ICANN Disputes Disputes

Merry_B.Buck writes "ICANN, the US government-approved group that alternates between haggling over the DNS system and doing nothing, has issued a warning to domain name holders to beware of deceptive mailings claiming that the name is being disputed per the UDRP and asking for money to defend it. Slightly sneakier than Verisign sending deceptive domain renewal notices..."

Looks Like

[ThePilgrim]

ICANN has got somthing right for a change, judging from their responce.

I wonder who the guilty party is, and what the outcome of any crimanal procedings against them will be.

i guess

[bpb213]

I own two domains. Both are registered for 8.95 a year at godady, and one of them i actually coughed up the fee to get forwarded to my college account.

I have yet to recieve either a letter from Verizon or from this new XChange.

So i would assume (yes i know the saying) that they either are targeting:
1. Domains that are a certain age and older
2. Popular domains that they think they can get money off of.

I bet the other small fish like me really need not worry about this, but thats just my opinion.

Re:i guess

[Masem]

(Nitpick) You probably meant "VeriSign" and not "Verizon", the former is the one sending out the questionable "Renewal Notification" letters. Last I checked, Verizon wasn't even in the DNS business...

Re:i guess

[bpb213]

Yes.... i had just finished reading the dsl story before posting this.. ;)

Good call tho, let us not heap blame where it doesnt belong.

Verisign sending sneaky renewal notices

[omarius]

Domain Registry of America is doing the same thing. I sent rather unfriendly email to a DRA rep who had mailed me (as the admin contact) info on how to xfer my dad's domain from Verisign.

When I wrote to explain that I had never done business with them and this was particularly sneaky spam, the rep responded saying he had received payment! I didn't really figure it out until I got a "renewal notice" on another one of my domains from DRA.

Deceptive.

-Omar

Re:Verisign sending sneaky renewal notices

[Dead Penis Bird]

More info can be found in this earlier Slashdot story [slashdot.org].

And on the other hand, verisign refuses to renew..

[masonc]

I just spent a miserable twenty minutes on an international call with the stupidest sales person on the planet trying to renew a verisign domain because their website will no longer accept my credit card. Surprise, even the human automaton was unable to accept the card, and so they had to admit, verisign has managed to refine their system to the point where customers from smaller countries are no longer accepted.
Our crime is that we don't have postal codes in Anguilla, and even though we have probably the world's only end to end wireless broadband network , we are too backward to be able to use our credit cards online.
So now I have to call in favours to get my domains renewed, at least until I can move them to someone who does care about the customer and is willing to get paid for services rendered, even if it doesn't come with a postal code.

Let me get this straight...

[asackett]

This is just too much. When ICANN finally gets one thing right, even if it's a simple little thing like this, it's news?

No wonder I like the Open Root Server Confederation [open-rsc.org] so much. They get lots of things right, but can't get in the news to save their lives. They give me access to over a thousand top level domains (1105, right now), and if I wanted to play ubergeek and create my own TLD, as long as I could show that I know how to make sense of it all, they'd let me.

Even though I don't run a public root server (I run my own local root cache), and don't own a TLD, they listen when I offer up comments in their mailing lists. I'm only on the tech list, have had only a little bit to say, but dammit, they listened. When's the last time ICANN listened to anyone who wasn't a massive commercial entity?

ICANN makes a big deal about how hard it is to manage a handful of top level domains, how it costs millions of dollars a year and still they need more. What, are we buying Vint Cerf a new vacation home in every country the internet reaches? The Open Root Server Confederation [open-rsc.org] handles 1105 TLD's, gets by on almost no dollars, and what little they're in need of is donated, not extorted. I can get behind that, without reservation.

It's time for ICANN to feel the pressure of the real world, to compete head to head with other folks on a level playing field, and let's see if ICANN can squeal like the pigs they are. Pay a visit to the Open Root Server Confederation [open-rsc.org], tweak your configuration to use their roots, and see the whole internet... and let's see how long ICANN remains relevant.