The Government Interest in Domain Names and the Case of .US

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The Government Interest in Domain Names   and the Case of .US 

Brian Kahin

Director, Center for Information Policy

Visiting Professor, College of Information Studies

University of Maryland 

Committee on Internet Navigation and the Domain Name System

Computer Science and Telecommunications Board

National Research Council

November 5, 2001

      Harvard/NSF meeting at AWP (1995) CIX/ISOC meeting (1996) proposal to auction gTLDs 00oordinating the Internet00/font> Interagency Working Group (1997) .us subgroup USPS white paper on .us (1998) 00 Plan for .us: The Digital Opportunity Trust00(2000)      

value of domain names 

recognition trademark-like generic credential location .us locality-based structure longitude and latitude directories mapping (ENUM, URNs, street addresses)      

domain names as 00uper-trademarks00/i> 

Unlike trademarks, domain names are

unique global cheap and automatic unlimited as to subject matter generic      

chronology 

1988 DARPA-ISI contract (IANA services) 1993 NSF-NSI cooperative agreement 1995 cooperative agreement changed to user fee basis 1996 Postel plan, POC-CORE 1997 Interagency Working Group 1998 Green Paper, White Paper, ICANN      

transition of responsibility for DNS 

NTIA           NSI 

NSF            NSI 

management 

NTIA     ICANN 

DARPA ISI/IANA 

policy 

1998 

1993

     

Models 

IANA IETF telecom-style unbundling of regulated services Framework for Global Electronic Commerce private sector leadership governmental restraint      

IANA

ARPA contract 

[new]

funded by

cooperative

agreement 

[new]

independent 

NSI

NSF cooperative

agreement 

competing

registrars 

open

registry/ies

independent but

subject to [IANA] oversight 

open

registry/ies

legitimized by

cooperative agreement(s) 

1997 

transition 

post-transition 

competing

registrars 

competitive   

centralized

     

policy development problems 

lack of transition mechanism international nature of gTLDs 00ascading impatience00

DARPA > NSF > ECWG

failure to address financial model NSI00 monopoly position incentive to tax country-code domains use of administrative process (registry competition) to generate revenue path-dependent institutionalization      

ICANN 

paradox of speed and accountability private leadership was supposed to be fast government was supposed to be slow financing motivates policy vulnerability to litigation antitrust unlawful delegation a noble experiment? a highly visible test case jury still out on other self-regulatory efforts: privacy, content00/font>      

.us contract to NeuStar   

.com business model (high volume sales) ignores auctions in favor of lotteries two levels: trademark owners & everybody else no sequencing in the face of pent-up demand small advisory council, but no direct accountability promise to explore directories awards both policy and registry functions to single for-profit entity      

and now .us 

NTIA           Neustar 

NTIA  Neustar 

2001     .us 

NTIA           NSI  

NSF            NSI 

management 

NTIA     ICANN 

DARPA ISI/IANA 

policy 

1998 

1993  

     

lessons from .us 

lack of interest in technical opportunities in .us .us as another gTLD reluctance to acknowledge property interests downplaying of policy (use of contract) improper delegation? What about the FCC?

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