InterNIC

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InterNIC or Internet Network Information Center was the Internet governing body primarily responsible for domain name and IP address allocations until September 18, 1998 when this role was assumed by the ICANN body. It was accessed through the website internic.net which was run by Network Solutions, Inc and AT&T.

[edit] Term

Though the term "InterNIC" is commonly used to describe Network Solutions' distribution of domain names, "InterNIC" is actually a generic concept for an integrated network information center developed by several companies, including Network Solutions, in conjunction with the United States Government. InterNIC is a registered service mark of the U.S. Department of Commerce.

The first central authority to coordinate the operation of the network was the NIC (Network Information Centre) at SRI (Stanford Research Institute in Menlo Park, California). In 1972, management of these issues was given to the newly created Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA). In addition to his role as the RFC Editor, Jon Postel worked as the manager of IANA till his death in 1998.

As the early ARPANet grew, hosts were referred to by names, and a HOSTS.TXT file would be distributed from SRI International to each host on the network. As the network grew, this became cumbersome. A technical solution came in the form of the Domain Name System, created by Paul Mockapetris. The Defense Data Network Network Information Center (DDN-NIC) at SRI handled all registration services, including the Top Level Domains of .mil, .gov, .edu, .org, .net, .com and .us, root nameserver administration and Internet number assignments under a United States Department of Defense contract. In 1991 the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) awarded the administration and maintenance of DDN-NIC, which had been up until this point under the management of SRI for many years, to Government Systems, Inc. who subcontracted it to the small private-sector Network Solutions Inc.

Since at this point in history most of the growth on the Internet was coming from non-Military sources, it was decided that the Department of Defense would no longer fund registration services outside of the .mil TLD. In 1993 the U.S. National Science Foundation, after a competitive bidding process in 1992, created the InterNIC to manage the allocations of addresses and management of the address databases, and awarded the contract to three organizations. Registration Services would be provided by Network Solutions; Directory and Database Services would be provided by AT&T; and Information Services would be provided by General Atomics. Later, General Atomics was dropped after a contract review found their services not being up to the standards of its contract. General Atomics InterNIC functions were assumed by AT&T. AT&T discontinued their InterNIC services after their contract ran out.

In 1998 both IANA and InterNIC would be reorganized under the control of ICANN, a California non-profit corporation contracted by the US Department of Commerce to manage a number of Internet-related tasks. The role of operating the DNS system was privatized, and opened up to competition, while the central management of name allocations would be awarded on a contract tender basis.

[edit] Domain name censorship

Under internic.net, domain names were distributed through an automated system. Beginning in 1996, Network Solutions began restricting the distribution of domain names containing a number of words on a "restricted list" through an automated filter. The filter is known to have rejected domain names containing the "least agreeable words in the English language", including "shit", "piss", "fuck", "cunt", and "cocksucker". Applicants whose domain names were rejected would receive a form e-mail containing the notice: "Network Solutions has a right founded in the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution to refuse to register, and thereby publish, on the Internet registry of domain names words that it deems to be inappropriate."

This filter came under heavy scrutiny, as legitimate domain names such as "shitakemushrooms.com" would be rejected, but the domain name "shit.com" was active, as it had been registered before 1996. Network Solutions eventually allowed domain names containing the words on a case-by-case basis, after manually reviewing the names for "obscene intent". This profanity filter was never enforced by the government and was not carried over to the ICANN organization when they took over governance of the distribution of domain names to the public.