On Tuesday, September 16, 2003, at 11:51 PM, Keith Davidson wrote:
Juha wrote:
2-daaayyoh, 2-day-ay-ay-oh. Internet sucks and me wanna go home.
Anyway, things seem to be working again.
So who's going to roast point the Giant Flamethrower at Marina Del Rey? Perhaps this is a job for Captain InternetNZ?
I guess it could be a job for InternetNZ. But it occurs to me that Veri$ign are doing nothing "wrong", it's just not within the spirit of Internet practices? I have greater concerns with Verisigns wait-listing for domain names and associated fees, but then, what the heck, I'm a bean-counter, not a techie...
There are actually 3 separate problems (maybe more?): 1. Obvious technical problems (sudden disappearance of NXDOMAINS the main one) screwing up non-HTTP traffic. 2. If you remove your name servers for a com/net domain instead of your site going dead - which you may actually WANT to do - Verisign now gets the traffic. 3. Verisign is now presenting a copyrighted page when an unregistered phrase is entered - possibly problems with existing TM terms that are not registered as domains ( the IP lawyers have been strangely silent so far) and Verisign may be able to claim rights through prior-use to any phrases that someone wants to TM in the future. 4. Anticompetitive - Verisign are monetising traffic (via pay-per-click affiliation) for non-existing domains. If someone wants to compete with them in the same arena, they have to first figure out exactly WHICH non-existing domain needs to be registered (whereas Verisign KNOWS which ones are producing traffic) then PAY Verisign $6 per annum per domain for the privilege to compete with them. Verisign has zero cost per domain. And you can bet your aunty that as soon as they get their butt kicked over this, they'll form a subsidiary, take a look at the data they collected during this test period, and register all the domains that will produce more than $6 per annum in click revenue. Verisign needs to have the com/net contract PULLED for this little stunt. I doubt ICANN will do it, without pressure from Doc and FTC. OK. 4 problems.