Source: http://www.gao.gov/products/B-327398
Timestamp: 2017-08-22 03:39:21
Document Index: 643204532

Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 52', '§ 539', '§ 227', '§ 227', '§ 227', '§ 52', '§ 4', '§ 1862']

U.S. GAO - Department of Commerce--Property Implications of Proposed Transition of U.S. Government Oversight of Key Internet Technical Functions
The Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) proposes to transition its oversight of key Internet technical functions (the IANA functions) and the Internet domain name system to a global multistakeholder community. We addressed whether U.S. Government property will be transferred or otherwise disposed of in connection with the transition in violation of the Property Clause of the U.S. Constitution (Article IV). We find it is unlikely that either the domain name system or the authoritative root zone file (the “address book” for the top-level domain) is U.S. Government property under Article IV. We also find the Government may have certain data rights, and has limited intellectual and tangible property, all of which constitute Article IV property, but that property will be retained and not disposed of in connection with the transition. Finally, the Government has a contractual right to continued performance by the entities carrying out the IANA functions and related services. That right, which also constitutes U.S. Government property, would be disposed of if NTIA terminates the agreements rather than allowing them to expire, but NTIA has the requisite authority to dispose of this Government property interest.
B-327398
(2) if so, whether the proposed transition would result in the transfer or other disposal of such property and whether NTIA has the statutory authority for such disposal required by Article IV.
Our practice when preparing legal opinions is to obtain the views of the relevant agencies in order to establish a factual record and obtain the agencies’ legal positions on the subject matter of the request. GAO, Procedures and Practices for Legal Decisions and Opinions, GAO-06-1064SP (Washington, D.C.: Sept. 2006), available at www.gao.gov/products/GAO-06-1064SP. In response to our requests, we received responses and documentation from officials at Commerce, including NTIA; the Department of Defense’s (DOD) Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA); the National Science Foundation (NSF); and others.[7]
(1) It is unlikely that either the authoritative root zone file—the public “address book” for the top level of the Internet domain name system—or the Internet domain name system as a whole, is U.S. Government property under Article IV. We did not identify any Government-held copyrights, patents, licenses, or other traditional intellectual property interests in either the root zone file or the domain name system. It also is doubtful that either would be considered property under common law principles, because no entity appears to have a right to their exclusive possession or use.
However, we find that the U.S. Government does have certain rights under a series of contracts and agreements related to the domain name system and the IANA functions, and has title to limited intellectual and tangible property related to performance of these functions, all of which constitute U.S. Government property under Article IV. This property includes: (a) possible rights, licenses, and ownership of data and information produced under current and previous contracts and agreements; (b) a service mark for InterNIC®, held by Commerce and licensed to ICANN to provide domain name system-related public information; (c) minimal tangible property the Government has received as “deliverables” under the NTIA-ICANN and NTIA-Verisign agreements in the form of hard copies of reports, data, and other information; and (d) the Government’s right to ICANN’s and Verisign’s continued performance of the IANA functions and root zone management services, through expiration of their current agreements with NTIA.
(2) We find that almost all of U.S. Government property that we have identified will be retained and not transferred or otherwise disposed of in connection with the proposed transition. The Government’s right to ICANN’s and Verisign’s continued performance under their current agreements—which right constitutes Article IV property—would be disposed of if NTIA terminates the agreements or relevant provisions rather than allowing them to expire. However, we also find that NTIA has the requisite authority to terminate the agreements and thus to dispose of this Government property interest.
The Internet is not a single system but a “network of networks”—a collection of interconnected networks (hence the name, Internet)—allowing millions of users to communicate across distance and computer platforms. For purposes of this opinion, we use the term Internet to refer to the infrastructure, such as routers, servers, and connected devices, through which communication occurs. Today, there are an increasing number of connected devices—not just computers but, for example, smartphones, tablets, and, as part of the so-called “Internet of things,” cameras, cars, and buildings with network connectivity.
It is also important to understand that no formal institutional or governmental mechanism enforces the way the Internet works. The effectiveness of the current system relies on the mutual agreement of users to abide by the now-standard protocols and processes, with the utility of the system increasing as more people use the same system. While nothing stops any user from opting out of this system, a computer or other device that deviates from the standards risks losing the ability to communicate with other devices that do follow the standards.
To enable the billions of devices connected to the Internet to communicate with each other, each device is assigned a unique numeric Internet Protocol (IP) address that designates its location within the network. This system of unique IP addresses makes it possible for users to send and receive messages, conduct business transactions online, and access information from connected devices anywhere on the Internet. ICANN’s role, under its contract with NTIA and a memorandum of understanding with five Regional Internet Registries around the world, is to allocate large blocks of IP addresses and other numbers to the regional registries in accordance with globally developed policies. Each regional registry then further allocates blocks of IP addresses within in its region; the addresses eventually reach Internet Service Providers who allocate them to end users.[9]
B. The Names Function, including the Domain Name System and the Authoritative Root Zone File
As more and more users connected to the Internet, a naming system was developed known today as the domain name system. The domain name system makes it easier for individuals to navigate the Internet by translating easier-to-remember domain names (e.g., www.gao.gov) into the corresponding numerical IP addresses needed for sending and receiving information (e.g., 161.203.16.77, the IP address for GAO’s website). Domain names reflect a hierarchy. In left-to-right languages such as English, the “top level” of the domain name is at the far right, following the final period or “dot.” Today, there are over 1,400 top-level domain names, both generic top-level domain names (“gTLDs”), such as .gov, .com, and .org, and country-code top-level domain names (“ccTLDs”), such as .us and .ca.[10]
One of the critical components of the domain name system is the authoritative root zone file. The authoritative root zone file functions as a type of “address book” or “master directory” for the top level—and only the top level—of the domain name system. The file contains, among other things, the IP addresses of all of the top-level domains’ root servers,[11] as well as technical and administrative information about the designated operators of each top-level domain. The content of the authoritative root zone file is public[12] and generally is updated at least once a day. The authoritative root zone file is placed on a set of distribution servers where it can only be accessed by operators of 13 root servers.[13]
When a user types a domain name into an Internet browser to reach a website, this generally starts a search, known a query, to a root server.[14] The root server then uses the authoritative root zone file to respond with information on the location of the relevant top-level domain name server. The top-level domain name server, which contains similar information about the operators and IP addresses of all of the second-level domains’ name servers registered within each respective top-level domain, in turn sends queries to these and other servers, and the website ultimately is delivered to the user. (There may also be queries to third-level and other level domains’ name servers, depending on the domain name.) Figure 1 depicts the relationship of the root zone to the remainder of the domain name system.
Computers and other devices on the Internet communicate using structured commands and data. Protocols define the structure and format of information to be sent over a network and the commands to manage the transfer of information. (The hypertext transfer protocol, for example, is “.http.”) Protocols ensure that information can be sent and received in a standard, interoperable way. Protocol parameters, in turn, refer to the commands or identifiers (sequences of letters, numbers, or symbols) that manage the transfer of information. ICANN’s role, under its contract with NTIA and a memorandum of understanding with the Internet Engineering Task Force,[15] is to maintain a complete and public database of the protocol parameters.
The U.S. Government’s potential property rights with respect to IANA technical functions, the Internet domain name system, and the authoritative root zone file are governed in the first instance by the terms of the Government contracts and agreements under which they were developed and have been carried out. After describing the meaning of “property” under the Article IV Property Clause, we therefore review, to the extent possible, the specific rights or types of rights that the Government may have obtained in any such property under the terms of the contracts and agreements. We then determine whether any Government property would be transferred or otherwise disposed of in connection with the proposed transition and if so, whether NTIA has the statutory authority required by Article IV.
I. Whether There is Property Related to the Domain Name System and the IANA Functions That Constitutes U.S. Government Property under the Article IV Property Clause and Relevant Government Contracts and Agreements
Whether any equipment, data, rights, or other property created or used under these agreements in fact belongs to the United States depends in the first instance on the terms of the agreements. Government contracts and agreements often address matters such as which party shall furnish and own tangible property used to perform the required work; which party shall own patents or copyrights obtained on the work and what rights (licenses) the other party shall have; and what rights the parties shall have in other data, software, or processes developed or used under the agreement.
The types of property most likely to have been developed or used under the above-noted agreements are equipment and other tangible property; intellectual property (specifically patents, copyrights, trademarks and service marks, and trade secrets); technical data, computer software, and other information; and Government rights in any of the foregoing or any other Government rights under the contracts and agreements. In the remainder of this section and to the extent possible based on the limited record before us, we review the agreement terms to determine what property the Government may have obtained.
Common law property rights in the root zone file and the domain name system. As discussed above, courts applying traditional common law property principles have defined property in terms of a “bundle of rights,” with a key right being the right to exclude others from the property. Commerce asserts that no entity (including the U.S. Government) owns the authoritative root zone file based in part on cases finding that telephone numbers, zip codes, and home addresses are incapable of exclusive possession or control.[28] As Commerce told us, “[a]s a dynamic collection of technical, locational information published in the public domain for the nonexclusive use of Internet users, the root zone file cannot appropriately be described in terms of property interests.” 2015 Commerce Letter at 5.
We find that while the root zone file and the domain name system may or may not initially have been subject to exclusive Government possession or use pursuant to the DARPA contracts under which they were created, today copies are freely available to the public. Neither the U.S. Government nor any other entity appears to have a right to their exclusive possession or use. Although NTIA oversees and has some control over the file and the system through its ICANN and Verisign agreements, this does not make NTIA their “owner.”[29]
Equipment and other tangible property used in performing the 1980s DARPA contracts. There is evidence that some Government-funded equipment (e.g., computers) was used to perform the contracts under which the root zone file and domain name system were developed. Dr. Mockapetris told us he believed the first root zone file was created on a DARPA-funded computer at USC, for example. It is not clear whether USC or DARPA held title to any such equipment, however, and in any event, the equipment likely would now be obsolete and no longer in use.
NTIA told us it has not attempted to define the Government’s specific rights in the USC intellectual property acquired by ICANN (or the Government’s other possible rights under the 1970s-1990s DARPA contracts), and ICANN declined to offer its view of the Government’s or its own rights.[38]
We find that if there are any Government licenses or other rights in this former USC intellectual property now owned by ICANN, or in other data or property produced under the 1970s-1990s IANA-functions contracts, these rights would constitute Government property under Article IV.
Patent licenses under the contracts. Each of the contracts includes a FAR patent clause (not always the same clause). In general, the clauses authorize ICANN to retain title to any potentially patentable invention made in performing work under the contracts, or any invention conceived of or first reduced to practice in performing the contracts. If ICANN retains title, the Government obtains either a non-exclusive, non-transferable, irrevocable, paid-up license to practice the invention or, if ICANN declines or fails to elect to retain title, the Government may obtain title. We identified no such inventions or patents and NTIA and ICANN told us they are unaware of any.
Copyright licenses under the contracts. FAR § 52.227-14(c)(1)(iii) (Dec. 2007), which NTIA states applies to the NTIA-ICANN contracts, allows ICANN, with NTIA’s permission, to assert a copyright in data first produced in performing the contracts. The Government obtains a broad paid-up, non-exclusive, irrevocable, worldwide license in such copyrighted data (and obtains a more limited license if the data are computer software). We identified no registered ICANN copyrights in such data or software.[54]
[5] See Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2016, Pub. L. No. 114-113, § 539, 129 Stat. 2242 (2015).
[6] NTIA, Quarterly Report on the Transition of the Stewardship of the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority Functions Q2 FY2016 (May 2016) at 3. The NTIA-ICANN contract authorizes unilateral extension by NTIA through September 30, 2019. NTIA’s cooperative agreement with Verisign, which will require modification to implement the proposed transition, currently expires on November 30, 2018 and also provides for extension by NTIA in certain circumstances. Because Verisign performs additional services for NTIA under the cooperative agreement unrelated to the proposed transition, the agreement is expected to remain in effect in some form after the transition.
[10] At a more tangible level, the domain name system has been described as a system of interconnected databases and also as a set of protocol specifications, software application programs, network infrastructure, and a “namespace” i.e., all of the unique domain names that can be looked up. See Letter from General Counsel, Department of Commerce, to Managing Associate General Counsel, GAO (Dec. 15, 2015) (2015 Commerce Letter) at 1; ICANN Security and Stability Advisory Committee, Overview and History of the IANA Functions, SAC067 (Aug. 15, 2014) at 10.
[11] Servers in the root zone are often referred to as root servers, while servers in the top level and below are often referred to as name servers.
[12] A copy of the authoritative root zone file is available on the InterNIC® website, for example, currently managed by ICANN under a service mark license from Commerce. See https://www.internic.net/domain/root.zone (last visited Sept. 1, 2016).
[13] There are 13 servers, known as “A” through “M,” in the “root zone” (also known as the “root level”) above the top- level domain. These are operated by 12 entities including Verisign, ICANN, and U.S. Government agencies such as the U.S. Department of Defense. The “A” root server originally functioned as the “master” root server because the authoritative root zone file was placed there. For security reasons, the master role was transferred in 2002 to a separate set of distribution servers, which are not visible in the domain name system.
[20] See also United States v. San Francisco, 112 F. Supp. 451, 453 (N.D. Cal. 1953),aff’d,223 F.2d 737 (9th Cir.), cert. denied, 350 U.S. 903 (1955) (Secretary of Interior’s waiver of right to city’s reimbursement of road maintenance costs constituted “giv[ing] away [of] property of the United States” in violation of Article IV).
[21] See also B-276550, Dec. 15, 1997 (finding GSA lacked statutory authority required by Article IV to compromise the Government’s right to the City of Boston’s full payment under a promissory note). See generally Staff Judge Advocate, U.S. Air Force, Acquiring and Enforcing the Government’s Rights in Technical Data and Computer Software (7th ed. Aug. 2015) at 65 (waiver of Government’s contractual technical data rights, without Congressional authorization, may violate the Constitution).
[22]See, e.g., United States v. General Motors Corp., 323 U.S. 373 (1945); United States v. Lutz, 295 F.2d 736 (5th Cir. 1961).
[28] Commerce cites to In re Best Re-Mfg. Co., 453 F.2d 848 (9th Cir. 1971), and In re iPhone App. Litig., 844 F. Supp. 2d 1040 (N.D. Cal. 2012). 2015 Commerce Letter at 5.
[30] See Department of Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement (DFARS) §§ 227.402-70, 227.402-71(a) (1994). These basic DOD procurement policies remain in effect today. See DFARS §§ 227.7103-1(a), 227.7203-1(a) (2015). All citations to the DFARS and the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) in this opinion are found in the corresponding section of Title 48 of the Code of Federal Regulations.
[31] "Computer software" was defined as computer programs and computer data bases. DFARS § 227.401(5) (1994).
[35] USC’s TNT contract proposal for Task 4 stated, “Proprietary Claims. This proposal may contain original ideas for network administration and management. We wish those ideas to be protected from dissemination unless and until the effort is funded, in accordance with federal procurement regulations. The government has (non-exclusively) all rights to any results, prototypes, or other products of this effort. Any software created in this effort will be provided free of charge, except for a nominal handling fee, to any organization for non-commercial use. USC wishes to retain the rights to share in profits of any commercial exploitation of the results and products of this effort.” (Emphasis added.)
[36] Because USC had been performing the IANA functions under contract to DARPA since 1977, as noted in Appendix I, the Government’s possible data rights licenses under the TNT/Task 4 contract may also have included rights in any technical data, copyrights, and other property developed by USC under these previous contracts.
[38] ICANN did assert that the listed USC intellectual property to which ICANN took title in 2000 reflected the relatively unsophisticated and fully manual nature of how the IANA functions were performed at that time and included some open source software freely available for use, outdated databases, and various other items no longer in use.
[39] See 2016 NTIA Assessment Report, supra note 3, at 3.
[42] The 2003, 2006, and 2012 contracts incorporate multiple and different data rights clauses and alternatives. The 2012 contract incorporates seven data rights clauses and alternatives, for example, while the 2003 contract incorporates six somewhat different clauses and alternatives (not including the separate patent clause, discussed below).
[43] Some commentators have suggested that because the authoritative root zone file is not one of the 18 deliverables in the 2012 contract, it is not U.S. Government property. Others have suggested that because the 2012 contract deliverables included deployment of an automated root zone management system, the authoritative root zone file is U.S. Government property. In our view, the terms of the 2012 contact are not determinative since we conclude the root zone file likely is not Government property for the reasons discussed above.
[44] FAR § 52.227-14(a) (Dec. 2007) defined “unlimited rights” as “the rights of the Government to use, disclose, reproduce, prepare derivative works, distribute copies to the public, and perform publicly and display publicly, in any manner and for any purpose, and to have or permit others to do so.”
[54] ICANN told us it may hold common-law copyrights in some of the software it is using to perform the 2012 contract to which it has asserted restrictions, but states the software was not first produced under the contract.
[55] In some of the contracts, this provision includes an exception under which NTIA might furnish equipment to perform the contract. Commerce told us no Government equipment was furnished under these exceptions. See 2015 Commerce Letter at 3.
[56] As noted above, we also conclude the Government owns the minimal tangible property in the 26 deliverables transmitted to NTIA under the 2003, 2006, and 2012 contracts.
[57] Government data rights generally survive expiration or termination of the contracts unless provided otherwise. See generally INSLAW, Inc. v. United States, 40 Fed. Cl. 843 (1998). Moreover, as noted, certain of the Government’s potential rights are stated as “irrevocable” and others are stated as “unlimited rights” in both scope and time.
[58] If NTIA allows the agreements or relevant provisions to expire, this would not constitute disposal because ICANN’s and Verisign’s required performances would have been completed.
[63] See Scientific and Advanced-Technology Act of 1992, Pub. L. No. 102-476, § 4, 42 U.S.C. § 1862(g).
[64] One of the documents authored by Dr. Postel, often cited as the beginning of what became the IANA functions, is Jon Postel, UCLA Computer Science Department, “Proposed Standard Socket Numbers,” Request for Comments (RFC) 349 (May 30, 1972) (“ I propose that there be a czar (me ?) who hands out official socket numbers for use by standard protocols. This czar should also keep track of and publish a list of those socket numbers where host specific services can be obtained. . . ..”), available at https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc349 (last visited Sept. 1, 2016).