Re: ISPs as stakeholders

[Jim Dixon <jdd@matthew.uk1.vbc.net>]

On Tue, 2 Dec 1997, Kent Crispin wrote:

> On Mon, Dec 01, 1997 at 10:45:20PM +0000, Jim Dixon wrote:
> [...]
> > *	CORE's byzantine legal defenses get dismantled:
> 
> Just out of curiosity, what happens to Nominet if someone lands a 
> successful $100,000,000 lawsuit against it? 

It goes out of business.  

Because it is operating an important monopoly, I suspect that the 
courts would turn over its assets (cash, equipment) to the successful 
plaintiff, and then organize some legal successor.

What happens when a water company is sued successfully?  Do people 
just not get any more water until another company lays new pipes?

> What happens to name registrations if CORE is crushed by a lawsuit, 
> or is enjoined from undertaking more registrations because of the 
> actions of a single registrar?  What happens to the stability of the 
> net if some court in Virginia is persuaded that CORE should be 
> prevented from distributing whois information, or zone updates?

Believe it or not, the Net will continue functioning whether or not
people can register names in .firm and .store - or is it .shop?


You seem to be suggesting, not arguing, that CORE should have a special
legal status, or perhaps that their byzantine legal appartus is
justifiable because the normal legal system doesn't recognize CORE's
overwhelming importance.

There are at least two ways to deal with this:

*	CORE could be given immunity from prosecution by some state;
	the quid pro quo would be at least heavy regulation or perhaps
	conversion into a government agency

*	the alternative is the normal Internet way of handling risk:
	there should be several or many (g)TLD registries, so that if
	we lose one, the others can just carry on

Nominet's solution is to run their business well and trust to the legal
system.  This is in fact how most of the world's vital resources are run:
hospitals, airports, railways, power plants, water companies.

On the other hand, I personally do not understand why anyone would do 
business with a company that operates behind such elaborate legal 
barriers.  In its present form no one has any remedy if CORE misbehaves; 
they have to trust to the honesty of a group of entrepreneurs who do 
business out of an impregnable fortress in a far-away land.

--
Jim Dixon                                                 Managing Director
VBCnet GB Ltd                http://www.vbc.net        tel +44 117 929 1316
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