From...

May 19, 1999
Web posted at: 1:05 p.m. EDT (1705 GMT)

by Tom Diederich

(IDG) -- 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.

The appeal, filed with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, challenged an April 1998 federal court ruling in a lawsuit filed in October 1997 by a group of domain name registrants.

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. The money was collected on behalf of the National Science Foundation to maintain and enhance the Internet, but critics called it an illegal tax. The entire suit was eventually dismissed, however, and the plaintiffs appealed. Those fees were dropped last year (see "Domain name fee falls," link below).

"This lays to rest important questions concerning the services that Network Solutions performs for the Internet," said Michael A. Daniels, chairman and acting CEO of NSI, in a statement. "Network Solutions has been a pioneer and a stabilizing force in developing and maintaining the world model for domain name registration services, and we remain committed to shaping the Internet in the years to come." The company's government-awarded monopoly on .com and .net domain registrations is slated to end this year.