RE: Who owns the Root Name Servers

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

On Friday, March 20, 1998 10:15 PM, Carl Malamud [IMS][SMTP:carl at also.media.org] wrote:
@According to Harald Tveit Alvestrand:
@
@> Owners of current root servers:
@
@> Servers	Name				Federal money
@
@> F		Internet Software Cons.	??
@
@Is the ISC doesn't take federal money and never has.  They haven't
@offered and we haven't asked.
@

At one point I believe that Paul Vixie (of ISC) described how Network Solutions, Inc.
(a U.S. Government contractor on the InterNIC) pays for his F Root Server
hardware. In my opinion, being a subcontractor of NSI is the same as being
a subcontractor of the U.S. Government and I believe most federal contracts
read that way.

I think that one of the main points that has been made by the U.S. Government
in the past few months is that they control the InterNIC. NSI has obviously been
briefed (or advised) about the future of the InterNIC and they are busy creating
WorldNIC <http://www.worldnic.net> to compete with the other companies that
will take .COM and run in parallel with the InterNIC. Note, that NSI now discusses
fees in terms of the InterNIC portion and their portion.

There is obviously a lot of other U.S. Government funding involved in the InterNIC
project. For some reason, people do not seem to want to acknowledge that
the U.S. taxpayers have been supporting this infrastructure and the venture
capital funding for the InterNIC. Not even the InterNIC people want to acknowledge
that they have had federal funding.

As an example, the Network Scout part of the InterNIC started out as part of
the "IS" part of the three-way Cooperative Agreement. When GA was pushed out,
NSI took over some of the IS functions and the NSF paid NSI more money. Last
year, NSI decided it no longer wanted to pay for the Network Scout and by some
miracle, on exactly the day that NSI removed funding the NSF added the
following funding...

@@@ http://www.nsf.gov/cgi-bin/showaward?award=9712163

	Net Scout Internet Resource Discovery and Search Technologies
	Start Date May 1, 1997
	$3,074,016 (Estimated)

@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@


Here is some more reference material...
================================
AT&T
DS Award - $4,543,336 (Estimated) - Expires September 30, 2003 (Estimated)
http://www.nsf.gov/cgi-bin/showaward?award=9218179

GA
IS Award - $4,793,092 - Expires September 30, 1998
http://www.nsf.gov/cgi-bin/showaward?award=9218748

NSI
RS Award - $4,369,334 (Estimated) - Expires September 30, 1998 (Estimated)
http://www.nsf.gov/cgi-bin/showaward?award=9218742


@@@@ http://rs.internic.net/nsf/nis/sectionH.html

"H.1 The NREN Internet Network Information Services Center Team"
 
"Our Team is composed of Network Solutions, the incumbent manager and operator
of the DISA NIC, and ISI, a leading computer science research organization, which
has provided the IANA, RFC editing, .us Domain structuring and registration, Monthly
Report coordination, editing, and production, and similar services to the Internet for
many years. Network Solutions has teamed with ISI to take advantage of their many
years of experience with providing services to the Internet and to provide the additional
knowledge and skills needed for this solicitation. The relationship between Network
Solutions and ISI is a solid one, based on mutual respect for the complementary skills
and knowledge each brings to network services. We are already accustomed to operating
as an integrated team, with ISI subcontracted to Network Solutions to provide assignment
of TCP service port numbers and other protocol parameters, and with ISI (as the IANA)
having delegated to the DISA NIC the registration of users for the Internet. The proposed
 organization of the Internet Network Information Services Center (INISC) is illustrated in
the figure below. The qualifications of the key personnel proposed are well known to users
of the Internet."

@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@

@@@@ http://rs.internic.net/nsf/nis/proposal-toc.html

Section M: Personnel Qualifications

@@@@ http://rs.internic.net/nsf/nis/sectionM.html

...
M.3 IANA Manager and Advisory Panel Chairman

Network Solutions proposes Mr. Jon Postel as the IANA Manager and
Chairman of the Advisory Panel for the NREN NIS Manager project. He
will provide services as an employee of USC's Information Sciences Institute (ISI),
subcontractor to Network Solutions.

@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@

@@@@ http://www.nsf.gov/od/lpa/forum/lane/nl980202.htm

"This ambitious commitment is reflected in the bottom line for NSF. 
The total budget comes to just under $3.8 billion.
This represents a substantial increase -- 10% overall -- over $340 million. 
If enacted, this would be the largest dollar increase the Foundation has ever received. 
It's all made possible by the President's Research Fund for America.

@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@

...follow the money...it tells the whole story...

-
Jim Fleming
Unir Corporation
IBC, Tortola, BVI