RE: Future of IANA (and IETF)

[Jim Fleming <JimFleming at doorstep.unety.net>]

On Tuesday, February 03, 1998 8:42 PM, Dave Crocker[SMTP:dcrocker at brandenburg.com] wrote:
<snip>
@
@In any event, the IODesign approach is in the for-profit category and so I,
@for one, still do not support it.
@

For-profit and non-profit are not always that much different
in the Information Age where services are the dominant
activity and white collar workers are paid large sums to
push bits around as opposed to brooms on factory floors.

A non-profit company can be set up and can demand large
sums of money from people without their agreement. Then
that company can pay large salaries and give their employees
travel perks and other benefits in an effort to spend all of
the money. Whether the company is for-profit (with no profit)
or non-profit is not noticable.

Non-profit does not mean low-cost. Non-profit does not
mean responsive to society. Non-profit in this day and
age just means that the company took some special
steps to get IRS approval and that the company wants
to create an impression they are serving the public good.
In many cases, this is only an impression.

I suggest that you compare and contrast NSI and ARIN
to try to illustrate the vast differences that you seem to
see in for-profit and non-profit. When you do that you might
find that for-profit companies have to be much more responsive
to customers because there is competition. Non-profits
can often operate without being concerned about outside
input because they have a monopoly.

People seem to equate monopoly with for-profit. As with
ARIN and NSI, this is not the case. ARIN has convinced
people it needs be a monopoly where NSI is creating a
distribution channel via other registries. ARIN is designed
to keep all of the benefits for itself, whereas NSI is spreading
things out. The recent split of NSI into WorldNIC and InterNIC
is just one example. You do not see ARIN encouraging
more similar companies.

In my opinion, the past is clear. There is one group that
wants to hoard resources for its own pleasure and profits
(be they non or otherwise) and there are other companies
that want to help grow the Registry Industry. It is not hard
to tell which are which and the labels for-profit and non-profit
are not the clue. One has to look to the people involved
to gain true insight into what the motives are for the company.
Simple labels do not tell the story.


Jim Fleming
Unir Corporation
IBC, Tortola, BVI