I have been sent a notice from Paul Twomey, CEO of ICANN, about its recent agreement with VeriSign settling the litigation between the two parties. This is an important agreement, because it does more than settle the Sitefinder litigation. ICANN and VeriSign viewed this litigation as a bargaining situation. ICANN entered into a bargain with VeriSign regarding the future of the .com registry and the management of the root zone. The registry agreement was modified to give VeriSign longer term control of .com and to raise its prices (although I have not looked at the details yet - consider this second hand info). Settlement agreement http://www.icann.org/tlds/agreements/verisign/ICANN-VRSN-settlement-agreement-2005.pdf New .com agreement http://www.icann.org/tlds/agreements/verisign/index-2005.htm ICANN is asking for constituency comment on this agreement. Comments are open for 24 days. I will prepare something for the constituency. In the meantime, Your comments are welcomed. Dr. Milton Mueller Syracuse University School of Information Studies http://www.digital-convergence.org http://www.internetgovernance.org