From: "FEDIX OPPORTUNITY ALERT"
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A US appeals court ruled Friday that the money in a $62-million
Internet Development fund was collected legally from registrants of
Internet addresses and could be spent on internet development. The
news delighted officials at the National Science Foundation, which
has already pledged to spend the money on network-research projects
at dozens of universities.
Each time a company, organization, and individual paid to register a
".com," ".net," or ".org" name from 1995 through 1997, $15 a year went
into the a fund developed under an agreement between NSF and Network
Solutions, a Virginia company that manages the Internet registration
process. The fund, knows as the Intellectual Infrastructure Fund,
was intended to be used for unspecified Internet improvements.
However, a group of individuals and Internet companies sued the two
parties in 1997, alleging that the fee was an illegal tax.
The US District Court for the District of Columbia agreed that it
was a tax but said that Congress could retroactively authorize it,
which lawmakers did later that month. The decision was appealed and
a ruling on Friday by US Court of Appeals says that once Congress
approved the fee, the fund became legal.
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Bill Lovell
