I don't know if this is a related move or not, but I just received an email from Verisign that they are selling NetSol. A snippet: Dear Valued Network Solutions(R) Customer, Today VeriSign, Inc. announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to sell Network Solutions to a new entity formed by Pivotal Private Equity. Please be assured that Network Solutions continues to be committed to providing superior products and customer service to our more than 4 million customers. You have seen evidence of this commitment in the numerous enhancements we have introduced over the last 18 months. This commitment remains strong today in our 600 employees, each focused on providing you with a superior customer experience. On Thu, 16 Oct 2003 Michael.Dillon@radianz.com wrote:
Just out of curiousity, I wonder how many domain registrations those of us on nanog represent? Contract sanctions from ICANN are one thing, taking all of our business elsewhere might also be effective at getting a point across (though it might also backfire - pushing Verisign to be even more agressive at taking advantage of their positioning).
There are alternative suppliers for registering domain names and SSL certs. Look here http://referrals.tucows.com/ for registrars that are alternatives to Verisign for .com and .net. Also, give your customers information about the .biz, .info and .us domains and ask them if they would choose those rather than .com. An awful lot of people want .com because they really don't know anything about the alternatives. In this day and age, people don't guess URLs anymore by sticking .com at the end of a word so there is no longer any advantage to using a .com domain name over a .biz or .info or .us. People learn about domain names from advertising or by clicking a link on a web page. In both cases .biz, .info and .us work just as well.
And don't forget to hire away all the best people from Verisign to cripple their ability to execute effectively. If they are willing to hurt your business for their own profit, then why shouldn't you hurt their business for your profit?
Remember, there is nothing inherent in Verisign's products that makes them better than the competing alternatives. Their only advantage is that their products were there first so people have formed the habit of buying from them without thinking.
--Michael Dillon
James Smallacombe PlantageNet, Inc. CEO and Janitor up@3.am http://3.am =========================================================================