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Excellent WLS article

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DropWizard.com

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Congressmen turn on ICANN
By Kieren McCarthy
Posted: 20/06/2003 at 21:49 GMT


Incredibly, after nearly five years of well-documented and widespread abuse by the organisation charged with running the Internet, ICANN, US Congress has decided it doesn't like what's going on and two Congressmen have introduced legislation "to ensure healthy competition in the Internet naming market".

The Fair Transparent and Competitive Internet Naming Act has been introduced by Brian Baird and Jay Inslee, both Congressmen from Washington state, and was sparked by ICANN's attempt to hand another monopoly to its main benefactor VeriSign - this time giving it exclusive rights to all domains that expire.

However, what is interesting is that Baird and Inslee has written into the legislation that the US government's General Accounting Office (GAO) "study the operating procedures" of ICANN. The words "can" and "worms" are simply not big enough to explain the size of this were it to happen.

Both Congressmen appear to only be interested in the WLS issue - the handing over of all expired domains to VeriSign. And the only reason this interests them is because two of the companies most set to suffer from the WLS plan - Dotster and eNom - just happen to be based in Washington. In fact, the official press release says: "Brian Baird and Jay Inslee introduced legislation today to ensure healthy competition in the internet naming market and protect tech jobs in the Northwest", so it's quite clear where they're coming from. In this sense they appear to have hit a mine while digging for a dime.

You see, the approval of the WLS does indeed need review. VeriSign proposed to ICANN that if would be a nice idea if it was given complete control of every single expiring .com and .net domain. This, apparently, would clear up the terrible mess of competing registrars fighting over expired domains and bring clarity to the end users. For this service it would charge "no more than" $24.

It took about 30 seconds for everyone in the Internet industry to start shouting. First the issue of a $24 fee. How on earth could this figure be right when VeriSign already runs the .com and .net registries and when it charges just $6 for domain renewals (something it makes a tidy profit from anyway)? Where in God's name did this extra $18 per domain come from? There was no explanation given and ICANN seemed happy with it.

Then, there was the not unreasonable observation that by giving VeriSign control of expiring domains it was effectively shutting down any new business to any other registrars. VeriSign believes it has a god-given right to own, run and be paid for every .com domain - which in the early days of the Internet it did. This is the company that was sued, and lost, for sending out completely false and misleading emails to domain owners conning them into re-registering their domain with VeriSign - and here was VeriSign writing out its own cheques.

So, the WLS scheme was not popular. ICANN put it out for discussion. It came back completely against the proposal. ICANN put it out again to a different group. Same thing happened. It put it out again to another group. Still no one would do anything but condemn the idea. And then, the ICANN Board of Directors completely over-ruled everyone and everything and approved the scheme anyway.

It is this process that the legislation introduced hopes to get to the bottom off and until it does, it insists that the WLS plans be halted.

Except, as anyone that has followed ICANN will tell you, this process of divide-and-conquer by asking the same question again and again until someone gives the right answer has been going on for years. Although only recently has the Board become so complacent that it goes ahead with what it wants without any backing at all.

This corrupting process has seen ICANN rewrite its own rules at will, keeping people on the Board for years after they were supposed to have left. This process has written out the Internet users' right to vote for members of the board - just this week we heard that the people that will be running ICANN for the next three are almost to a man from its tightly defined elite. This process has alienated most other countries in the world to the extent that they are refusing to contribute funds to the organisation. This process has turned what was supposed to be a standards body interested only in the technical side of the Internet into a political animal whose budget and staff has expanded out of all proportion to the job it needs to do.

And it is this process that a US government auditing body would rip to shreds within a week given half a chance. Effectively, if ICANN's decision-making process was allowed to be held up and criticised and as a result the WLS decision reversed, ICANN would implode as the weight of every other unjustifiable decision pressed on it.

It is likely that the GAO would be allowed to do what the legislation suggests? No. But it is possible. The Congressmen's concerns are jobs going in their district. Patch that up and ICANN's off the hook. ICANN may tried to ring-fence the damage to just the WLS by offering another debate or by tying VeriSign into a more competitive set-up - anything but let its decision-making process be examined.

However, whether the whole thing comes to nothing or if it ends up destroying ICANN, there is only one real loser and that is the Internet. The Internet is supposed to live above geographical boundaries, it is supposed to be a medium that empowers everyone, provides everyone with freedom and allows everyone access to everyone else.

But in a sad reflection of current global politics, despite everything that is said and all the calming words that come from the US, the Internet is run by America and it will not let it go.

When, despite hundreds of critical voices from all over the world over several years, the only change that can be made to an organisation that is running the World Wide Web is one that is run through the United States legal system because of the fear of loss of jobs in Washington State, well, then we have a situation that is never going to be right.

This legislation is just the writing on the toe-tag for ICANN's corpse. This dream of an autonomous, independent Internet body is already dead. What happens once everyone realises that will be a defining point of this century. ®

found at http://theregister.co.uk/content/6/31357.html
 
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actnow

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Very interesting article.

It contains a number of points that I had not thought about.

I am against WLS. And, I think this article supports that position.

However, it is only two congressmen. How much other support do they have?

How much support does Verisign have on the hill?
 

garymayor

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The simple answer to all this is why not do a round robin system like enom but instead do it for the Registrars. Also only allow one wls subscription to one domain per day so only one person can register one domain per day stopping all the big boys from grabbing the lot.
There simple answer so why the hell don't they do it aaaaahhhhhhhhhhh??????????????????
 

Spider

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that answer is not simple, people with large families will get more WLS slots then.
 

garymayor

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Do it by credit card, tax number or something at least it'll cut it down!!!
 

actnow

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I don't agree to one per day. You can not run it as a business on one domain a day. 365 names a year.

Round robin for registrars would be an interesting idea. But, that would still injure NW, Snaps and Enom.

If you are against WLS have you written to your congressman or senator?
 

garymayor

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Hey do you get more than one a day at the moment that's actually worth anything. I think your lucky to get 1 a month.
NW & Enom wouldn't exist if the present system goes through. The round robin system has to be the farest way and one a day is more than anough.
I havn't bothered putting it to congression or senator because they wouldn't listen to one persons idea. As far as i can tell it's the most people with the most money running there own idea for there own benefit!!!
If anyone agrees with me let me know and i'll put to whoever needs to hear it.
 

Corwin

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Hey do you get more than one a day at the moment that's actually worth anything. I think your lucky to get 1 a month.

Agreed
 

Cartoonz

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Originally posted by garymayor
Hey do you get more than one a day at the moment that's actually worth anything.

Ummm..... Yeah, I do. A LOT more.

USE the system that is already in place, because if you can't compete now, there is no way in Hell that you will do any better with WLS.
 

garymayor

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i'll actually do a hell of a lot better if the new wls system comes in. Something like 95% of people after expired domains names get the crap and the other 5% get the good stuff. I bet the LOT more you get is crap unless your buydomains,ultsearch or one of the big guys. There's only a few big guys because out of the 30000 domains that drop each day possibly 1% is any good.
So most people in the game are wasting a lot of time and money getting the crap with the system i propose everything would be fair which the internet should be. Fair competition and all that at the moment there's no fair competition it's all in all who has the most money to gamble.
When the WLS system comes into play there will be no fair play it'll just be run by the big guys. Unless we do something about it. People go on about how the WLS system is wrong and what rules should be in place but what we need to look at is the overall impact on the game. The goal is to give every one a fair chance and take the load of the servers so why not make it simple at least that way no one company will get all the expired business that's not fair life isn't fair but hey why should we put up with it.
I've been in this game for years and basically pissed off with the big guys getting all the money hey where's the fair play?????
 

lux

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Originally posted by garymayor
There's only a few big guys because out of the 30000 domains that drop each day possibly 1% is any good.

And you can bet those "big guys" will have every bit of that 1% covered in WLS subscriptions the day it launches.
 

Beachie

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Originally posted by garymayor
Do it by credit card, tax number or something at least it'll cut it down!!!
Despite what you may think, the rest of the planet do not pay tax to America.

Interesting article..

If WLS goes ahead, UltSearch, BD etc will simply buy up all the big names. Don't anyone kid yourself that there will be a powershift to the little guy.

WLSubscriptions expire after twelve months, so who's gonna join me and start the first SnapWLSâ„¢ ;)
 

Attilio

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"that answer is not simple, people with large families will get more WLS slots then."

This would be absolutely fair.

More mouths to feed, more WLS slot :)
 

MillerTyme

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Originally posted by actnow
Beachie,

I just checked to see if you owned SnapWLS.com

I was surprised to see that SnapNames has owned it a year and half.


That's beyond funny.

Yeesh :rolleyes:
 

Cartoonz

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Originally posted by garymayor
i'll actually do a hell of a lot better if the new wls system comes in. ...
When the WLS system comes into play there will be no fair play it'll just be run by the big guys.

Just HOW will this help YOU do better under WLS than you do now?
 

Sharpy

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Don't worry, Mr GoDaddy will fix everything...mmmuuuuwwhhhaaa

That Seal will be in Montreal and he'll kick some butt:D:laugh:
 

888

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Originally posted by actnow
I just checked to see if you owned SnapWLS.com

I was surprised to see that SnapNames has owned it a year and half.

Instead of snapping a name, we'll snap a WLS first to get a name? Interesting :)

If the SnapWLS is taken, what's next? Snap a SnapWLS? Where does that end? :D
 

Beachie

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Originally posted by 888
Instead of snapping a name, we'll snap a WLS first to get a name? Interesting :)

If the SnapWLS is taken, what's next? Snap a SnapWLS? Where does that end? :D
I'd better register SnapWLSWLS.com and SnapWLSWLSWLS.com.. ;)

Will there be scheduled WLS drops? Who will drop them? Verisign or the Registrar? What will Verisign do when they get flooded with WLS registration requests? Limit the number of simultaneous connections? History repeats itself..
 

888

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Originally posted by Beachie
I'd better register SnapWLSWLS.com and SnapWLSWLSWLS.com.. ;)
Not that quick, WlsWinner.com (already registered by somebody but not NameWinner) will help to get the WLS :D. And the big boys will jump in with their private connections :eek:.

Will there be scheduled WLS drops? Who will drop them? Verisign or the Registrar? What will Verisign do when they get flooded with WLS registration requests? Limit the number of simultaneous connections? History repeats itself..
No need to worry, the additional $24 for WLS should cover the costs pretty well. :rolleyes:
 
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