Catch up on stories from the past week (and beyond) at the Slashdot story archive

 


Forgot your password?
Close
typodupeerror
×
The Courts Government News

NSI antitrust suit dismissed 23

Posted by Hemos from the appeal-appeal-appeal dept.
/ writes "A federal appeals court (DC) has dismissed charges that NSI and the NSF violated antitrust laws. This overturns last year's lower-court ruling that the NSI illegally collected $46 million in dns registration fees on behalf of the NSF. "
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.

NSI antitrust suit dismissed More

NSI antitrust suit dismissed

Comments Filter:
  • Fine them. A lot. Try to recover some of the $46 million in question.

    Or you could weaken their monopoly by authorizing competitors to award domains too. Oh wait; we're already doing that.
  • 'Course, ICANN is theoretically International, as is ISOC, IETF...etc.

  • Bogus (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Seems as if they've earned enough money to become immune to the justice system.

    Yes, it's time to sersiously persue alternative DNS means on a massive scale.
  • There needs to be an impartial international agency that handles all this stuff. (Lord only knows that the UN, with its emphasis on "intellectual property protection," isn't it.) I like capitalism, but it sure breaks down when the government hands monopolies to unethical companies.
  • :Last year's court ruling sided with the
    :defendants on nine of
    :10 counts, but agreed with the
    :plaintiffs that the $46 million NSI had
    :collected from customers was
    :illegal.
    ...thus, the $46 million was considered illegal.
  • I just had to post, "What next" grin.
  • Its amazing how long this blatant theft of our money has been going on. Its so obvious to anyone with a clear mind that what they have been doing is totally illegal.
    At least they did the right thing eventually.

  • I have 6 domain registrations pending... (Score:3)

    by skander ( 43037 ) on Wednesday May 19, 1999 @06:51PM (#1886113) Homepage
    ... and now I've lost all hope that it may ever get better...

    NSI is the biggest pile of bureaucracy I've ever come accross... they copy/paste from the license agreement when you ask for help, their database registration process is very buggy...

    How can you even trust an organisation like that with so much power over the net??

    what a shame... a true shame.
  • Can the alternatives to NSI be used yet? Did anyone try to register a domain with any of them, and can comment on their competence? Are any of them the 'good guys'?
  • Congratulations, it was considered illegal by the lower court in question. But when CNN says The entire suit was eventually dismissed, however, and the plaintiffs appealed. and previously says that A federal appeals court last week dismissed charges that the National Science Foundation and its private contractor, Network Solutions Inc. (NSI), violated antitrust laws and overcharged Internet domain name registrants. you'll see your error. Please have a good day.

  • NSI isn't out of hot water yet... (Score:4)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday May 19, 1999 @07:37PM (#1886117)

    Fear not! Those incompetant idiots at NSI may have dodged this bullet, but there are two more on the way:

    1. NSI is under suspicion for securities fraud for having claimed in their prospectus for their Initial Public Offering (IPO) of stock that they owned .com, which they obviously do not.

    2. The new Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers [icann.org] (ICANN) now owns the "root" of the DNS, and is in the process of setting up a shared registry system. This means that NSI will not be the only company through which you can register a domain name, and given this competition, it is unlikely that NSI will survive, because they are incompetant.

    In short, NSI is still facing their well deserved doom.

  • I've been waiting since mid-March for those incompetent jerks at NSI to delete a registration. So far I've sent two electronic requests and seven faxes, each saying the same thing, each directed to a person who would take care of it right away, each a liar. The only call-back I received from them about the problem was when I called their business line, got voicemail (of course), and told them that they were a pack of lying wesaels who couldn't get out of their own way. THAT got a call. But my domain remains nonetheless, a monument to the stupid, corrupt monopoly that is Notwork Solutions.

  • Sigh (Score:1)

    by NutZac ( 18515 )
    Another sure-fire sign that the government is working for US!
  • Whoops... I meant "at least they had the right idea"...
  • I know there's at least one that's been accredited, NameSecure.

    From http://www.namesecure.com/newsrel ease/042199.cfm [namesecure.com]

    NameSecure.com will enter into an accreditation agreement as soon as possible with ICANN and expects to begin acting as a .com, .net, and .org registrar immediately upon the conclusion of a 60-day "testbed phase" currently scheduled to end on July 9, 1999.
    (My only tie to NameSecure is as a customer.)
  • One of the alternate registrars is the bastion of internet know-how known as AOL. That's as asinine as if the government were to open up the cable TV monopoly to, say, the telephone companies. Uh, wait a minute ...
  • > I mean what are you going to do? Punish NSI by
    > shutting them down? You'd cripple the internet.

    Not really, NSI only runs one of the root nameservers. The other root nameservers are much older than NSI.

    If NSI were shut down, it would mean that no domains could be added/changed/deleted for a while.

    A few months ago, I would have said "no difference" but lately NSI seems to be picking up some speed in the handling of these things.

  • I feel for you, as I am in the same situation, though with less registrations in the pipe.

    I'm curious as to how long have they been pending, so I will might know roughly how long my on-hold hell is going to last.

  • hijack the domain name system (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward
    It's time to hijack the domain name system. The only power that Network Solutions over us is that which we give them.
  • actually, i think their contract has yet to expire.

Slashdot Top Deals

And it should be the law: If you use the word `paradigm' without knowing what the dictionary says it means, you go to jail. No exceptions. -- David Jones

Close