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About Project NAME.SPACE
Project
NAME.SPACE under Paul Garrin's direction was the first to envision and
actually create hundreds of Top Level Domains as early as 1996 while
others spread falsehoods that large numbers of TLDs were not
technically possible and that the creation of such would harm or even
"break" the Internet.
As an early
proponent of a shared TLD registry system, NAME.SPACE helped shape the
adaptation of a wholesale-retail domain registration market. The
NAME.SPACE v. Network Solutions, Inc. antitrust lawsuit (based on the
successful MCI v. ATT that broke up the telephone company monopoly in
the USA in 1983) gave momentum to the restructuring of the domain name
registration market from a single monopoly based system to a
wholesale-retail one. The public benefit is lower domain registration
costs. Before NAME.SPACE v. Network Solutions a domain name
registration cost $100; today a domain name can be registered for much
less depending on the TLD and the retailer.
Although
Network Solutions violated the antitrust laws by refusing to add
NAME.SPACE TLDs to the ROOT (the master domain name database), the
court granted Network Solutions immunity casting NAME.SPACE TLDs into
limbo as they were unable to fully bring them to market.
Professor Milton Mueller of Syracuse University wrote in his book RULING THE ROOT (MIT Press) the following about NAME.SPACE:
"Adding the NAME.SPACE TLDs to the Network Solutions-operated root.zone
would have transformed the commercial environment of the DNS. As the
only established registry for hundreds of new top level domains,
NAME.SPACE would have quickly been elevated to the status of peer of
Network Solutions" (at the time of writing, 2002, NSI was valued at over half a billion dollars).
NAME.SPACE
pursued every option put before it to have its TLDs added to the DNS
ROOT including participation in the U.S. Department of Commerce IFWP
during the summer of 1998 and its year 2000 application to the Internet
Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN). In 2000 only ICANN
Chair Esther Dyson voted to accept NAME.SPACE as other ICANN board
members recused themselves from the vote while their applications were
voted in by the other board members. ICANN absconded with NAME.SPACE's
$50,000 appplication fee leaving NAME.SPACE out of the ROOT and its
application unresolved. NAME.SPACE continues to pursue recognition of
its TLD service mark properties through the ICANN process and
otherwise; NAME.SPACE reserves all rights to its TLDs.
NAME.SPACE's 2000 application to ICANN is still
pending. In 2010, NAME.SPACE is re-submitting its application to ICANN
under the new rules recently released at icann.org.
NAME.SPACE has documented proof of continuous use in commerce of its
TLDs since 1996 and continues to seek the inclusion of its TLDs into
the ROOT.ZONE through
the ICANN process. NAME.SPACE reserves all rights to its TLDs.
See an example of an amended ROOT.ZONE file that includes NAME.SPACE TLDs
Selected articles about NAME.SPACE* and related to New TLDs:
(*sometimes referred to as "PGP MEDIA" or "PGMedia")
Networking With Spooks
CovertAction Quarterly, Winter 1996-97 by John Dillon
New York Company Sues to Open Up Internet Names
New York Times Cybertimes, March 22, 1997 by Elizabeth Weise
Antitrust Suit Could Shake Up Net Governance
The Recorder, Monday, March 24, 1997 by Dan Goodin (archived)
Internet-Address Assigner in Va. Is Focus of Justice Department Antitrust Probe
The Washington Post, Sunday, July 6, 1997; Page A13 by Rajiv Chandrasekaran
Internet Jam Tip of Iceberg?
Cnet, July 18, 1997 by Dan Goodin
Public Provides Comment, But Little Consensus on Domain Names
New York TImes Cybertimes, August 23, 1997 by Jeri Clausing
Domain Suit Names NSF
Cnet, September 18, 1997 by Suzanne Galante
National Science Foundation is Added to Lawsuit on Domain Names
New York TImes Cybertimes, September 19, 1997 by Jeri Clausing
NSI Hit with Domain Class Action
CNET, October 21, 1997 by Dan Goodin
PG Media Brings NSI/NSF Antitrust Case to a Head
Computerwire, March 1998 by Nick Patience
NSI Antitrust Woes Not Over Yet
CNET, February 24, 1999 by Dan Goodin
Can Anyone Say Dot-Monopoly? (part 1) (part2)
Newsday, October 1, 2000 by Ellis Henican
Freedom to Criticize Belongs on the Web
San Francisco Chronicle, December 3, 2000 by Esther Dyson
Is ICANN Illegal? Interview with Prof. Michael Froomkin
Duke University Law Journal, February 28, 2001 by Kathleen E. Fuller Link to Prof. Froomkin's full article
Casting a Wider Net
Village Voice, April 3, 2001 by Sarah Ferguson
The Battle of .NYC ... and also .SUCKS, .CHAT, .WEATHER, .ART...
The Villager, May 12, 2009 by Lincoln Anderson
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About NAME.SPACE 
