I thought this might be of interest:
The whois for .us had been working a few weeks ago, but hadn't been since
then. I dropped an email to action@isi.edu (who had been hosting the
whois server until a few weeks ago) and cc'd usdomreg@nic.us and got the
following responses:
There is much more to the story. A lot of information
can be found at http://www.cybertelecom.org/dns.htm#us
On August 3, 1998, NTIA released a Request for
Comments for enhancement of the .us domain and then
held follow up public forums. On August 17, 2000, NTIA
released for comment a draft statement of work.
Comments were filed by various groups, however, NTIA
apparently never released a public document evaluating
the comments and setting forth its decision, based on
a rational basis and in compliance with the
Administrative Procedures Act. Instead, the
Department of Commerce went straight to releasing a
requestion for quotations (in other words government
procurement, the first step of setting up a govt
contract through competitive bids), posted by NIST, on
June 13, 2001 (NIST apparently had to conduct the
procurement as NTIA lacks appropriate authority).
This is a $0 procurement with the government paying
and receiving nothing; the company that wins the
contract will be permitted to charge fees for
registrations. The bidding period closed July 27,
2001.
In July of 2001, as a result of the rebel rousing of
the likes of Harold Feld, two congressional letters
and two letters from public interest groups were sent
to Sec. Evans asking for reconsideration. In
addition, two editorials and a white paper by former
Clinton Advisor Brian Kahin were released. These
different groups raise the following objections:
* .us is a valuable public resource. If a new
contractor is permitted to profit off of this public
resource, then the taxpayers ought to receive their
share (MAP argued that revenue from .us should be used
for public interest programs; this was supported by
Sen. Hollings. Rep. Markey recommended that .us be
turned over to the FCC for auction.).
* The Request for Quotations places US registrants
under ICANN�s Uniform Dispute Resolution Procedure
(UDRP); instead, disputes should be resolved by US
law. The UDRP requirement also violates the
Administrative Dispute Resolution Act which prohibits
conditioning receipt of a federal benefit on agreeing
to mandatory arbitration.
* The Request for Quotations fails to ensure that the
interests of those with current .us domain names will
be protected.
* The Request for Quotations gives primary rights to
domain names to trademark owners and gives
insufficient consideration to First Amendment rights.
While the Dept of Commerce has apparently indicated
that it will be responding to the Members of Congress,
it has also apparently indicated that the show must go
on. It is expected that bids were filed by companies
such as NetSol and NeuStar. The current Contract with
Netsol expires Nov 10, 2001.
The whois for .us had been working a few weeks ago, but hadn't been since
then. I dropped an email to action@isi.edu (who had been hosting the
whois server until a few weeks ago) and cc'd usdomreg@nic.us and got the
following responses:
...
it's nice to see that whoever's in charge finally got around to
removing admii.arl.mil from the ns list. it's been mostly dead and
gone for who knows how long...
Apparently, NSI is now in violation of their cooperative agreement,
http://www.ntia.doc.gov/ntiahome/domainname/agreements/amendment21.htm
As administrator, NSI shall use commercially reasonable efforts to
maintain the status quo with respect to the operational policies,
practices, procedures, administration, and daily operations of the
.us domain (except as may be reasonably necessary to comply with
customary business practices and to minimize or mitigate risks), and,
unless directed by the Department, shall not alter the registration
policies of the .us domain.
Who do we sue for damages?
Shall we bring a clas action?