Historical Replication Notice
This page is a faithful replication of a historical work originally published in 1996 as a website by Jonathan Agmon, Stacey Halpern and David Pauker while LL.M. candidates at The George Washington University Law School. It is reproduced here by Agmon Law Pte. Ltd. for historical and educational purposes. The content reflects the law, technology and internet infrastructure as they existed in 1996 and has not been updated. Nothing on this page constitutes legal advice. Most hyperlinks referenced in the original no longer function.
History and Structure of the Internet
According to an internet draft of a paper titled "Trademarks on the Internet: Who's In Charge" by David Maher, a representative of a group called the Federal Networking Council (FNC) — which is made-up of 18 U.S. federal agencies — claimed, at a Washington, D.C. meeting in November 1995, that the FNC owns the domain name number space.
The following will offer more cogent information.
For information regarding the history and structure of the Internet:
http://homepage.seas.upenn.edu/~lzeltser/WWW/
"The World-Wide Web: Origins And Beyond." by Lenny Zeltser. A good primer with a bibliography.
http://www.bcl.net/~jberry/users/jan96.html
Links related to the topic of the history and structure of the Internet with a Library of Congress Internet resource page.
http://www.w3.org/pub/WWW/
The World Wide Web Consortium World Wide Web Home Page at CERN. Organization, technical specifications, programs and other information and material.
http://www.w3.org/pub/WWW/WWW/
A brief history of the web by the people at CERN — where some say the idea began.
http://ksgwww.harvard.edu/iip/
Harvard John F. Kennedy School Information Infrastructure Project. Technical information and minutes of symposia about the structure and management of the web.
http://rs.internic.net/help/domain/background.html
What is InterNIC, and information regarding NIC support services.
http://www.albany.net/~fioril/policy.html
"Who Controls the Internet?" by Leonard Fiorilli. A brief explanation of who designs and maintains the web, with hyperlinks to related sites, information pages, and government sites. Also: Information about the Internet Engineering Task Force, the protocol engineering and development arm of the internet.
http://ietf.cnri.reston.va.us/home.html
Home page of the Internet Engineering Task Force.
http://www.ietf.cnri.reston.va.us/tao.html
"Tao of IETF" by Gary Malkin. A comprehensive explanation of the Internet Engineering Task Force.
http://ietf.cnri.reston.va.us/proceedings/95dec.html
Minutes of the December 1995 proceedings of the 34th Internet Engineering Task Force.
http://www.ccs.org/validate/wwwspec1.html
An introduction to specifications for the World Wide Web.
http://www.isi.edu:80/in-notes/usdnr
Overview of the structure of the Top Level .us Domain.
http://www.nw.com/zone/WWW/top.html
Internet Domain Survey statistical information as of January, 1996.
http://rs.internic.net/nsf/review/review-toc.html
Hyperlinked table of contents for December 1994 InterNIC Midterm Evaluation and Recommendations Report to the NSF.
http://rs.internic.net/nsf/agreement/agreement_toc.html
Agreement between Network Solutions, Inc. and the National Science Foundation for NSI to administer certain aspects of the Internet.
For more information regarding technical terms:
http://www.bev.net/wnet/defs/
A list of some definitions of technical terms.
