Re: Anti-trust Investigation of Network Solutions (fwd)

[Carl Oppedahl <carl () oppedahl com>]

At 10:15 AM 07/07/97 -0400, Gordon Cook wrote:

> Carl says:

> At <http://www.netsol.com/announcements/MYTHS4.html> NSI says:

>        16. Myth: In April 1998 there will be significant changes
>        to the .com, .org, and .net registration process.
>
>        Fact: There will be no operational changes to domain name
>        registrations in .com, .org and .net.  Registrations and
>        updates in these registries will continue as they
>        are today with the likely addition of new service offerings.

> I don't know how NSI can state this as a fact, given that under the terms
> of the contract that will expire in April 1998, NSF has the power to
> require NSI to hand over *everything* necessary for someone else to
> administer .com, .org and .net.

> Cook:  Disclaimer - I am not an enemy of NSI.  I consider it a decent
> company run by decent people.   *BUT*

> If this is the only entry in their prospectus I consider this a very
> misleading description of reality.....so misleading that some one ought to
> come out to force a change.

A minor point -- the "Myth" quotation is from NSI's web site, not from the
prospectus.

> The possibility that you list is correct.  There are two other
> possibilities that I can think of that are also correct.
>
> 1.  The prospectus does or does not say anything about the NTIA issued NOI
> of July 1?  

Well, the prospectus is dated July 3, 1997.  I did a text search on the SEC
filing and did not see any mention of the NTIA notice.

> This noi was disclosed in my newsletter of june 24 and
> basically means that the US government is embarking on its own course of
> action to consider whether to redesign DNS.  The exact decisions resulting
> from this process may become known by the end of this year.  Depnding on
> what they are, they may create a situation where the NSF is *FORCED* to
> extend the cooperate agreement by at least another year to allow them to
> be implemented.

That, or maybe NSF would get forced to write The Letter (the one that says
NSI has to hand over the database to some new administrator) some time
prior to April of 1998.

> NSI has a valuable business based on .com NOW.   The idea that it will
> have this business *AFTER* april 1 of next year is I believe way less than
> 50/50.
>
> If NSI has other assets than .com to use an IPO to raisemoney with fine.
> (I believe they do have other assets.)  To be doing an IPO founded in ANY
> way on their status as the proprietor of .com seems to me to be
> questionable.

What's more is that NSI didn't invent or otherwise originate .com.  NSI
merely landed a five-year contract to administer it, and happened to be
standing there when it became trendy.  As I recall, .com was previously
administered by SRI.