Networking with Spooks

[katty]

cont'd: http://mediafilter.org/caq/internic

Networking with Spooks

by John Dillon

THE INTERNET IS CHANGING FROM A PUBLIC RESOURCE TO A LUCRATIVE
OPERATION INFLUENCED BY SPOOKS AND FORMER PENTAGON OFFICIALS.
OPEN ACCESS AND INFORMATION ARE INCREASINGLY CONTROLLED.

The Internet, the mother of all networks, is a sprawling congregation of connected computers; almost anyone is welcome, almost anything goes. Now, one private company with strong ties to the defense and intelligence agencies has become the prime gatekeeper and toll-taker for the millions navigating the maze. Network Solutions Inc. (NSI) of Herndon, Va., has the government-granted monopoly to issue "domain names'' electronic addresses like used to route e-mail and steer traffic through the increasingly commercialized World Wide Web. NSI's spook connections and its lead role in the privatization of the Internet have raised alarms. Net activists were outraged by the firm's September 1995 decision to charge $100 a year to register new addresses and $50 a year to renew old ones. Later, NSI stirred up even more anger when it began removing the addresses of the thousands who refused to pay. The company also has been sued half a dozen times over its policy to give trademark holders priority when a domain name is in dispute.

WHO'S IN CHARGE
The furor over NSI raises basic
questions of who controls and regulates the Internet. Although physically decentralized with millions of computers linked around the globe the Net is in fact hierarchically organized. Anyone on the planet who wants an Internet address ending with one of the popular suffixes .com, .edu, .org, .net, or .gov must register the domain name with the Internet Network Information Center, or InterNIC, a US government-created central registry. In 1993, NSI took over the administration of that listing.

[MichiganVote]

1. I don't think they'll ever be able to stay ahead of the internet

for those who know where to look and what to buy.