http://mediafilter.org/caq/internic
by John Dillon
THE INTERNET IS CHANGING
FROM A PUBLIC RESOURCE TO A LUCRATIVE
OPERATION INFLUENCED BY SPOOKS AND FORMER PENTAGON OFFICIALS.
OPEN ACCESS AND INFORMATION ARE INCREASINGLY CONTROLLED.
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The Internet, the mother of all networks, is a sprawling
congregation of connected computers; almost anyone is welcome, almost
anything goes. Now, one private company with strong ties to the defense and intelligence agencies has become the prime gatekeeper
and toll-taker for the millions navigating the maze. Network Solutions Inc. (NSI) of Herndon, Va., has
the government-granted monopoly to issue "domain names'' electronic
addresses like used to route e-mail and steer traffic through the
increasingly commercialized World Wide Web. |
NSI's spook connections and its lead role in
the privatization of the Internet have raised alarms. Net activists were outraged by the firm's September 1995 decision to
charge $100 a year to register new addresses and $50 a year to renew old
ones. Later, NSI stirred up even more anger when it
began removing the addresses of the thousands who refused to pay. The company
also has been sued half a dozen times over its
policy to give trademark holders priority when a domain name is in dispute. WHO'S IN CHARGE |
questions of who controls and regulates the
Internet. Although physically decentralized with millions of computers linked
around the globe the Net is in fact hierarchically
organized. Anyone on the planet who wants an Internet address ending with one
of the popular suffixes .com, .edu, .org, .net, or .gov
must register the domain name with the This domain name
system allows people to substitute user -friendly names such as |
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"ibm.com" for the real Internet Protocol (IP)
addresses: hard-to-remember numerical strings like "198.106.242.7".
When you enter an address in your web browser like "mediafilter.org/caq"
to get this magazine's site your computer first
accesses a "name server.'' The server then returns the unique numeric IP
address which your browser uses to find the
appropriate place on the Web. Critics say there is
no good reason why Network Solutions should have a monopoly franchise on
registering the |
user-friendly domain names. But NSI has a great reason: By
controlling the keys to prime Internet real estate, it has staked out a
phenomenally lucrative business. Although the company does not release
financial figures, the Internet's astronomical growth fueled
by the tens of thousands of businesses coming on line each month has
triggered an explosion in domain name registrations. In March alone, about
45,000 names were registered, a 25 percent increase over February. NSI made an estimated $20 million |
in the six months from September 1995 to March
1996 from annual registration fees, with an additional $40 million projected
for the next six months. "I would think
they're making an obscene profit,'' said Karl Denniger,
head of Macro
Computer Solutions Inc., a Chicago-based Internet provider that
wants to enter the domain name business. "Their monopoly of this isn't
really legally defensible," said Stanton McCandlish,
an activist with the Electronic Frontier Foundation in |
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CONTROLLING
INFORMATION In September 1995, NSI instituted the fee system. |
A few months earlier, it had been bought out
by Science Applications International Corp. (SAIC).
This privately held company with 20,000 employees and 450 offices around the
globe has close ties to the Defense Department and
intelligence agencies. Its current board of directors includes former
National Security Agency chief Bobby Inman, former Defense
Secretary Melvin Laird, and the former head of research and development for
the Pentagon, Donald Hicks. Ex-CIA Director Robert Gates, Secretary of Defense William Perry, and CIA Director John Deutch have been past members. Eighty-three percent of
the company's $2 billion annual revenue< |
comes from government contracts, including defense, intelligence, and law enforcement contracts. It
is designing new information systems for the Pentagon, helping to automate
the FBI's computerized fingerprint identification system, and last year won a
$200 million contract to provide "information support'' to the Internal
Revenue Service. Some of these
contracts, along with the company's strong intelligence and defense links, raise fears that SAIC
will abuse the information it controls through its key "I don't want a
spook corporation,particularly a private spook
corporation, |
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to be anywhere near a control point on the
global cooperative Internet,'' said James Warren, a writer and Internet civil
liberties activist. But McCandlish
of the Electronic Frontier Foundation described SAIC's
ownership of Network Solution as a "non issue.'' "The Internet
itself was a Defense Advanced Research Project
Agency project. It's been true for a long time. It's not some big secret.'' PUTTING A HOLD ON
NAMES |
NSI's policy on domain name disputes. For a
long time, names were registered on a first come, first
served basis. But then some quick-buck artists
realized they could register domain names related to famous trademarks and
sell the name back to the owner, a process known as trademark hijacking. In
response, NSI instituted a policy that gives
trademark owners priority in claiming a domain name over someone who has
already registered it. While the domain names are in dispute, the company can
put the disputed name "on hold," so that it can't be used until |
the issue is settled. The company's dispute
policy has swung too far to protect trademark owners at the expense of
legitimate domain name holders, critics say. They note that trademark law
allows different companies to share the same name McDonald's hamburgers and
McDonald's widgets, for example. And they say NSI is ruling on legal questions, such as who owns the
name and what it can be used for, without legal authority. "They are serving
as legislators, administrators, judges, juries, |
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and executioners,'' said Kathryn Kleiman, a lawyer and organizer of the Domain
Name Rights Coalition, a non-profit organization that lobbies
Congress on domain name issues. The company's policy
created major headaches for a New Mexico Internet service named Roadrunner
Computer Systems, for example, which used the address for itself and for its
customers' e-mail. But last year Warner Bros., which
produces Road Runner cartoons and holds a trademark by the same name, tried
to establish exclusive rights. Roadrunner Computer Systems obtained a court
order barring Network Solutions from putting its |
name on hold. CHALLENGING THE
MONOPOLY Paul
Garrin, a |
established around the world, you
could locate web sites listed by any chosen name. "We would no longer be restricted to top-level domain,
such as .com or .edu," Garrin said.
"Under the existing system, there's an artificial shortage of domain
names driven by InterNIC's desire to control. By
adding new suffixes such as .mag, .inc, .press, for example, numerous
companies could use their own names." They could also eliminate NSI's monopoly control. "We're
de-territorializing the Internet and bringing it back to the real ideal of
virtual space with no national borders,'' he said. |
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