[ncdnhc-discuss] Who will run .us?

[Jonathan Weinberg]

         It's easy to argue that this is a redelegation; if nothing else, 
there will have to be changes in the existing listings for the sponsoring 
organization, admin contact, and tech contact for .us in IANA's root-zone 
whois information.  The US government, further, *could* go along with that 
-- if IANA were to submit the usual redelegation report, then the fact that 
the redelegation will be uncontested by the incumbent, together with the 
strong argument that the the US government really has been the effective 
delegee all along, would help make this an easy case.  But I think 
Michael's right that the US government *won't* take that approach.  The 
term of the contract that it's seeking to award is four to six years; the 
government doesn't want to have to go through another IANA redelegation in 
six years if it chooses a different registry operator then.  So the US 
government is likely to argue energetically that *it* is the delegee (and 
always has been), so that no IANA redelegation is needed -- it's just 
choosing a different contractor to perform the actual work.  (And, fwiw, 
there was no IANA report the *last* time the root-zone whois information 
for this domain was changed . . . )

Jon


At 10:27 PM 10/20/2001 -0400, Michael Froomkin - U.Miami School of Law wrote:
>I suspect that DoC answer would be that it remains the .us delegee and the
>firm hired is merely its subcontractor.  I don't see anything in IANA
>rules that prevents subcontracting.  Do you?
>
>On Sat, 20 Oct 2001, Milton Mueller wrote:
>
> > Chun:
> > This message made me laugh, but it contains
> > a very serious point. You are asking the
> > US Commerce Department to abide by the
> > procedures set up by its own little creature
> > (ICANN). This is very clever. You should
> > send this message to Karen Rose and a few
> > US Congress people.
> >
> > Let me know when you get an answer ;-)
> >
> > --MM
> >
> > >>> Chun Eung Hwi <ehchun at peacenet.or.kr> 10/19/01 21:59 PM >>>
> > Dear Chris Chiu and others,
> >
> > I have some questions regarding the redelegation of .us.
> >
> > First, in my understanding, .us is also one ccTLD that is included in IANA
> > database - http://www.iana.org/cctld/cctld-whois.htm Therefore, it is very
> > natural for the redelegation to abide by RFC1591 and ICP-1. For the
> > redelegation of one specific ccTLD, we have very clear documented
> > procedure.
> >
> > Second, according to that procedure, IANA should make a report for
> > redelegation and get the authorization of ICANN board like all other
> > redelegation cases up to now. Moreover, the operator of .us like all other
> > ccTLD cases should make a formal contract with ICANN. Those contract
> > drafts has already been posted on ICANN website for public comment.
> >
> > Third, I heard that CDT have tried to make an MoU with new operator
> > together with other public interest groups. This activity could be
> > justified as follwing statements of ICP-1.
> >
> > "(a) ... The IANA will make them a major consideration in any TLD
> > delegation/transfer discussions. Significantly interested parties in the
> > domain should agree that the proposed TLD manager is the appropriate
> > party. ...
> >
> > (snip)
> >
> > (e) ... It is also very helpful for the IANA to receive communications
> > from other parties that may be concernedor affected by the transfer. In
> > the event of a conflict over designation of a TLD manager, the IANA tries
> > to have conflicting parties reach agreement among themselves and generally
> > takes no action unless all contending parties agree. ..."
> > (Excerpts from http://www.icann.org/icp/icp-1.htm)
> >
> > Then, still I have never look at IANA report for the redelegation of .us.
> > And I want to know what CDT and other public interest groups would respond
> > to the DoC's plan.
> >
> >
> > Regards,
> >
> > Chun Eung Hwi
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > Chun Eung Hwi
> > General Secretary, PeaceNet | phone:     (+82) 2- 583-3033
> > Seoul Yangchun P.O.Box 81   |   pcs:     (+82) 019-259-2667
> > Seoul, 158-600, Korea       | eMail:   ehchun at peacenet.or.kr
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> >
> > On Thu, 18 Oct 2001, Chris Chiu wrote:
> >
> > > The United States Commerce Department still plans to pick the future
> > > operator of the .us country-code top-level domain by the end of October
> > > 2001.
> > >
> > > See
> > > http://www.internetdemocracyproject.org/#highlights