🚀 go-pugleaf

Reposted from comp.internet.net-happenings:

> From: John Walker <jwalker@tor.hookup.net>
> Date: Sunday, October 05, 1997 4:29 PM
> 
> Congress May Legislate Domain Names
> 
>                      by Rebecca Vesely
>                      6:15pm  3.Oct.97.PDT
> 
> http://www.wired.com/news/news/politics/story/7427.html
> 
> The House Science Committee is considering drafting legislation to
> prevent the registration of top-level Internet domains like .com
> outside the United States, but will take no action until the Commerce
> Department puts forth its roadmap for domain names, a panel spokesman
> said today.
> 
> "If the Commerce Department recommends going offshore, then the
> committee will draft legislation to prevent that," said Quentin
> Dickerson, spokesman for Representative Chip Pickering
> (R-Mississippi), chairman of the House Science subcommittee on Basic
> Research.
> 
> This congressional flag-waving is the result of two hearings in the
> past two weeks in which members of Pickering's panel became the first
> in Congress to formally address the issue.
> 
> A system for administering the millions of Internet addresses,
> launched by the International Ad Hoc Committee in Geneva last May,
> adds seven new top-level domains - such as .store and .web - and
> creates a global body to administer domains. The committee also
> suggested administering the new system under Swiss law, an idea that
> appalled Pickering and other panel members.
> 
> "American taxpayers, companies, and government built the Internet,"
> Pickering said at the second domain-name hearing, earlier this week.
> "This is something uniquely American."
> 
> Currently, popular top-level domains like .com, .net, and .org are
> registered by Network Solutions Inc., which has administered domain
> names for the past five years through a contract with the National
> Science Foundation that ends next year. Although Network Solutions
> registers the most popular domain, there are 64 different registrars
> worldwide, and many countries are selling names under their national
> domains (such as Canada's .ca) to citizens and foreigners alike.
> 
> Don Heath, president of the Internet Society, a central player in the
> IAHC system, said the House panel is misinterpreting his plans and
> the entire domain-name registration process.
> 
> "It shows a laughable misunderstanding of the Internet," Heath said.
> 
> Heath said that the planned global oversight group, called the
> Council of Registrars, could be based in Geneva, but that this
> suggestion was by no means final. The IAHC suggested that the council
> be organized under Swiss corporate law for organizational, not
> jurisdictional, purposes.
> 
> "A likely place [for the council] is Geneva, because it is
> international, but a likely place is also New York, and a likely
> place is Herndon, Virginia, right in Network Solutions' offices,"
> Heath said.
> 
> But the issue may be moot, for several reasons.
> 
> First is the much-anticipated recommendations by the intra-agency
> task force on domain names, headed by the Commerce Department. Larry
> Irving, assistant secretary for communications and information, told
> the subcommittee last week that the group would release its
> recommendations by 1 November, and that they would not be entirely
> consistent with the IAHC plan.
> 
> Second is that the Science Committee, and Pickering, may lose
> jurisdiction over the domain issue. The House Commerce Committee
> could try to take control of the issue on the grounds that domain
> names are part of the commercial realm, a committee staffer said.
> 
> In the meantime, Heath said he had requested meetings with Pickering
> and his panel with the intent to "allay concerns" about the IAHC
> proposal. The subcommittee is expected to hold at least one more
> hearing on the issue once the Commerce Department plan is made
> public.
> 
> "[Members of Congress] take action because the Internet is in the
> public eye now, and they make decisions based on stupid assumptions,"
> Heath said. "Pickering is a respected United States congressman - you
> would think that he would know better."
> 
> --------------------
> Also in this issue:
> 
> - Civil Libertarians, Industry To Fight Gambling Bill
>     After months of waiting quietly on the sidelines, a broad range of
>     business groups, civil libertarians and free-marketeers are poised to
>     launch a high-profile effort to stop a bill that would ban gambling
>     online nationwide.
> - Symantec, McAfee say they won key points in copyright case
>     Antivirus software rivals Symantec Corp. and
>     McAfee Associates Inc. both claimed victory in key points in their
>     closely watched copyright dispute after a federal judge reviewed
>     their claims on Friday.
> - Government Presses Wireless Auction Probe
>     WASHINGTON - Justice Department investigators are pressing a probe
>     of possible bid rigging in recent federal auctions for wireless
>     telephone licenses, sources familiar with the matter say.
> - Sprint Offering Internet Security Device
>     KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Sprint said it teamed up with Security Dynamics
>     Technologies to offer a security identification device to guard
>     against un-authorized access to computer networks.
> - WorldCom/MCI deal may improve Internet access at higher cost
>     If WorldCom Inc. succeeds in its $35 billion takeover of MCI
>     Communications Corp., Internet access is likely to improve, but the
>     deal could accelerate a trend toward higher prices, analysts said on
>     Friday.
> - Microsoft distributes 1.2 million browsers
>     SEATTLE (October 3, 1997 8:15 p.m. EDT http://www.nando.net) -
>     Microsoft Corp. said Friday it distributed 1.2 million copies of its
>     latest Internet browser during the first two days of availability.
> - Congress May Legislate Domain Names
>     The House Science Committee is considering drafting legislation to
>     prevent the registration of top-level Internet domains like .com
>     outside the United States, but will take no action until the Commerce
>     Department puts forth its roadmap for domain names, a panel spokesman
>     said today.
> - New Lists and Journals
>     1) Kluwer Academic Publishers/OCLC
>     2) Wiley InterScience
>     3) Journal of Fluid Mechanics
>     4) Journal of Functional Programming
>     5) Journal of Latin American Studies
>     6) Journal of the London Mathematical Society
>     7) The Journal of Modern African Studies
>     8) Journal of Plasma Physics
>     9) Journal of Social Policy
>    10) Mathematical Structures in Computer Science
>    11) Share International
>    12) Pig Meat
> 
> Tomorrow
> 
> - Gates Visit Timed to Steal Tories' thunder
>     WHEN Bill Gates, the multi-billionaire president of Microsoft, flies
>     into Britain this week to shake hands with Tony Blair, it will be a
>     visit shrouded in secrecy to equal that afforded to any head of
>     state.
> - Is surfing tying up your phone? Pagoo delivers messages on-line
>     My favorite new program -- this week, anyway -- is called Pagoo. It
>     rhymes with "Magoo." Pagoo uses the Internet to drop voice-mail
>     messages on your computer's desktop while you are on-line. 
> - Net is chock full of Woodworking sites -- even for 'Neanderthals'
>     Even the best newsstands carry only a handful of woodworking
>     publications, but the World Wide Web has blossomed into a rich
>     collection of how-to articles, how-not-to articles, advertisements
>     and commentary on all manner of tools, schools, techniques, hardware
>     and accessories. 
> - Newspapers battle to protect ads from high-technology rivals
>     TORONTO -- Canadian and U.S. newspapers are locked in combat with
>     Microsoft Corp. for the choicest part of their business -- classified
>     advertising -- which generates half their annual revenue of more than
>     $40 billion U.S. 
> - Netscape to debut Extranet Proxy Server
>     The Proxy Server 3.5 provides advanced filtering, authentication and
>     local caching capabilities to make copies of content accessible to
>     partners and customers in a protected manner.
> - New Lists and Journals
>     * AFS - Advanced Freedom Solutions
>     * Folklore - Folksworth Village Magazine
>     * VHF7-L - Virtual Home Fellowship, 7th Day
>     * AgSciNews-L
>     * success-list - COACHING SUCCESS FOR YOUR BUSINESS OR PROFESSION
>     * CVASCULAR - Angiologia y Cirugia Vascular
>     * INVESTEN - Investigacion en Enfermeria
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> 
> 
> 


--
####    |\^/|     Colin R. Leech     ag414 or crleech@freenet.carleton.ca
#### _|\|   |/|_  Civil engineer by training, transport planner by choice.
#### >         <  Opinions are my own. You may consider them shareware.
####  >_./|\._<   "If you can't return a favour, pass it on." - A.L. Brown