Bounty from the web

By Michael Field

Once upon a time it was sandalwood and pearls, then it was postage stamps. Now it is all in the world of the

Internet and the battle for the “top level domain” name. TLDs are suddenly big news; Pitcairn Island has won a significant international battle for its Dot PN (the .pn at the end of any email), while American Samoa has taken a pasting over its Dot AS and Tuvalu might finally, after years of frustration, now be cashing in on Dot TV.

Suddenly cyberspace is becoming important to the Pacific and its security is an issue. Niue is trying to nationalise its Dot Nu name while in Fiji there is bewilderment at how the state monopoly on Internet services has left the region’s leading nation with connections slower and more unreliable than practically anywhere else in the world. That included in February a complete collapse of the system which saw Fiji blaming MCI in America for it.

Firstly to Pitcairn, that settlement founded by descendant’s of history’s most popular mutiny. In the 1789 event on the ship Bounty master’s mate Fletcher Christian, driven by love for a Tahitian, led an up-rising against captain William Bligh, easily one of history’s more maligned characters.

Fletcher Christian’s ultimate fate was never resolved, but his descendant Tom Christian, 65, has tended to become the voice of Pitcairn Island. Along with the late King of Jordan he was the most popular contact in ham radio. This influence has diminished with the installation of an Inmarsat terminal on the island, offering easy, if expensive telephone calls. Mostly the islanders used it as a fax machine - and among the first faxes sent was a copy of Tom Christian’s ECG when he had a heart attack.

The Internet is not yet on Pitcairn but in 1997 Christian joined with a British Channel Islander, Nigel Roberts, to claim the Dot PN TLD. Robert’s company Orichalk picked up the revenue from one selling domain names and Christian was supposed to get a third of the money.

Pitcairn Commissioner Leon Salt, who is based in Auckland, believes that Christian should have got about NZ$3O,OOO based on the number of Web pages operating with the Dot PN. Christian says he never got any of the money and most are inclined to believe him.

After all, only 50 people now live on Pitcairn and it would be hard to hide that kind of wealth.

The Pitcairn Island Council and the British

Government set out to get the TLD, but to the continued opposition of Tom Christian.

“Certainly there was some tension on the island over this,” Salt said. In January the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) awarded Dot PN to the Council. ICANN made its award after a report from the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA), written by one of the late founders of the Internet, Jon Postel.

IANA said the original 1997 designation was made in Christian’s name with Nigel Roberts as technical contact. Roberts is described as a private computer consultant.

After the award was made Salt appealed, saying the original award did “not adequately serve the interests” of Pitcairn. In November 1997 the island’s Chief Magistrate, Jay Warren, wrote on behalf of the island council seeking the name.

“The Island Council feels it is important to ensure the name “Pitcairn Island” and its abbreviated form “pn” should serve the interest of Pitcairn Island and the islanders rather than the interest of any individual or organisation not connected with the island,” Warren’s letter said.

Robert’s objected to what was going on and told IANA that “the very highest level in London” was considering over-ruling the island council. Enter, the following year, Baroness Simons, the British Government Minister with responsibility for UK Overseas Territories, who applied for the name and was told Roberts was not co-operating. Nor was Christian.

The Baroness then noted that the original award broke the rules because Tom Christian had no direct link to the Internet anyway.

In September last year Salt was back writing to IANA with a petition stating: “We, the undersigned, being residents of Pitcairn Island, do hereby request and require that the management of our nation’s Internet Top-Level Domain (.pn.) be reassigned forthwith to the Pitcairn Island Administration in Auckland, New Zealand... ”

For good measure Salt added the petition had been “signed by the entire resident adult population of Pitcairn Island (excluding other nationals), with the exception of two members of the community. Those two are Tom

Christian, who is the present designated administrative contact, and his wife.”

But things happen on small ships and islands and a month later Tom Christian

sent a letter saying “I now wish to change the delegation of the management of the TLD... ”

Now Dot Pn is in island hands and Salt is confident that with the selling and renting of domain names they will be able to raise enough money for the islanders to get the Internet perhaps free of charge as on Niue.

Meanwhile on American Samoa the Pitcairn outcome attracted keen interest.

Dot AS was, it seemed, in the hands of a private Internet administrator, one Joseph Matua, who lives in California.

The territory’s government wanted it, although American Samoan Governor Tauese Sunia was anxious to make the point there had been nothing wrong over the original Matua deal. ‘’There have been no underhanded deals made by the government or any individual, that I’m aware of, to gain from the .as Internet domain,” he said. He said if anyone is making money from Dot AS “I have no knowledge of it or allowed it to happen”.

His only involvement in the domain affair was when he was contacted by Matua with an offer to put up a webpage for the Governor’s Office, free of charge. Tauese said Matua was interested in promoting the good things that the government was doing as most of the news coming from American Samoa on the Internet was negative. “I jumped at the chance,” Tauese said.

“I wanted to take advantage of his offer to promote the good things that the government was doing.” Earlier the director of the Legislative Reference Bureau, Afoa Moega Lutu, alerted the Fono that the domain name was being sold without any revenues due to the people of American Samoa. The legislature passed an emergency resolution urging Tauese expedite the re-delegation of the American Samoa domain name.

Matua strongly objected, saying he was

providing free websites for the government, parliament, judiciary and schools, as well as a free chat line for Samoans across the world.

ICANN sided with him, saying any dispute had to be resolved by negotiating.

“The Internet is a private sector activity,” wrote ICANN General Counsel Louis Teuton, “and while the lAN A welcomes governmental viewpoints when they are offered, none were offered in the case of ‘dot-as’.” ■