''The Internet Systems Consortium'', or, '''ISC'' is a non-profit which supports "the infrastructure of the universal connected self-organizing Internet—and the autonomy of its participants by developing and maintaining core production quality software, protocols, and operations".<ref>[http://www.isc.org/about ISC About]</ref>
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==History==
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ISC began as the Internet Software Consortium Inc. in 1994; a decade later it changed its name to likely highlight its expansion beyond solely software based services.<ref>[http://www.isc.org/about/history ISC]</ref>. The founders of ISC believed that [[BIND]]'s integral part in enhancing and supporting the Internet needed to be fostered by an independent entity. [[IANA]] authorized ISC to be a root name server operator, which allowed ISC to support the use of BIND by root name servers.