RE: [wg-c] Short Position Paper

["Roeland M.J. Meyer" <rmeyer@mhsc.com>]

> From: owner-wg-c@dnso.org [mailto:owner-wg-c@dnso.org]On Behalf Of Eric
> Brunner
> Sent: Friday, October 08, 1999 7:42 PM
>
> You want to assert that the title to the registry data allows exclusive
> rights claims? Who do you think have standing to make such claims? The
> simple answer (the registry operator) seems prone to failure and wrong,
> and the better ones get complicated quickly.

I set up a registry, I keep a DBMS with the registration data in it, it's
mine. Unless, of course, you want to pay me for the effort of running the
registry (or whatever price I choose to set). How I choose to release and
control that data is only between me and my paying customers (societal
niceties not with standing, it's a contractual issue). NSI's case is
special, since the NSF seeded their registry with NSF owned data. Evenso,
that's a very fuzzy navel.

> If you wanted to allow the assignment of title to some other trustee
> than ICANN, and I suppose some alternatives exist and someone could put
> together a business model for delegated title trusteeships, I don't see
> a fundamental problem.

It is strictly an issue between ICANN and the registry and the registry's
customers.

> I do hope you aren't making the case that title shouldn't be held as a
> public resource, independent of how many entities might hold delegated
> title to portions of a registry's data, that title to the data is held
> by the registrar operating company. NSI offered this line of reasoning
> recently, but has subsequently abandoned this position. I wouldn't like
> to make this position policy, so I hope I've misunderstood you.

As stated earlier, NSI is in a rather different position. I don't think that
you are going to get Chris's WEB registrants list unless he voluntarily
gives it to you. There is now way that ICANN, or anyone else, can force him
to deliver it either. The MHSC customer list has a burn-before-surrendering
classification. Our customers actually appreciate and applaude that. It's
why they pay for the service. Even the size of our VPN customer list carries
this classification. No one, outside of MHSC, know how many VPNs we run.