Subject: Verisign problems - redirection without RR's, how did it come to be?

From: [email-masked] (Dan Kolis)
Date: Tue, 23 Sep 2003 13:41:23 -0400

> Dan said earlier:
> Proves ICANN is not interested in the integrity of the DNS to have
permitted this.

Marc said is reasponse (to some extent):
> ICANN is probably busy trying to find a way to copyright the root domain.
> Everyone wants his slice of the unlimited possibilities for manufactured
> wealth inherent in IP law.
>ICANN could ask Dept of Commerce for an * in the root zone. It could
>solve all ICANNs financial problems. Perhaps com/net was just a test
>case to see what reactions would come? I don't really think so, given
>the way ICANN reacted. I think ICANN wasn't even consulted. Not that
>that gives much hope for the future of the DNS.

Dan says now:
Ahhh. Do you think so? Obviously they didn't ask. Any kid knows not to ask
the parent who will say no until you try it first. "Asking for forgiveness
works better than asking for permission".

Its not obvious to me hyjacking domains instead of selling them has a
business upside. But, I don't sit around inventing new kinds of spam,
either. If it was my *job* (even if I took it on as a volunteer) to prevent
a thing, I would think long and hard to stop lots of bad things, before the
illicit players in the field I regulate did them. Also, you would think
there is a generic description along the lines of "works to secure the
integrity of the Domain name system", and if any TLD provider doesn't do
that, they are removed.

I hadn't specifically considered ICANN as an organization is well meaning,
but not capable enough, to fulfill their mandate. Sounds reasonable though.

As nearly the ultimate Non-govermental organization, ICANN and the DNS
certainly does break new ground, so it seems reasonable unanticipated bad
things can happen.

In this scenerio, the most important thing is vast, punitive action without
recourse. So, $100 Million is a nice start. An of course, denial of future
sales to .COM, etc

Interesting as it is, this is pretty much a non-technical issue though. I
think? 

I just don't think there is much more to say here, specifically, if anywhere
on the subject. So, I won't keep posting on the subject.

Its just so depressing to see everything debased by bad people who don't
want to do things right. This is just a subset of that general thing.

Regards to all,
Dan