---------- Forwarded message ----------
X-FC-URL: Fight-Censorship is at http://www.eff.org/~declan/fc/
Date: Thu, 10 Jul 1997 07:48:05 -0700 (PDT)
From: Declan McCullagh <declan@well.com>
Sender: owner-fight-censorship-announce@vorlon.mit.edu
To: fight-censorship-announce@vorlon.mit.edu
Subject: FC: Domain names and "The Network $olution", from The Netly News
***********
http://pathfinder.com/netly/opinion/0,1042,1155,00.html
The Netly News Network (http://netlynews.com)
July 10, 1997
The Network $olution
by Declan McCullagh (declan@well.com)
It could have been the perfect way to liberate the Net from the
much-reviled monopoly of Network Solutions Inc., the company that
handles almost all U.S. domain name registrations. Backed by
well-regarded groups such as the Internet Society, the seven-page
proposal promised to reduce prices, increase choices -- and best of
all, really put the screws to everyone's least favorite domain name
registrar.
But a month before the curtain is set to lift on a host of new
domains to supplement .com and .org, the ambitious plan suddenly seems
as doomed as the recently extirpated Communications Decency Act. Not
only did just one government, Albania, sign the "Memorandum of
Understanding" (MoU), but the U.S. actively opposed it. So did Network
Solutions, after they realized with gut-wrenching dismay the
consequences of losing their lucrative monopoly on .com.
Yesterday another group of MoU critics met in Washington to form
the Open Internet Congress, which hopes to wrest control of Net
governance from "hobbyists" and "volunteers" and haul it into the
mainstream. "I don't want a bunch of volunteers playing around and
trying to run the show. I don't want petty battles over who's in
charge and who's keeping the lights on," says Andrew Sernovitz, the
president of the Association for Interactive Media, which organized
the summit. Sernovitz envisions a ruthlessly commercialized cyberspace
that's safe for companies like IBM, Intel, NBC and Time Warner
(Netly's corporate big brother) that cough up $9,000 a year to be
governing members of AIM.
The talk yesterday was of revolution. Sernovitz spoke about
holding an Internet "Constitutional Convention" this fall. He passed
out supportive columns quoting from "Common Sense" by Thomas Paine. I
even heard folks call the MoU the move that will spark the online
equivalent of the Boston Tea Party. (Led, presumably, by firms like
Time Warner? Since that media giant also owns CNN, you can be sure the
revolution will indeed be televised.)
[...]
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
This list is public. To join fight-censorship-announce, send
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More information is at http://www.eff.org/~declan/fc/
X-FC-URL: Fight-Censorship is at http://www.eff.org/~declan/fc/
Date: Thu, 10 Jul 1997 07:48:05 -0700 (PDT)
From: Declan McCullagh <declan@well.com>
Sender: owner-fight-censorship-announce@vorlon.mit.edu
To: fight-censorship-announce@vorlon.mit.edu
Subject: FC: Domain names and "The Network $olution", from The Netly News
***********
http://pathfinder.com/netly/opinion/0,1042,1155,00.html
The Netly News Network (http://netlynews.com)
July 10, 1997
The Network $olution
by Declan McCullagh (declan@well.com)
It could have been the perfect way to liberate the Net from the
much-reviled monopoly of Network Solutions Inc., the company that
handles almost all U.S. domain name registrations. Backed by
well-regarded groups such as the Internet Society, the seven-page
proposal promised to reduce prices, increase choices -- and best of
all, really put the screws to everyone's least favorite domain name
registrar.
But a month before the curtain is set to lift on a host of new
domains to supplement .com and .org, the ambitious plan suddenly seems
as doomed as the recently extirpated Communications Decency Act. Not
only did just one government, Albania, sign the "Memorandum of
Understanding" (MoU), but the U.S. actively opposed it. So did Network
Solutions, after they realized with gut-wrenching dismay the
consequences of losing their lucrative monopoly on .com.
Yesterday another group of MoU critics met in Washington to form
the Open Internet Congress, which hopes to wrest control of Net
governance from "hobbyists" and "volunteers" and haul it into the
mainstream. "I don't want a bunch of volunteers playing around and
trying to run the show. I don't want petty battles over who's in
charge and who's keeping the lights on," says Andrew Sernovitz, the
president of the Association for Interactive Media, which organized
the summit. Sernovitz envisions a ruthlessly commercialized cyberspace
that's safe for companies like IBM, Intel, NBC and Time Warner
(Netly's corporate big brother) that cough up $9,000 a year to be
governing members of AIM.
The talk yesterday was of revolution. Sernovitz spoke about
holding an Internet "Constitutional Convention" this fall. He passed
out supportive columns quoting from "Common Sense" by Thomas Paine. I
even heard folks call the MoU the move that will spark the online
equivalent of the Boston Tea Party. (Led, presumably, by firms like
Time Warner? Since that media giant also owns CNN, you can be sure the
revolution will indeed be televised.)
[...]
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
This list is public. To join fight-censorship-announce, send
"subscribe fight-censorship-announce" to majordomo@vorlon.mit.edu.
More information is at http://www.eff.org/~declan/fc/