At 18:15 24/06/98 +0800, you wrote:
>
>> It discourages end customers from buying directly from NOMINET by a
>> charging non-members twice the amount it charges members.
>
>Why is the rationale for allowing non members to register directly
>at all?  Why not have nominet act purely as a clearing house for
>its members?
>

That did arise as a possible model at the time. I can't remember what the
winning argument was -  I would have to scan my memory with something more
efficient than my conciousness to remember.

Personally, I would prefer that the central body did NOT sell to the
public. Its an 80-20 thing and is only likely to increase the cost to
members. The way to get the central body providing the cheapest service to
the members is if it ONLY provides the service to the members.

I would like to see the central body set up a legal defense fund that is
there (at the discretion of the board) to be used to defend any ISP who is
a third party defendant in a legal battle of ownership of a domain name. Of
course there thus needs to be a code of practice to ensure that ISP's toe
the line.

Perhaps it was thought the structure would look less like a cabal if the
public also had access to the service.
_____________________________________________

Larry Bloch                   
Chief Executive Officer       
NetRegistry Pty Limited       
email:  larry§netregistry.au.com
Office: +61-(0)2-9555 6299
Fax:    +61-(0)2-9555 5808

http://www.netregistry.au.com
Domain House, PO Box 2088, Sydney, NSW 1043
_____________________________________________