Re: ICANN and Verisign settle over SiteFinder

[John Levine <johnl () iecc com>]

> I don't understand what VeriSign receives in return for their kowtow
> (under the agreement, they basically waive any right to criticize
> ICANN's role).

As someone else noted, a perpetual cash cow in .COM with 7%/year
escalator clause.

>  * ICANN signalled a positive outcome of a future Sitefinder review
>    under the new process.

Nope, there's this complex process with outside experts to review any
new proposed sitefinder like thing.

>  * ICANN promised to grant VeriSign the DNSSEC root and .ARPA
>    maintenance without tender (the "Root Server Management Transition
>    Agreement" goes into that direction; actually, the .ARPA stuff is
>    the interesting one).

My reading is the opposite, ICANN will create the root zone now.

>  * VeriSign has recognized that they couldn't win in court, and
>    suddenly want to play nice.

Quite possibly and don't be silly.  More concretely, they probably
decided they were unlikely to win more than this agreement gives them.

R's,
John