ICANN calls on VeriSign to suspend service

[Dave Farber <dfarber () cs cmu edu>]

> Delivered-To: dfarber+ () ux13 sp cs cmu edu
> X-Sender: mgeist () mailbox uottawa ca
> Date: Fri, 19 Sep 2003 22:59:45 -0400
> To: DFARBER () CS CMU EDU
> From: Michael Geist <mgeist () pobox com>
>
> Dave,
>
> It took five days, but ICANN has finally spoken.  It has asked VeriSign to 
> voluntarily suspend the Site Finder service while it awaits an objective 
> expert report.
>
> Statement at http://www.icann.org/announcements/advisory-19sep03.htm.
>
> MG
> --
> **********************************************************************
> Professor Michael A. Geist
> Canada Research Chair in Internet and E-commerce Law
> University of Ottawa Law School, Common Law Section
> Technology Counsel, Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP
> 57 Louis Pasteur St., P.O. Box 450, Stn. A, Ottawa, Ontario, K1N 6N5
> Tel: 613-562-5800, x3319     Fax: 613-562-5124
> mgeist () pobox com              http://www.michaelgeist.ca

Advisory Concerning VeriSign's Deployment of DNS Wildcard Service

On 15 September 2003, VeriSign deployed a "wildcard" service into the .com 
and .net Top Level Domain zones. VeriSign's wildcard creates a 
registry-synthesized address record in response to lookups of domains that 
are not otherwise present in the zone (including restricted names, 
unregistered names, and registered but inactive names). The VeriSign 
wildcard redirects traffic that would otherwise have resulted in a "no 
domain" response to a VeriSign-operated website with search results and 
links to paid advertisements.

Since the deployment, ICANN has been monitoring community reaction, 
including analysis of the technical effects of the wildcard, and is 
carefully reviewing the terms of the .com and .net Registry Agreements.

In response to widespread expressions of concern from the Internet 
community about the effects of the introduction of the wildcard, ICANN has 
requested advice from its Security and Stability Advisory Committee, and 
from the Internet Architecture Board, on the impact of the changes 
implemented by VeriSign. ICANN's Security and Stability Advisory Committee 
is expected to release an objective expert report concerning the wildcard 
later today.

Recognizing the concerns about the wildcard service, ICANN has called upon 
VeriSign to voluntarily suspend the service until the various reviews now 
underway are completed.

-------------------------------------
You are subscribed as interesting-people () lists elistx com
To manage your subscription, go to
 http://v2.listbox.com/member/?listname=ip

Archives at: http://www.interesting-people.org/archives/interesting-people/