ARGH! Someone's swiped my logo!

[mikebw at bilow.bilow.uu.ids.net (Mike Bilow)]

Lar Kaufman wrote in a message to Mike Bilow:

> Domains now cost $35 per year, with the first two years ($70) prepaid.

 GF> + When did that change. ...

 LK> A couple of months ago, a federal judge ruled that $35 was a
 LK> reasonable fee for necessary registration services.  I
 LK> haven't read the case, so I don't have the full rationale on
 LK> hand, but I believe the judge applied the implicit will of
 LK> Congress in its various acts that the Internet should be
 LK> free of incumbrances that would inhibit development of the
 LK> Internet. Previously collected (excessive) fees are being
 LK> held in escrow, I think, pending clarification... Probably
 LK> they will ultimately be returned, but don't count on it.  

It was a narrower decision.  The original $50 per year fee included a $15 fee
that was to be deposited to some sort of national infrastructure fund. Network
Solutions had been dutifully depositing the money as required by their
government contract, but hardly any was being spent and the fund balance was on
the order of tens of millions of dollars after a while.  The issue before the
court, as I understand it, was whether NSF or other contracting agencies had
any legal power to set up such an off-budget slush fund, and the court held
that the $15 fee amounted to a tax that would have to be authorized by Congress
to be legal.  The court ordered that the fee no longer be collected, but the
fund is still sitting there doing nothing, and I believe there is some further
litigation on the issue.

The changeover date from $50 to $35 was April 1, 1998.
 
-- Mike


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