NSI vs IANA

Sun May 4 18:16:17 UTC 1997

I want to clear up one point.

> If NSI changed the root zone and demanded Mr. Vixie take the changes since
> they owned the hardware, I'm confident Mr. Vixie would give them the
> machine back and find another machine to run his root server on.

The agreement I signed with NSI upon delivery of their server iron to PAIX
was that I would return it on demand, maintain it in good working order, and
maintain fire insurance (which is some kind of leasing requirement).  That's
all.

Now as to the truth of the above assertion.  If NSI decided to become a DNS
pirate (that is, if they ever ignore a request from the IANA), and then they
asked me to participate in this piracy, and they tried to use the fact that
they are making lease payments on the F.ROOT-SERVERS.NET iron as some kind
of leverage, I would treat them as I treat all DNS pirates: with contempt;
they would sink beneath my notice; I would think of them as "like Karl and
Jim and Eugene"; I would quietly wait for instructions from the IANA as to
what to do next; I would send NSI's hardware back to them upon request, per
my agreement with them.

As a lot of the people who have paid my way over the years can tell you,
money is my *enabler* but never my *determiner*.  I will do the right thing,
and I've been lucky enough to have a number of people and companies use their
money so that that "right thing" can be a broader swath than I could do alone.

It appears that when someone pays Karl, he does whatever they want him to
do, irrespective of Karl's own ethics (if any.)  Karl has projected this
attitude on me and on others here for many years, and has never been able
to understand that most other people are not like him in this way.