ANNOUNCE: Berkman Center Analysis of Proposed ICANN Agreements

["Ben Edelman" <edelman@law.harvard.edu>]

Affiliates of the Berkman Center for Internet and Society have been
reviewing the recently-announced Tentative Agreements among ICANN, the U.S.
Department of Commerce, and Network Solutions, Inc.  We've focused our
analysis on the text of the Fact Sheet, locating text in the various
agreements that relates to the facts, and occasionally providing our own
analysis and questions.  We hope ultimately to provide a useful roadmap
(among many others from diverse sources) to the documents, which behind
their legal language amount to sweeping policy for the legacy domain name
system and the relationships among its current major parties.

Our work in progress as it stands is at
<http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/icann/fall99contracts/>.  We've also provided
a threaded discussion space there (accessible via the web, email, and NNTP),
and we'll be updating the page frequently as we continue to examine the
documents.  Comments and critiques -- the more specific the better -- are
welcomed and solicited.


Ben Edelman
Berkman Center for Internet and Society
Harvard Law School