ICANN At-Large Advisory Committee response to Verisign "SiteFinder"

[Dave Farber <dave () farber net>]

> Delivered-To: dfarber+ () ux13 sp cs cmu edu
> Date: Tue, 16 Sep 2003 17:20:07 -0400
> From: Gene Gaines <gene.gaines () gainesgroup com>
> Subject: ICANN At-Large Advisory Committee response to Verisign "SiteFinder"
> To: dave () farber net
> Organization: Gaines Group
>
>
> This is a forwarded message
> From:  Vittorio Bertola <vb () bertola eu org>
> To:    Gene Gaines <gene.gaines () gainesgroup com>
> Date:  Tuesday, September 16, 2003, 2:06:02 PM
> Subject: Verisign attempt to "take" all unpaid addresses
> =================Original message text===============
>
> =====
> The At-Large Advisory Committee would like to bring to ICANN's
> attention concerns about Verisign's surprising roll-out of the
> "SiteFinder" service for .com and .net.
>
> SiteFinder works by re-directing queries for non-existing domain
> names to the IP address of a search service that is being run by
> Verisign.
>
> This practice raises grave technical concerns, as it de facto
> removes error diagnostics from the DNS protocol, and replaces them
> by an error handling method that is tailored for HTTP, which is just
> one of the many Internet protocols that make use of the DNS. We will
> leave it for others to explain the details of these concerns, but
> note that returning resource records in a way which is countrary to
> the very design of the DNS certainly does not promote the stability
> of the Internet.
>
> These concerns are not mitigated by Verisign's efforts to work
> around the consequences of breaking the Internet's design on a
> service-by-service basis: These workarounds make specific
> assumptions on the conclusions that Internet software would be
> drawing from nonexisting domain names; these assumptions are not
> always appropriate.
>
> When working as intended, the service centralizes error handling
> decisions at the registry that are rightly made in application
> software run on users' computers.  Users are deprived of the
> opportunity to chose those error handling strategies best suited for
> their needs, by chosing appropriate products available on a
> competitive marketplace. Software makers are deprived of the
> opportunity to compete by developing innovative tools that best
> match the user's needs.
>
> We urge ICANN to take whatever steps are necessary to stop this
> "service."
> --
> vb.                  [Vittorio Bertola - vb [at] bertola.eu.org]<---
> -------------------> http://bertola.eu.org/ <-----------------------
>
> ==============End of original message text===========
>
> --

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