[1]SIDEBAR [2]Newsbytes Advertising Uncle Sam Sued Over Net Control ****Uncle Sam Sued Over Net Control 09/19/97 WASHINGTON, DC, U.S.A., 1997 SEP 19 (NB) -- By Bob Woods. First, New York City-based PGMedia took on Herndon, Virginia-based Network Solutions Inc. (NSI) over that company's control over Internet domain name registrations - now PGMedia said it is adding the US government to the defendant column of the suit, in the form of the National Science Foundation (NSF). PGMedia wants to compete with NSI in the domain name registration game. PGMedia, which is also known as "name.space," charges both defendants with violating US antitrust laws, saying that neither party has the authority "to restrict or forestall the complete opening of the Domain Name Registration market." Company officials said the NSF has "injected" itself into the domain name dispute by claiming on behalf of the US government that it controls the domain name system. PGMedia said it "steadfastly believes that the National Science Foundation has no authority to restrict or forestall the complete opening of the domain name registration market." Company officials said that even if the NSF did have control, its actions "have the clear effect of limiting freedom of expression in the first and foremost avenue of speech on the Internet -- the domain name." An NSF official told Newsbytes that the Foundation did not have an immediate comment on the suit or the situation. PGMedia first took legal action against NSI last March, after NSI refused PGMedia's request that reference to the name.space name servers be added to the root zone file, PGMedia officials said. That suit sought to, among other things, compel NSI to add the name.space top level domains (TLDs) and name servers to the root zone file. After several discussions with PGMedia and its counsel, PGMedia said NSI proposed allowing unlimited TLDs -- but only if the NSF had no objection. NSI is in a five-year contract with NSF to provide domain name services, Newsbytes notes. PGMedia said that the NSF has no more of a place in this debate than any other interested party, and should not act to arbitrarily limit speech in the top level name space even if it did. In June and August of this year, the NSF informed NSI that it controlled the root zone file, and that it could not let NSI comply with Federal and state antitrust laws in granting PGMedia's request, PGMedia said. PGMedia's goals in the case include bringing the US government's "arbitrary restriction" of the top level name space to an end, and to bring the issue of "who ultimately controls the global Internet" to a "court of competent jurisdiction," in the form of the US Federal District Court in the Southern District of New York. (19970919/Press Contacts: PGMedia, 212-219-1415; Bill Noxon, National Science Foundation, 703-306-1070/Reported By Newsbytes News Network: [3]http://www.newsbytes.com /WWWDOME/PHOTO) "The Pulse of the Information Age" Newsbytes News Network [4]http://www.newsbytes.com 24-hour computer, telecom and online news [5]Copyright ©Newsbytes News Network. All rightsreserved. For more Newsbytes see http://www.newsbytes.com. [6]Home | [7]Daily | [8]Weekly | [9]Publishers | [10]Search References 1. http://www.newsbytes.com/menus/navbar.map 2. http://www.newsbytes.com/OAS/rm/try-it.cgi/www.newsbytes.com/home.html 3. http://www.newsbytes.com/ 4. http://www.newsbytes.com/ 5. http://www.nbnn.com/copyrght.html 6. http://www.nbnn.com/home.html 7. http://www.nbnn.com/news/s_daily.html 8. http://www.nbnn.com/news/s_week.html 9. http://www.nbnn.com/publishers/publi_1.html 10. http://www.nbnn.com/html_p/search.html