Re: (?) Standards set for registering Net domain names

[jeff Williams <jwkckid1@ix.netcom.com>]

Dean and all,

  Mercy sakes, we and you and Bob all agreeing!  I shall mark this
on my calendar!!!!  WOW!
(See below your comments Dean for more of ours)

Dean Robb wrote:

> At 20:28 3/8/99 -0500, Bob Allisat wrote:
> >http://www.sjmercury.com/breaking/docs/057286.htm ...
> >> The initial accreditation guidelines called for applicants to
> >> have $100,000 in liquid capital, $500,000 in liability insurance,
> >> a proven computer infrastructure and at least five employees.
> >> Esther Dyson, interim chairwoman of the group's board, said that
> >> in relaxing the guidelines the board would allow exceptions to
> >> some of the standards.
> >
> > And how does any non-profit group, individual,
> > small business or charity fit into this picture?
> > Answer: they don't. Domain Name Registries like
> > our embrionic Free Community Network are entirely
> > shut out of this plan. Also... what is an interim
> > Board doing setting policies with potentially such
> > wide ranging effects? Who elected them, where are
> > the members, what accountability or records exist
> > for these decisions? In order: no-one elected these
> > people, there is no membership, no accountability
> > and all decisions are made in secret. Sounds like
> > a recipe for Olympian stature disaster to me...
>
> Somebody call CNN....Mr. Allistat and I agree!
>
> These guidelines are discriminatory and would (IANAL) survive a legal
> challenge.

  I think you mean that these guidelines (ICANN's Accreditation Guidelines)
Would not survive a legal challenge, don't you Dean?

> Who's to say that I can't run a perfectly good registration
> service with 3 employees?

  No one should be.  In fact we are working on a easy solution to that
problem.  Stay tuned, or post to me privately in a few days...

>
> Do these employees have to know anything, or can I have myself and 4 dock
> workers to qualify?
>
> Why do I have to have a huge amount of cash ("liquid capital") sitting
> around?

  In short you don't and most likely should not, as a potential small
business, having capitol that is not working capitol (Cash) is a very
unwise idea, and we agree that this ICANN requirement in their
"Accreditation Guidelines" is onerous indeed, as I posted on earlier.

>
> How many small businesses have a hundred grand gathering dust?  What about
> non-US companies?

  Very few!  And if they do, they are not managing their finances very
well.

> Do they have to have the equivilant of $100k at any
> certain point in time or are they subject to the whims of the international
> currency exchange rates?

  Very good question Dean!!!  >;)  Especially given the advent of the EURO!
This illustrates the short sightedness of the ICANN "Accreditation Guidelines".

But again, we [INEGroup] warned of this some months ago now as well...

>
>
> What about the "proven computer infrastructure"?  What qualifies?

  Good question(s) as well.,  It appears that this will be arbitrarily
determined
by the ICANN board??  <Shrug>  Go figure!

> I can
> demonstrate that my system (including modem) have not suffered a serious
> crash in 2 years...is that "proven computer infrastructure"?  Proven to
> whom?

  Again good points here as well.

>
>
> Plainly put, these "guidelines" are bullshit.  Intended to ensure that
> already-established "players" are the only qualified applicants.

  It does have that appearance, doesn't it?

>
>
> The question I have is what can we do?  NTIA seems particularly
> unresponsive to anyone's complaints about ICANN'S actions/plans/goals.
> What's required, sitting down with Vice President Gore and begging for him
> to do something?  It's all well and good for us to bitch, but what can we
> realistically do to stop ICANN?

  There is plenty!  Post to me privately on this later.

>
>
> "Small minds can only contemplate small ideas".....Unknown
>
> Dean Robb
> Owner, PC-EASY
> (757) 495-EASY [3279]
> On-site computer repair, upgrades and consultations
> Read my game reviews/columns in SimOps on WWW.TheGamers.Net
>
>

Regards,


--
Jeffrey A. Williams
CEO/DIR. Internet Network Eng/SR. Java/CORBA Development Eng.
Information Network Eng. Group. INEG. INC.
E-Mail jwkckid1@ix.netcom.com
Contact Number:  972-447-1894
Address: 5 East Kirkwood Blvd. Grapevine Texas 75208