Many of us were outraged at the practices of the Toronto-based company that was charged a few weeks back by both Canadian and US authorities over their deceptive practice of sending out "Someone is trying register the .net and .org versions of your names, so let us get them first for you" notices.
Well, folks, what Verisign is currently doing with this campaign is only a few degrees different, and at the very least there should be a very public spanking.
What I and others have been saying for years is that NSI/Verisign has been getting away with this sort of thing virtually unchecked simply because of its incredible power, and a rubber stamp from the highest levels of the US government and lobby groups.
This current practice is so unbelievably deceptive and sleazy, it's hard to imagine that another company of similar size and weight wouldn't be hung in the media for this. I have long said that the mainstream AND alternative media has completely and utterly ignored NSI/Verisign's super sleazy business practices, and instead focused solely (and lamely) on the fact that they drop names without being punished. This is a serious issue--though not as much anymore of course next to the current whale of held names--but the larger issue of having a company completely dedicated to screwing the customer at every turn is much more important.
This is what happens when ten or eleven former employees of the largest obselete aerospace companies decide to reinvent themselves in the dot com era, and use incredible power to own the single most lucrative dot com license with complete ascension from Congress and powerful lobby groups. If you have not read the story of how NSI did what they did with total freedom from any government intervention beyond the most lame requirements, find the story and read it. I'll see if I can dig it up...
Meanwhile, if you're not familiar with Verisign's current sleaze campaign, read this link posted above:
http://www.datacenterwire.com/wmview.php?ArtID=846