By Nick Patience
The fall-out continues following Network Solutions Inc redirect of the InterNic site to its own site over the weekend. But the company points out that the separate cooperative agreement that governed the InterNic specifically, expired in April 1998, so it believes it was free to do as it pleased with the InterNic site.
However, most in the internet community beyond NSI and the government were completely unaware of that fact and it appears the InterNic now only comprises the registration services part of the system, for which NSI was responsible. Therefore it is not surprising, perhaps, that NSI views the InterNic registry and registrar services as its own. The cooperative agreement that NSI signed with the US Department of Commerce in October last year only dealt with the registration services, following AT&T’s exit from the scene earlier that year. From 1993 to 1998 AT&T supplied directory services to the InterNic, but they are no longer part of the InterNic service, according to NSI.
Mike Roberts, president of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) wonders if the redirect raises issues about NSI’s October amendment agreement, though there is no specific mention of the InterNic in the amendment. The InterNic was established in 1993 by the US National Science Foundation and its operation was contracted out to NSI and AT&T Corp. The telephone company was not exactly certain, but it seems it has definitely given de facto control of the InterNic trademark to the US government, although it is still registered in the name of AT&T.
