Re: [IFWP] Access to the database

[Diane Cabell]

Weisberg wrote:

> Diane Cabell wrote:
>
> > Another interesting research issue is whether it was a government asset in the 
>first
> > place.  It wasn't exclusively for the benefit of the government since plenty of
> > non-governmental parties were also using it.  Even if you take the approach that it
> > was an administrative task, and not research, it isn't clear that the government 
>ever
> > had any obligation to perform the task in the first place.
> >
>
> What would be the legal significance of a finding either way?  Are you considering
> whether the community was intended as the "third party beneficiary" of the 
>Cooperative
> Agreement as regards access to the data?

No, I was thinking of it as a piece in the chain of authority (or lack of it) over the
Whois database and was raising the question of whether, if the USG decides to offer a 
phone
directory, the maintenance of the directory therefore automatically becomes a federal
power.

Diane Cabell
http://www.mama-tech.com
Fausett, Gaeta & Lund, LLP
Boston, MA