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ICANN To Hold Hearing About Site Finder

Posted by timothy on from the public-trust-is-a-non-sequitur dept.

An anonymous reader writes "According to article at InfoWorld, ICANN has scheduled a "fact-gathering meeting" concerning Verisign's wildcarding of the .com and .net Top Level Domains on Oct. 7 in Washington, D.C. Comments about Site Finder can be sent to the ICANN Security and Stability Advisory Committee at secsac-comment@icann.org. Here's your chance to be heard."

2 of 8 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Verisign's Actions by squiggleslash · · Score: 3, Insightful
    Remind me again, exactly how much Verizon had to pay for all of these names compared to what others pay for their assigned names?
    I'd hope Verizon didn't pay anything given they didn't get the unassigned names. Verisign is keeping them for itself.

    I know Verizon has a reputation for being an evil company etc, but really people need to stop dragging them into any discussion of Verisign's Sitefinder. They have nothing to do with it.

    --
    You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.
  2. this is where US-ians can help... by feepcreature · · Score: 3, Informative
    Those of you living in the USA can help by raising the mismanagement of the internet with your Congresscritters or Senators (or whatever you call them). Unfortunately, we aliens would be written off as troublemakers complaining about how the US runs "its" internet. So it's up to you!

    Fortunately, the issues are simple enough for politicians (and the great unwashed) to understand:

    • important since it affects the whole internet
    • government responsible since it controls the system via Dept of Commerce
    • unilateral action by the company entrusted with running .com and .net, flagrantly ignoring standards, regulations, and users
    • unfair commercial advantage to that company - bad for competition
    • breaks "lots of stuff" on the internet (examples left as an exercise for the reader)
    • could get you more spam!
    • thin end of wedge - if Verisign (with the privileges given them by the DoC, via ICANN) get away with ignoring net standards and norms, we create a precedent for rogue states and other bodies to damage the internet and the strategic interests of "the free world" by even more damaging self-interested unilateral action
    • failure by US government to fix the problem will potentially embarrass the USA, and increase pressure to remove its control of the internet (which would probably be a good thing, except that the UN would probably be even worse than the USA)
    You can think of lots more reasons, no doubt.

    --
    Paul "Say no to feeping creaturism"