Appropriation of InterNIC identity by Network Solutions, Inc.

[David Moles <deivu@tomigaya.shibuya.tokyo.jp>]

To:
    Interim Chairman Esther Dyson
    Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers 
    (comments@icann.org)

    Secretary William M. Daley
    U.S. Departmentt of Commerce 
    (wdaley@doc.gov)

Dear Ms. Dyson and Mr. Daley:

I am writing to express my concern at the recent decision of Network
Solutions, Inc. to redirect Internet connections from www.internic.net
to its own corporate site at www.networksolutions.com. 

Rightly or wrongly, the InterNIC (perhaps because it was originally
sponsored by the National Science Foundation) has come to stand as a
public utility, an impartial, authoritative source of Internet domain
name information. No commercial entity should be allowed to
appropriate that reputation. The privatization of Internet domain name
registry was not meant to be an opportunity for one former NSF
contractor, NSI, to turn an accidental monopoly on delivery of a
public service into a purposeful monopoly on delivery of a commercial
product.

I applaud the decision of the US government to encourage competition
in private domain name registry, and I submit that NSI's attempt to
use the public image and "mindshare" of the public InterNIC market its
own commercial services is a clear attempt to distort and undermine
that policy. NSI will have enough of an advantage in name recognition
and experience when the ICANN's new system goes into effect; it should
not be allowed to further that advantage by decieving the public.

Its actions are plainly not in the spirit of the new, competitive, and
open domain name registration process, and if it does not demonstrate
good Internet citizenship in this matter, it should not be allowed to
participate in that process. NSI should be required to immediately
restore the InterNIC site and remove all NSI-related marketing
material from that site. If it does not do so, it should be barred
from registering domain names under the new ICANN system.

Sincerely,

David Moles
San Francisco, CA