To: 'forum at alac.icann.org'; 'letters at nytimes.com' CC: 'press@verisign.com'; 'IR@verisign.com'; 'dcpolicy@verisign.com'
Dear Sirs,
Re: [Slashdot.org] Posted by timothy on Monday September 15, @09:23PM from the gotcha dept.
DragonHawk writes "As of a little while ago (it is around 7:45 PM US Eastern on Mon 15 Sep 2003 as I write this), VeriSign added a wildcard A record to the.COM and.NET TLD DNS zones. The IP address returned is 64.94.110.11, which reverses to sitefinder.verisign.com. What that means in plain English is that most mis-typed domain names that would formerly have resulted in a helpful error message now results in a VeriSign advertising opportunity. For example, if my domain name was 'somecompany.com,' and somebody typed 'soemcompany.com' by mistake, they would get VeriSign's advertising."
Adamant to scrub my machine of what I assumed at the time to be a hostile infection of my windows OS, I eventually found references to the above posting (http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=03/09/16/00342 10&mode=threaded&tid=126&tid=95&tid=98&tid=99)
As Verisign's tag line 'The Value of Trust" proclaims, we expect and demand simple and honest actions by those bestowed with power.
I therefore write in protest. I consider this action by Verisign to be a blatant exploitation of their position as domain name registrar. It is a flagrant abuse of trust for such a company in a monopoly position to redirect non-existent lookups to their advertising site. I believe this action demonstrates the need for tighter regulation of the industry and for the removal of those companies that abuse their monopoly position.
As you will note in the detailed technical and commercial opinions on the above page, am not alone in my opinion. I sold my Verisign shares on the news.
Yours faithfully,
Martin Cleaver
--
Martin at Cleaver.org Melbourne Business School MBA Candidate 2004 on Exchange to The Rotman School of Business. MSc BSc (Hons)
Slashdot Mirror
To: 'forum at alac.icann.org'; 'letters at nytimes.com'
.COM and .NET TLD DNS zones. The IP address returned is 64.94.110.11, which reverses to sitefinder.verisign.com. What that means in plain English is that most mis-typed domain names that would formerly have resulted in a helpful error message now results in a VeriSign advertising opportunity. For example, if my domain name was 'somecompany.com,' and somebody typed 'soemcompany.com' by mistake, they would get VeriSign's advertising."
2 10&mode=threaded&tid=126&tid=95&tid=98&tid=99)
CC: 'press@verisign.com'; 'IR@verisign.com'; 'dcpolicy@verisign.com'
Dear Sirs,
Re: [Slashdot.org] Posted by timothy on Monday September 15, @09:23PM from the gotcha dept.
DragonHawk writes "As of a little while ago (it is around 7:45 PM US Eastern on Mon 15 Sep 2003 as I write this), VeriSign added a wildcard A record to the
Adamant to scrub my machine of what I assumed at the time to be a hostile infection of my windows OS, I eventually found references to the above posting (http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=03/09/16/0034
As Verisign's tag line 'The Value of Trust" proclaims, we expect and demand simple and honest actions by those bestowed with power.
I therefore write in protest. I consider this action by Verisign to be a blatant exploitation of their position as domain name registrar. It is a flagrant abuse of trust for such a company in a monopoly position to redirect non-existent lookups to their advertising site. I believe this action demonstrates the need for tighter regulation of the industry and for the removal of those companies that abuse their monopoly position.
As you will note in the detailed technical and commercial opinions on the above page, am not alone in my opinion. I sold my Verisign shares on the news.
Yours faithfully,
Martin Cleaver
--
Martin at Cleaver.org
Melbourne Business School MBA Candidate 2004 on Exchange to The Rotman School of Business. MSc BSc (Hons)