Editorial
The Net Wins Again
Several of Aardvark's field correspondents have filed reports of a small Irishman being physically expelled from the Devonport address of a leading NZ Net hosting company shortly after mid-day yesterday.

The expulsion was accompanied by some rather blue language which invited to the Irishman to go forth and multiply.

Unfortunately the owner of the hosting company was unwilling to comment on the reasons why he ejected the Irishman -- it seems there's some kind of "cone of silence" in place.

My sources also indicate that the same Irishman was seen knocking on the door of several other large ISPs in Auckland at various times during the day. It appears his reception was equally cold in those instances.

So what's going on?

Well, as I mentioned yesterday, the Net is changing the way news publishers are working. Yesterday, Russell Brown published a story on the IDG site which quoted liberally from emails that were previously "secret" but which had been leaked to a public mailing list. These emails were rather eye-opening, and certainly very embarrassing for those who wrote them -- an obvious reason why the would have preferred they remained hidden.

However, just as with the case of the billionaire drug user whose name suppression was effectively rendered impotent by the power of the Net, the same thing is effectively limiting the ability for closed groups to pull down the shutters against external scrutiny of their activities.

And that's the way it is with the Irishman and what would appear to be a plot to bully ISPs into doing this "his way."

I refer of course to the significant changes taking place in the way Domainz is going to handle the domain name registration process. In order to participate in the development and testing of this new system, ISPs have had to sign a non-disclosure agreement. This is a document which appears to be so far reaching in its coverage and draconian in its penalties that the ISPs concerned can't even admit that they've signed it -- otherwise they'd be in breach.

Not a one of those who signed have made any comments to the media -- on or off the record -- probably for fear of invoking Domainz team of "crack lawyers" who would then descend on them like hungry vultures -- as they have done in the case of the defamation action against Alan Brown.

But... and here's the twist, the whole "cone of silence" is effectively leaking like the Titanic -- thanks to the Net.

Despite the Irishman's protests, and the ISPs refusal to even consider making any form of comment, key pieces of the puzzle are being published (either by people out of legal-reach or who have chosen to remain anonymous) in various places on the Net -- revealing what appears to be a very nasty situation, likely to result in tears all round.

The Irishman is about to find out that he can't simply dictate to the industry how things will be -- they won't stand for it.

I'm still collecting details and I'll update you all on the situation tomorrow but suffice to say... this is a story that won't go away.

A footnote to today's column -- why is it that New Zealand, a tiny country on the backside of the globe, feels it necessary to send THREE people to the ICANN meetings in Cairo? Peter Dengate Thrush, Jim Higgins and Sue Leader have all gone to these meetings to represent ISOCNZ -- hell, what's going on here -- it sounds like a giant business-class junket to me!

One thing we can be sure of is that Jim Higgins hasn't gone to represent the membership of ISOCNZ -- he's made it very clear how he hold's members' opinions to be worthless. So tell us Jim -- what is your justification for being included in this junket?

As always, your comments are gladly received.

Free republication rights available on request

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