VeriSign DNS in Trouble

hesiod writes "Over at CNet News, there is an article reporting that VeriSign may lose their ability to sell domains. Evidently, ICANN is miffed because VS's WHOIS database has incorrect information. Not exactly news to most of us, but they have been given 15 days to fix the errors, or risk losing the ability to sell domains."

Comments

This isn't entirely Verisign's fault

[wowbagger]

True, bogus WHOIS data makes it very hard to track down spamm^H^H^H^H^Htroublemakers on the 'Net, but is this really Verisign's fault?

If I register floobydust.com, and I fill in a contact email that becomes invalid three days after I go live, is that Verisign's fault? What should they do, spam everybody in their WHOIS and purge the bounces?

I can think of lots of reasons to yank Verislime's ability to sell domains, but I'm not sure this is one of them.

Re:Screw ICANN

[(startx)]

he's saying the only way he'll put in accurate info is if that info is a P.O. Box, which costs money. He doesn't want to list his home address for obvious reasons.

They have a point

[Kiwi]

I think the point ICANN is making here is not that Verisign has to make each and every single WHOIS contact info accurate. The point is that Verisign does not even care that their WHOIS contact informaiton is bogus more often than not.

People would complain to Network Solutions about spammers having obviously bogus WHOIS information (such as phone numbers of --- --- ----), and their reply was that "WHOIS information is ot guaranteed to be accurate".

I think the response is that, if a given set of WHOIS contact information is bogus, and people complain about the bogus information, Verisign should pull the domain in question until they update the information to have legitimate contact info.

A spam-friendly domain without real WHOIS contact information should be pulled until the information is updated. People should be held more accountable for what they put up on the internet; non-bogus WHOIS contact info is a start.

- Sam (Pot. Kettle. Black. I've moved since signing up for my domains, and have not updated the WHOIS contact info)