Re: Verisign to sell Network Solutions
So...correct me if I'm wrong here...does this mean that the registry services operations and the GTLD maintenance operations for .com/.net will be owned by different companies?
Yep. And it means that Verisign business is no longer based so much on serving customers but more on leveraging various monopoly rights that they have such as ownership of .com and ownership of the main root CAs whose certificates are bundled with Microsoft's OS.
Isn't that what we wanted all along?
Uhhh... sort of, but I guess most folks really just wanted the whole domain name business to be handled in an open honest and fair manner. This latest move by Verisign doesn't make any substantial advance in that direction. The fact is that we have created Verisign's .COM monopoly by treating .com domains as the cool thing to have and we are sustaining Verisign's .COM monopoly by not educating our customers and our friends about the alternative domains that are available. As technically skilled people we could also help by developing detailled transition plans to help people shift to a new TLD and then turn off the old one. This isn't as straightforward as just slapping an extra zone into DNS and an alias onto Apache. If you want to get rid of the .com domain name then you need some way of identifying which traffic still uses the old .com domain name and then you need some means of notifying the users to change their own records or address books. --Michael Dillon
--On Thursday, October 16, 2003 5:08 PM +0100 Michael.Dillon@radianz.com wrote:
So...correct me if I'm wrong here...does this mean that the registry services operations and the GTLD maintenance operations for .com/.net will be owned by different companies?
Yep. And it means that Verisign business is no longer based so much on serving customers but more on leveraging various monopoly rights that they have such as ownership of .com and ownership of the main root CAs whose certificates are bundled with Microsoft's OS.
They don't OWN .com or .net. They have a contract to administer them in the interests of the public trust placed in them by USDOC and ICANN. They keep pretending they OWN them and that is a big part of the problem. We must not buy into this or they WILL end up effectively owning them. That will be even worse than what we are seeing today.
Isn't that what we wanted all along?
Uhhh... sort of, but I guess most folks really just wanted the whole domain name business to be handled in an open honest and fair manner. This latest move by Verisign doesn't make any substantial advance in that direction.
In fact, it is arguably regressive.
The fact is that we have created Verisign's .COM monopoly by treating .com domains as the cool thing to have and we are sustaining Verisign's .COM monopoly by not educating our customers and our friends about the alternative domains that are available.
While there is some validity to this, the reality is that there are a lot of existing .com identities that should not have to change just because Verisign is greedy. ICANN should work with good lawyers to develop a better contract for managing the .com and .net zones in the public interest and entrust that contract to an appropriate not-for-proffit organization as a replacement for Verisign's current abuses. They should attempt to expidite the transition, but, may be stuck with Verisgin until 2006/2007. Certainly, there should be no extension of Verisign's current contract, and, the orderly transition of the registry should be started as soon as possible. Owen
On Thu, 16 Oct 2003 Michael.Dillon@radianz.com wrote:
So...correct me if I'm wrong here...does this mean that the registry services operations and the GTLD maintenance operations for .com/.net will be owned by different companies?
Yep. Uh, actually, no. They're spinning off the registRAR operations. The registRY functions will still be retained by them. And it means that Verisign business is no longer based so much on serving customers but more on leveraging various monopoly rights that they have such as ownership of .com and ownership of the main root CAs whose certificates are bundled with Microsoft's OS. Wow. That sure seems to be a different scenario than we see today. [ yadda yadda yadda... ] matto --mghali@snark.net------------------------------------------<darwin>< Flowers on the razor wire/I know you're here/We are few/And far between/I was thinking about her skin/Love is a many splintered thing/Don't be afraid now/Just walk on in. #include <disclaim.h>
participants (3)
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just me -
Michael.Dillon＠radianz.com -
Owen DeLong