At 02:58 AM 5/22/2016, Andrew Sullivan wrote:
On Sat, May 21, 2016 at 11:13:38PM +0000, Phil Corwin wrote:
> Indeed, there is no definitive determination as to whether property is involved.

What is never clear to me in these discussions is what property people
think there _could_ be.  I don't mean this to be a rhetorical
question.

Let me put it another way: suppose there were property there for the
US Government to hold, and they decided to hold it and refuse to let
people in the world use it.  What is it that people think would go away?
SNIP

First off, I'm one of those who does NOT think the root zone, or anything else the US government is 'disposing' of here, is "property."  Property doesn't describe a thing, it describes a legal relationship between people and things; a clump of earth, or an idea, isn't "property" unless and until the law says that someone can take "ownership" of it.  Other than the physical machines running the zone files, there's nothing here that qualifies as property in that sense, nothing that the USG can plausibly be said to 'own' - imho.

But, to answer your question:  suppose the USG decides otherwise, and says "this is property, and we're not going to dispose of it at this time."  You shouldn't assume that the USG will "refuse to let people in the world use it" - I think a much more likely scenario is that the USG does what it has been doing up to now, which is to contract for the service of making it available to the world.  I think you're suggesting that by deeming it "property," the USG will go after ICANN and others and say:  Stop using our "property."  But it doesn't have to do that - it can just go back to the status quo, where it bids out a contract for these services.  The current contract holders could get that, via extension - or USG could reprocure it from some other party.

What "goes away" in that scenario is the only thing that has ever been on the table in the first place:  USG's "endorsement" of ICANN and the whole IANA superstructure as the authoritative source of names, numbers, and protocols.  That was incredibly valuable and important in 1998 - not sure how it would play out today.
David
 

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David G. Post
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