-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Howard C. Berkowitz wrote:
Given that this functionality does exist in web browsers, there's the flavor of monopolistic competition that may be vulnerable to antitrust action.
Verisign is indeed being monopolistic here. But you still have a choice of disabling/changing software on your local machine, that is your personal choice. If you install the Google/Altavista/Yahoo toolbar like many people do you will get that functionality. You are probably hinting to MS's dominant IE position, you can turn it off. You can't turn off sitefinder easily though. todd glassey wrote:
Howard C. Berkowitz wrote:
*if* Verisign gets it through that the installed base has to bend over because they introduce such a thing it would be a very bad thing for the internet as a whole and it would really mean that the internet is yet another commercial thing controlled by one single entity.
Hmmm - Jeroen, I dont think this is what this means at all. What it means is that today there is no one entity controls what is routed or passed through and over the Internet.
Not routed or passed indeed, that is IP level and that is done per ISP/network.
In fact the Internet is a fiction. It is peering agreements and now-adays a number of DNS roots. So then what is it you are really looking for? A single authority to manage the Internet?
I am not looking for that. ICANN made it possible that there was one well-known root (there are indeed others). This root is currently in control by Versign and they are now going to just make it work for them, not for the public, not for the ISP's. If they can do that, it is exactly that, the root is Verisign's and not that of the public and not of the ISP's. Verisign should NOT be putting wildcards in the .com/.net zones as it is NOT their domain, they where entrusted by the public and with that the ISP's to run .com/.net and make sure that it keeps working in the way it used to. But now they are going to make money from a public resource by abusing their power they have over the .com and .net zones. Even though many have oposed _after_ they suddenly implemented it breaking quite a lot of applications and usages.
For instance - who controls what ISP's route and don't route at the client-side level?
The ISP itself because that is their part of the internet. It isn't called inter-network for nothing.
Becuase for all intents and purposes, the back-end is just pipe. The answer that you will find is that NO ONE controlls the Internet today.
DNS is a *very* important application in todays internet, he who controls that, controls the internet as that is the biggest user base. I don't see a major fraction of the internet suddenly moving away from the current roots simply because that is the part where the information is. Ofcourse you can use your .leet domain, but who can access it? Greets, Jeroen -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: Unfix PGP for Outlook Alpha 13 Int. Comment: Jeroen Massar / jeroen@unfix.org / http://unfix.org/~jeroen/ iQA/AwUBP5QYVSmqKFIzPnwjEQIsxwCfd7xBNFu+PDHzIzBxVjTf6yLBzDoAnRHL 6XmnyKSMUFPv7XTvquDMJNgj =JnUE -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----