From: Gordon Irlam To: newcase.atr@usdoj.gov Subject: Antitrust Investigation of Network Solutions Date: Wed, 05 May 1999 11:27:53 -0700 From Gordon Irlam (noreply@base.com) 1670 33rd Ave, San Francisco, CA 94122 To New Cases Unit (newcase.atr@usdoj.gov) Antitrust division US Department of Justice Re: Network Solutions I am a software developer. I am also a domain name registrant, and I operate a DNS server. I have been using the Internet for 14 years. I am a member of the Association for Computing Machinery, and the American Economic Association. For some time I have been concerned by the danger of monopoly control of the DNS registration database. I have heard via the media that the antitrust division of the department of justice is investigating Network Solutions for possible breach of antitrust law. It is my belief that Network Solutions is in violation of the terms of its contractual agreement with the government by withholding public access to the contents of the DNS registration database. It is my suspicion that they have been and are withholding this information in order to attempt to obtain and secure a monopoly position in the market, and that obtaining or attempting to obtain a monopoly position in this manner would be a breach of antitrust law. I have enclosed the following items in the event that they may be of interest to you: - A copy of my summary reasoning on why I believe Network Solutions is required to make the information they collect, including the entire contents of the DNS registration database, publicly available. (This and other legal reasoning is expanded on in great detail in section 5 of a document I wrote some time ago in order to try and alert the government to the threat of monopoly control of the DNS database: Controlling the Internet: Legal and Technical Aspects of the Domain Name System available at: http://www.base.com/gordoni/thoughts/dns-control/dns-control.html ) - A copy of an request I made of Network Solutions in December 1997 that adheres to the form they prescribed at the time for making such a request, in which I requested access to the zone files (one of the components of the DNS registration database), and to which I never received any response from them. I hope this information may be useful. Please let me know if I may be of any further assistance. sincerely, Gordon Irlam ------------------------------------------------------------------- [Summary reasoning on why Network Solutions is required to make the information they collect publically available.] Cooperative Agreement article 3B provides that the work be performed in accordance with the Awardee's Proposal, and Awardee's Proposal Q.1 provides: "Under guidelines set forth by NSF, we will provide as much or as little service as individual countries want or need, but the information we collect and dispense will be freely available to all." GC-1 article 19(b) provides: "The grantee shall have no obligation to NSF with respect to (1) license fees and royalties for copyrighted material ..." In GC-1 (10/95) this clause has been changed slightly to make it clear that these terms might be overridden by the provisions of the grant. GC-1 article 19(b) and Cooperative Agreement article 3B, thus appear to be in conflict. Cooperative Agreement article 13 makes it clear that in the event of a conflict between the terms of the Special Provisions of the Cooperative Agreement and GC-1, the Special Provisions have precedence. These Special Provision include article 3B, and so Cooperative Agreement article 3B has precedence, and GC-1 article 19(b) is effectively inoperative. Cooperative Agreement 3(C) requires the InterNIC provide registration services in accordance with RFC 1174. RFC 1174 article 1.3 requires: "Copies of the aggregate Internet registration database(s) should be maintained by the IR and copies provided to each delegated registry to improve redundancy and access to this information. Updates to the database, however, would still be centralized at the IR with complete copies redistributed by file transfer or other means on a timely basis." Also, as previously mentioned, Awardee's Proposal Q.1 contains: "Under guidelines set forth by NSF, we will provide as much or as little service as individual countries want or need, but the information we collect and dispense will be freely available to all." This thus seems to require that for the duration of the contract any data collected be made freely available to all parties. The only doubt might be whether "freely available to all" refers to any individual desiring the data, or just to countries that desire the data. The originally intended meaning at the time the contract was written is made clear by referring to a press release that the three awardees jointly released upon being awarded the contract, as described in InterNIC Midterm Evaluation and Recommendations: A Panel Report to the National Science Foundation (http://rs.internic.net/nsf/review/review-toc.html, copy as of March 15, 1997) section 2: "Below we provide excerpts from a press release issued jointly by the InterNIC awardees in January 1993 ... NSI agreed to: ``... [provide the information from these assignments] to the directory and database services provider to be made available to the entire Internet community.''" >From which it is clear that the originally intended meaning of "freely available to all" was freely available to any individual that might desire the data. GC-1 article 35(a) (article 36(a) in GC-1 (10/95)) contains a similar provisions requiring: "NSF expects ... investigators to share with other researchers, at no more than incremental cost and within a reasonable time, the data, samples, physical collections and other supporting materials created or gathered in the course of the work." NSF Grant Policy Manual (ftp://stis.nsf.gov/nsf9526.txt) article 734(d), while apparently not a formal part of the contract, goes into this matter in more detail, explaining that while the NSF allows grantees to retain the rights to intellectual property, this does not relieve them of a requirement to make available their data. ---------------------------------------------------------------- [Email request sent to Network Solutions, December 1997.] From: gordoni@cygnus.com (Gordon Irlam) To: hostmaster@internic.net Subject: Zone file access Date: Thu, 4 Dec 1997 19:40:08 -0800 (PST) I am requesting access to copies of the root zone files. I am requesting access to this information to ensure that the information collected under the Cooperative Agreement remains freely available. You are required to provide me this information under the terms of the NSF Cooperative Agreement NCR-9218742 article 3B, which requires adherance to "Awardee's Proposal" article Q1, which requiring this information be made freely available. The information you provide will not be used for the purpose of sending spam. My contact information is as follows: NIC handle: GI6 Name: Gordon Irlam Address: 2310 Rock Street #10, Mountain View, CA 94043 Phone: 415 903-1426 Email: gordoni@cygnus.com I am not affiliated with any other organizations that might have requested access to this data. thanks, gordoni ----------------------------------------------------------------