FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

March 23, 1998

CORE Submits Response to U.S. Government Green Paper Plan For Domain Name Regulation

Recommends Ten Steps for Ending the Monopoly on March 31, Immediate Transition to New Era of Competition

WASHINGTON -- The Internet Council of Registrars (CORE), the non-profit organization created by leaders of the Internet community to administer the registration of new domain names, today submitted its official response to the Green Paper released Jan. 30 by the U.S. Department of Commerce.

In preparing its response to the Green Paper, CORE sought the input of its members from throughout the world, international organizations, Internet experts and other stakeholders in this phenomenon known as the Internet, according to Alan Hanson, chairman of the executive committee of CORE.

"In the eyes of the world Internet community, the Internet doesn?t need a plan for the U.S. Government to get out of domain name oversight, since it hasn?t been involved there before," Hanson said. "It just needs the U.S. Government to step aside quietly and allow the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) to become a private, non-profit U.S. corporation managing the DNS as it has for more than 15 years. The Internet can then manage its own affairs through global consensus and cooperation with the support of existing volunteer organizations, industry groups, task forces and societies."

The CORE response itemizes ten steps the international Internet community believes can be taken immediately and with utmost confidence to ensure the future success of the Domain Name System (DNS) in a global, deregulated framework, without U.S. Government involvement. The full text of the CORE response is available on its Web site (www.gtld-mou.org).

"The overriding issue is that the stated purpose of the Green Paper is to get the U.S. Government out of the Internet, yet it proposes a plethora of regulations, requirements and mechanisms that make it more deeply involved than ever before," Hanson said. "The plan perpetuates a monopoly, ignores the International nature of the Internet and delays the natural evolution that is well underway."

The major concerns CORE identified with the Green Paper include:

• Perpetuating and consolidating the Network Solutions monopoly
• Creating new unregulated monopolies for single Top Level Domains (TLDs), with the potential for price fixing and gouging, rather than creating a not-for-profit registry to operate in the public trust with multiple TLDs
• Manipulating the market by attempting to control the number and rate of introduction of new Top Level Domains
• Proposing new regulatory processes while ignoring existing International mechanisms created during a bottom-up approach over the past 18 months with broad global consensus
• Dictating the structure of a proposed new corporation with authority over the Root server
• Attempting to establish technical standards
• Proposing a dispute resolution process that would cause confusion, create worldwide chaos and a full-employment act for trademark attorneys
• Ignoring a fast, efficient and cost-effective dispute resolution process that already exists through the World Intellectual Property Organization
• Attempting to unilaterally regulate the international DNS system without proper authority, setting up the potential for legal and commercial challenges from throughout the world (Some in the international Internet community view the Green Paper as an unlawful attempt by the U.S. government to claim ownership of, and impose U.S. jurisdiction over, the global Internet)

The U.S. Government has been a silent financial partner in the DNS. Its has funded activities for administering the authoritative root server through the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority and Network Solutions, Inc. (NSI). IANA has managed the DNS for some 15 years without government oversight. IANA has proposed a transition plan, which is widely supported and moving forward in the Internet tradition -- without the need for government involvement.

"The U.S. government, as the champion of free enterprise, can facilitate and speed the transition by making one of the most difficult decisions facing any regulatory body: ending, rather than initiating, government involvement," Hanson said.

TEN STEPS TO SELF GOVERNANCE AND COMPETITION

Based on input from Internet and regulatory experts around the world, CORE recommended ten steps that can be taken for immediate transition to self-governance and competition. The steps are:

1. Recognize the existing IANA as the ultimate authority over the Root; allow it to continue operating as it has historically with no involvement of the U.S. Government and to evolve to a not-for-profit corporation with global consensus and without government hindrance

2. Create a board of directors for IANA from the world Internet community, based on the open, consensus-building process and standards promulgated by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), Internet Architectural Board (IAB), Internet Engineering Steering Group (IESG) and the Internet Society (ISOC), without government involvement

3. Fund the new corporation through fees from domain name registries, regional registries, registrars and other mechanisms approved by its board; specifically exclude governmental funding

4. For future administration and marketing of the Domain Name System (DNS), IANA would oversee a two-tiered structure: a non-profit Registry for the administration of new generic Top Level Domains (gTLDs) and country codes; and Registrars, either for-profit or not-for-profit, which will provide retail registration services to registrants worldwide in a competitive environment (NOTE: a shared registry can handle multiple gTLDs. This ensures that the DNS is operated in the public trust and without the potential for ownership of gTLDs through new, parallel monopolies)

5. Through the IANA board of directors, use the Internet Standards Process as outlined in RFC 2026 to establish technical and other standards for Registries based on the goals of: technical excellence; prior implementation and testing; clear, concise and easily understood documentation; openness and fairness; timeliness; and ethical standards as outlined in the gTLD Memorandum of Understanding (www.gtld-mou.org)

6. Use the gTLD-MoU and CORE MoU as the foundations for ethical standards to be agreed to by all Registries and Registrars; encourage comment and maintain an open process for its ongoing evolution and improvement

7. IANA completes its commitment under the gTLD-MoU and immediately adds seven new gTLDs to the Root and administers registration through the Shared Registry System (SRS) developed by the non-profit CORE Registry and currently undergoing acceptance testing; add more gTLDs as approved by IANA

8. To encourage stability, efficiencies, economies of scale and common standards among registries, CORE can provide Registry services to other gTLD Registries and country codes; CORE intends to make its SRS software available to any other non-profit organizations approved by IANA as a Registry for TLDs

9. The U.S. Government should end the Network Solutions, Inc., monopoly on March 31, 1998. IANA can then determine how Registry services will be administered for the gTLDs of .com, .org and .net without offering further monopoly protection or favored treatment to NSI

10. Immediately convert .com, .org and .net registry services to not-for-profit status; require that these gTLDs be operated through a SRS open to competing registrars on a cost recovery basis and operate within the same standards as all other registries; and require that NSI immediately hand over the authoritative Root database, the IP address subnet containing all of its Root servers and all coordination of the Root server network to the control of IANA (NSI could use CORE for the non-profit Registry functions while continuing as a for-profit Registrar)

Operating under a global constitution and set of standards, CORE currently lists 87 registrars in 23 countries, including 24 in the United States with a presence in more than 100 American cities. Its Shared Registry System and Domain Name Service are deployed on computer systems around the world. The new names, or generic Top Level Domains

(gTLDs), CORE proposes to administer as a non-profit Registry include .firm, .shop, .web, .arts, .rec, .info and .nom

###

For further information and a full text of the CORE response to the Green Paper, see the CORE Web sites (www.core.gtld-mou.org or www.gtld-mou.org) or call:

Greg Hurst (ghurst@link.freedom.com)
CORE communications representative
714-253-2357

Tom Gable (tomg@gablegroup.com)
Dianne Gleason (dianne@gablegroup.com)
The Gable Group
619.234.1300

Judy Whittlesey (judithhw@aol.com)
Clarkson Hine (cchine@aol.com)
Catharine Dickey
Sheila O'Neil
Susan Davis International
202.408.0808