InterNIC / Network Solutions Public Database Access

[Jane & Helmut Hirsch <h-domain@ix.netcom.com>]

Ladies & Gentlemen,

We are under the impression that InterNIC / Network Solutions has or has
had the contract to maintain for the TLD's .COM + .NET + .ORG the
registry / registration (registrar?) and the attached database. We
understand that the contract was for 5 years and expired some time ago
but was mutually extended between the NSF and the InterNIC / Network
Solutions organisation until someone else would be assigned these three
TLD's. In the interim they were supposed to maintain the database for
these three TLD's for the public benefit(?).

So far we have always been able to access the public database for the
three TLD's but as of Saturday, March 20, 1999 it seems to have been
shut down for the public at the InterNIC / Network Solutions site
without any reference where else one can access the database.*

We have also heard rumors that Network Solutions considers the database
their proprietary asset, not belonging to the public - who in our
opinion paid and every time they pay $70. for two years still pays for
it. So the shutout is very annoying and disruptive to us the public.

Please look into this and let me know what rights, if any, we the
internet public have left, and what status you have - as the successor
to IANA, etc. - to keep access to the database public.

*In the past they had posted a once a week shutdown, I believe,
Wednesday nights from 12:00 midnight till 3:00 am, to upgrade unless I
am mistaken that some other organisation updates their databases or does
software maintenance that way. InterNIC - the portion Network Solutions
seem to shed from its totally revamped site - was of course updated
daily - usually around 3 pm eastern time - and after that one could
always check if one's registration was active or not. If InterNIC is now
independent and separate from Network Solutions, Inc. then all it would
take to place a notice on Network Solutions' site and refer us there. It
is understandable that Network Solutions wants to promote itself with
their services for "WE are the dot com people" and "Get your dot com
e-mail here," etc. but they have not prepared the public sufficiently -
as far as I can find out - to redirect us, the public, to the services
they have performed for the public. 

Thanks for your time,

Helmut Hirsch

Where can I register to make sure I will be updated on the progress you,
ICANN, are making getting the internet back to where it was prior to the
confusion created between the demise of IANA, and all associated with it
and also the transition from NSF to InterNIC and its ultimate
resolution, including the WIPO incursion to have the internet under the
control of the intellectual property owners and the trademark people -
by appearance at the detriment of all the other internet users?