New Economy: Pact Raises Competition Questions
The contract — between the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, or Icann, and VeriSign Inc., — is the latest turn in a long, complicated process that continues to raise questions over whether the government's decision to move from a monopoly to market competition has truly opened the field to other players. An equally important issue has faded: whether the public has benefited from the new system.

Unlike the I.R.S., Icann is not a government agency; it is a nonprofit corporation with a limited policy mandate. But critics, including some in Congress, say it overstepped its boundaries in renegotiating the contract with VeriSign through proceedings largely shielded from public view.

The main concern with the contract is that it allows VeriSign to continue operating the registry database for dot-com addresses and collect a fee of $6 a year for every dot- com address registered, while also competing with other companies in selling those addresses to the public. Under an earlier contract, Network Solutions, which has since been acquired by VeriSign, would have been required to sell either the registry database or its retail division, on the theory that operating both was a conflict of interest.
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/05/21/technology/21NECO.html?pagewanted=all