two months. Maybe
> the failure of NSI isn't the greatest worry we are
> facing, Dave. I'd say the success of ICANN with it's
> disturbing Pinky and the Brain schemes for world
> domination are vastly more worrying. By far. And, in
> the interests of Network stability I'd beg my humble
> audience to give that juicy ICANN pinata a few turns
> with the cyber bat. Not to mention Dave's behind for
> allowing his better judgement to be swayed by basely
> suggesting discussions of base politics to be appropriate
> from him but unacceptable and a punishable offense
> from insignificants like yours truely. But acceptable
> from ICANN shills attempting to smear NSI and anyone
> else standing in the way of their fiendish plot to
> take over the universe and all that stuff.
> NSI may have made the odd boo-boo. But it's ICANN we
> should be roasting alive in the sea of it's own crazy
> ambitions! NSI might fail and may cause some minor
> problems as a replacement is assembled. But what ICANN
> is attempting is on an entirely differant scale...
> they are trying to form an Internet world government
> by decree and a nudge and wink. In secret without the
> benifit of elections, members, rules or safeguards.
> Now THAT is something to be concerned about, Dave.
> Bob Allisat
Bob - it's important what you say in pointing out the
qualitative leap in problem for the Internet represented
by ICANN in comparison with the serious probelm that was
already represented by the fact that the NSF in its
privatizing moves put NSI into a position of making millions
off of a government contract.
And then instead of the U.S. government taking on to figure
out the problem of what it was doing with privatizing the DNS
distribution, it moved to privatize all other aspects of
the essential functioning of the Internet, compounding the
problem and making it many times worse.
However, when you say above that ICANN is functioning without
membership, it makes it seem as if a membership could
check what they are doing. That isn't true. The whole form
of the organization is a set up for and in fact is currently
creating a much worse scenario for corruption than anything
the Olympics folks or the EU could have drempt up.
So the U.S. government is setting up a body that *no* membership
or any other forms could check and oversee. To put such
fabulously rich public property as the domain names, the IP
numbers, the protocols etc into the hands of a private entity
under any condition is only an invitation for corruption,
conflict of interest and massive theft.
Thus while I agree that ICANN is a very significant problem
being created for the Internet and the world by the U.S. government,
I don't agree that any membership structure could change the
nature of that problem.
The whole conception of ICANN is fundamentally flawed. It
is embodying conflict of interest as a principle, and will
continue to do so with its membership structure if it adopts
one. The fundamental problem ICANN represents is that
it is a privatizing (though under the actual but hidden hands
of the government) of what there is no authority for the
U.S. government to privatize. And there has been *no*
discussion of examination of the issue of what is required
for these key internet functions to scale. The DNS was in
fact developed in a previous scaling of the Internet.
A new form is needed for future scalings, but ICANN is
freezing the development of the Internet by putting these
functions into private hands who are there to make profit
off of them rather than recognizing that they are essential
functions necessary for the communications functionality of the
Internet.
It is like a government taking the water supply and raffling
it off to those who will put different colors in it and then
add to the price and sell it at their whim to who they choose.
The water supply is vital to all in a society. Only a very
corrupt government (and these clearly are the state of society
these days sadly) would be considering the color of the water
as that which can be changed to have someone make money off
of it, rather than considering the health of the water and
the fact that it needs to be maintained in a public entity
that will be held accountable to any harm that comes to
the water supply of a country.
And to continue the analogy, once this government has
created sufficient dissention among the vendors vying
to get the water to sell in different colors, the government
then says that it will do the same with the roads, the
parks, the divisions that issue license plates and drivers
licenses, and any other function it can find that it
can put into the hands of vendors so they can offer these
former public services in a variety of colors and textures, etc.
The Internet is vital to all sorts of aspects of life
of the people today who have access, and many more people
want and need access.
This move to privatize these essential functions flies in the
face of any concern for the Internet and for the people
who have access or are hoping for access in the future.
It somehow shows how little understanding the press currently
provides to the public of the nature of the Internet and how little
the computer scientific community is able to speak up and support the
proper use and development of the wonders they have been able to
create.
There is a need for a proper proposal to figure out how
to deal with scaling and internationally shared protection
of these essential Internet functions. That was the purpose
and nature of the proposal I submitted at the request of
the U.S. government and which they then ignored rather than
examining with great seriousness. The proposal is still
online and it demonstrates that a process that built on
the kind of methods of creating the Internet was what was
needed to figure out how to create what was needed to
protect these essential functions. A membership organization
will help in no way (as Elaine Kamarck from the Kennedy
School of Government pointed out at the Jan. 23 meeting
of the membership committee issue at the Berkman Center).
A membership organization and ICANN are inappropriate
forms for what the tasks that need to be done and they
are only setting in motion more and more problems for
Internet users present and future.
Ronda
ronda@panix.com
http://www.columbia.edu/~rh120/other/dns_proposal.txt
Netizens: On the History and Impact
of Usenet and the Internet
http://www.columbia.edu/~hauben/netbook/
in print edition ISBN 0-8186-7706-6
------------------------------
End of Netizens-Digest V1 #291
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