03/10/2004: 
Fraud & Conspiracy
ICANN's tongue slithers further up Verisign's foetid backside
ICANN Board Approves Controversial Domain Name Service
by way of Cory Doctrow, Boing Boing
The lickspittles of ICANN have granted a Verisign proposal to allow people to place standing orders for domains, in order to snarf them up the minute they expire.
During ICANN's weeklong meetings in Rome last week, the VeriSign-proposed back-ordering service drew criticism during periods of public comment, according to registrars who attended. To Ric Chambers, managing principal of registrar R. Lee Chambers Co. LLC of Ooltewah, Tenn., a plaintiff in the ICANN lawsuit, the board seemed determined to approve the service regardless of the objections raised in Rome.I can think of a couple instances in the past couple years, where legitimate business sites, in one case I believe a law enforcement site, have become porn sites because their domain registration had unintentionally expired, and some asshat had snapped it up. This would allow the same type of people to place an order for a domain, say helpabusedchildren.org, ahead of time and if that registration lapsed for even a moment, it would now belong to the previously mentioned asshat. This comes only a month after Verisign sued ICANN "challenging whether the non-profit corporation has the authority to regulate and restrict the types of services it can offer in the domain-name registry area." Verisign and SCO, part of an emerging "computing axis of evil?"
"It is hard to reconcile the level of disagreement on the WLS and a vote of the board," Chambers said in a statement. "It suggests that there was more going on here this week than was seen and heard in the public meetings."
For more information check out Doctrow's source.
8 Annotations Submitted
Wednesday the 10th of March, rafuzo noted:
whois records already (and always have) post domain expiration dates. Any nitwit can look up his domain(s) of choice, see the expiration date, and have, say, MS Outlook remind him at 23:58 UTC that his preferred name expires in two minutes. This new proposal simply streamlines and brings some order to the process. It's hysteria spawned by Doctorow's blinding ignorance of how computers actually work.
Wednesday the 10th of March, prof noted:
"This new proposal simply streamlines and brings some order to the process."
process seems kinda scummy, would that be something we would *not* want streamlined?
Wednesday the 10th of March, awiggins noted:
"It's hysteria spawned by Doctorow's blinding ignorance of how computers actually work."
And therefore by extension, me. Hysteria seems a little strong a term. I do not see how you have grounds for saying that Doctrow is ignorant of how computers work based on this article.
The point of the article is as prof said. It is a scummy and underhanded process that was passed through under protest just a month or so after Verisign sued ICANN. That does not seem a little suspicious to you? Sure any "nitwit" can set up a reminder in their calendar of choice so that they can steal domains from people too stupid to renew on time. The question is why should the process be made any easier for these people?
Now if you would like to take a moment from snide comments and come down off of your intellectually superior pedestal for a moment, it would be pleasant to hear why this back-ordering idea is a good one.
Wednesday the 10th of March, rafuzo noted:
Calling it scummy is one thing. I'm not a fan of domain squatters myself. But saying this agreement gives them powers heretofore unavailable demonstrates not only a disregard for the facts of the matter, but a disinterest in them as well. Hyping up the parties as "lickspittles" serves only to incite said hysteria.
Saying Doctorow is ignorant of how computers work was based on a context I didn't make clear. I've been a reader of boingboing for quite a while and he's one of the more noxiously ignorant (and thus, self-righteous) b-list internet celebrities I've come across. If you read his fiction, you'll understand how I justify my prior statement.
And if I thought you were hysterical, I would've said so. If you'll take a moment to stop implying things that are untrue and come down off your moral high horse, we might actually have a straightforward discussion.
Wednesday the 10th of March, awiggins noted:
Ok, please point me in the direction of the facts that I am missing out on.
Wednesday the 10th of March, rafuzo noted:
See my initial comment: The agreement does nothing more than establish an official waiting list for a particular domain name. It is the owner's responsibility to ensure they renew their domain names (which they can do at any time; nobody's domain name "unintentionally expires"), and this agreement does nothing to hinder or encumber that action from being carried out. There is no change in the name-assigning policy, only how one gets it.
And it's hysterical only for the domain squatters who are looking to steal, say, dana-farber.org and have it redirect to goatse.cx. Now they have to rush to get in line, instead of rush to register upon expiration.
Wednesday the 10th of March, awiggins noted:
When you say Doctrow's fiction, I assume that you were referring to Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom. While far from the best book I have ever read, it was not unreadable. Mainly read it because it was about the only current free e-book I could find. There seemed to be some interesting ideas in there. In your opinion, what was so bad about it.
Wednesday the 10th of March, rafuzo noted:
I haven't read "Down and Out", but I have read a number of his short stories he's made available, and they're laughable. It's warmed-over Philip K. Dick plots written in a painfully ersatz William Gibson idiom.
