IP: European Domain Operators Refuse to Pay Bills

[Dave Farber <farber () cis upenn edu>]

http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/00/06/cyber/articles/07domain.html

June 7, 2000
European Domain Operators Refuse to Pay Bills
By JERI CLAUSING


WASHINGTON -- In the latest setback for the Internet's new private 
management authority, a coalition of companies and nonprofit groups that 
run 30 so-called country-code domains in Europe this weekend voted to 
ignore the nearly $1 million in bills they have been sent.
Members of the coalition said they objected to the way the private 
authority, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, was 
levying the fees and also to the lack of any formal agreement about what 
control Icann will ultimately will have over their domain-name registration 
businesses.

"We just feel that they shouldn't send out invoices without agreements," 
said Fay Howard, general manager of the Council of European National 
Top-Level Domain Registries, which met in Norway over the weekend. "There 
are two sides to any contract. We feel before any authority is ceded to 
Icann, we need to have something in place."