On Fri, 19 Sep 2003, at 09:13 [=GMT-0400], Milton Mueller wrote:

> Hi, this message is from a former NCUC member who believes we
> should pay more attention to the VeriSign redirection of domain
> names to a search site. This has been a hot controversy and will
> be discussed on the Council next week. I assume that most of us
> are against this practice, altough the issue of how much authority
> ICANN has to do anything about it remains less certain. The ALAC
> has taken a position against it. Please provide me with your
> opinion. --MM

What I find most disturbing is that Verisign can simply change the
behaviour of the DNS without advance notice or discussing it with
anyone outside.

Not only Verisign is guilty of this. Same is true for PIR, which
simply killed IDN .org names somewhere in March of this year. Verisign
at least told us about their move. PIR didn't, and it has refused to
explain when and why to me so far, despite promises by Beckwith to
send me a full report the next day. That was a long time ago.
Subsequent reminders were ignored.

These registries have simply unrestricted power over something people
depend on. And it is unclear who can restrict them. This is very bad.
Let's not leave this to lawyers. It is something political.

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