Edited/Distributed by HURINet - The Human Rights Information Network --------------------------------------------------------------------- ## author : rushkoff@well.com ## date : 18.01.00 --------------------------------------------------------------------- Internet-Names Challenge Rejected By RICHARD CARELLI, Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON (AP) - The Supreme Court today rejected a challenge to the fees charged for registering and annually renewing Internet domain names. The justices, without comment, turned away arguments that the fees are exorbitant and that a former practice of designating a portion of the fees for a federal agency's use amounted to an illegal tax. Today's action, while setting no legal precedent, is a victory for the agency, the National Science Foundation, and Network Solutions Inc., the Virginia-based company that serves as keeper of the master list of World Wide Web addresses. The National Science Foundation, an independent federal agency, provides federal financial support for scientific research and science education programs. Under an agreement with the agency, Network Solutions has registered on a first-come, first-served basis more than 5 million addresses since 1992 for the top-level domains - those with "com," "org" and "net" suffixes. Internet domain names can be worth plenty. For example, a Houston businessman recently sold the domain name business.com for $7.5 million. Beginning in 1995, Network Solutions charged a registration fee of $100 and, after an initial two-year period, a $50 annual renewal fee for each domain name. Network Solutions received 70 percent of all fees for its services; the other 30 percent was designated for the National Science Foundation's use for Internet development and research. That 30 percent portion was discontinued in 1998, and the respective fees now are $70 and $35. A group of Web site owners sued in 1997. Their federal lawsuit, seeking millions of dollars in refunds, said the National Science Foundation's take was an illegal tax unauthorized by Congress and that the fees collected by Network Solutions far exceeded the nominal costs it incurred as keeper of the domain names registry. A federal judge initially said the 30 percent portion was an illegal tax, but Congress in 1998 passed a law explicitly authorizing that portion. The judge subsequently threw out the lawsuit, and a federal appeals court upheld the dismissal last May. The appeal acted on today argued, among other things, that Congress cannot retroactively authorize a tax that was illegal when first imposed. The case is Thomas vs. Network Solutions, 99-605. ---------------------------------- Send mail for the 'huridocs-tech' list to 'huridocs-tech@hrea.org'. Mail administrative requests to 'majordomo@hrea.org'. For additional assistance, send mail to: 'owner-huridocs-tech@hrea.org'. Archives of previous messages posted to the list can be found at: http://www.hrea.org/lists/huridocs-tech/markup/maillist.html
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