[1166] in Commercialization & Privatization of the Internet
Re: Forwarded from PACS-L Digest
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Ittai Hershman)
Mon Aug 12 17:25:13 1991
Date: Mon, 12 Aug 91 17:23:33 EDT
From: Ittai Hershman <ittai@shemesh.ans.net>
To: stev@ftp.com (stev knowles)
Cc: "Martin Lee Schoffstall" <schoff@psi.com>, nren-discuss@psi.com,
In-Reply-To: Your message of Mon, 12 Aug 91 11:36:20 -0400
Just for some context to what "working with" has meant. There have
been a series of "invitation only" meetings that ANS has held, in which
all parties had to sign confidentiality agreements in advance to attend.
Some of these meetings had multiple ANS/IBM lawyers present to provide
support.
and ANS wonders why they have such a bad name in the community. all these
"closed door meetings" with "business relationships" appearing.
smells pretty bad to me. i wont go into the "flaming" some people have
complained about. why bother? ANS is going to do what they want to.
Interesting reaction. Rather than replying to Marty's note
publically, I sent him private e-mail asking him to if he was sure of
his facts because I intended to verify them. He replied that he was
sure of his facts.
It turns out that the facts are a bit different from Marty's
recollection.
1) A single meeting was held in which a confidentiality
agreement was signed. It was when Al Weis presented
advance notice of the formation of ANS (i.e. prior to
the existence of ANS!) to the FARNet Executive Committee.
No lawyers were present. And, as a matter of fact, one
of the CIX's founding members was present.
2) Immediately after the formation of ANS, a group called
the ANS Regional Advisory Group was formed. That group
represented many of the NSF non-profit midlevels (including
Nysernet, the midlevel from which PSI was formed). That
group was never asked to sign any confidentiality or non-
disclosure agreements. And no lawyers were present (except
for ANS's in-house counsel who was there to discuss possible
new service offerings).
So, I hate to break it to you, Stev, but we simply aren't the monster
that you think IBM has unleashed on the Internet world. It just ain't
so -- no matter how many times Marty insinuates it on these forums.
-Ittai
