Stop Verisign DNS Abuse

We internet users, who either own domain names or have an interest in the domain name system, wish to object to the Verisign Sitefinder system. We believe that the system:

1. breaks technical standards, by rewriting the expected error codes to instead point to Verisign's pay-per-click web directory, and threatens the security and stability of the Internet;

2. breaks technical standards affecting email services, and other internet systems;

3. is anti-competitive, providing Verisign with 20 million eyeballs per day for "free", while not paying for the domains they are resolving. All other market participants pay at least $6 per domain per year (wholesale);

4. violates trademark rights of domain holders, by typosquatting on their .com and .net domains; and

5. violates the authoritative nature of DNS, turning it instead into a "best guess" system filled with uncertainty, thereby destroying the coherence of the DNS for Verisign's own short-term profit.

We hereby demand that ICANN immediately:

a) insist that Verisign cease giving incorrect answers to any query in .com and .net, and should instead follow the IETF standards;

b) if Verisign refuses, should redelegate the .com and .net zones to registries that are more willing to follow the DNS standards;

c) for greater certainty for all gTLD registries, pass a resolution stating that "gTLD Registry operateors WILL return NXDOMAIN for ALL DNS queries for which there is not a REGISTERED domain name"; and

d) that Verisign be reprimanded for their monopolistic abuse of the DNS system, and return all audited gross revenues from their Sitefinder system to stakeholders, via a payment to the Generic Names Supporting Organization (GNSO) of ICANN in the name of the Non-Commercial constituency

[Supporting documentation can be found at the sites below]

http://www.merit.edu/mail.archives/nanog/
http://www.opensrs.org/archives/discuss-list/0309/date.html
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=03/09/16/0034210
http://gnso.icann.org/mailing-lists/archives/registrars/
http://gnso.icann.org/mailing-lists/archives/ga/
http://log.does-not-exist.org/
http://www.icann.org/correspondence/lynn-message-to-iab-06jan03.htm
http://www.icann.org/correspondence/iab-message-to-lynn-25jan03.htm
http://gnso.icann.org/mailing-lists/archives/ga/msg00336.html