IP: Dept. of Commerce to award ICANN another ticket on the gravy trainGood Morning Silicon Valley Tue May 15 12:45:24 EDT 2001

[David Farber <dave@farber.net>]

>Dept. of Commerce to award ICANN another ticket on the gravy train: The 
>U.S. Department of Commerce on Monday signaled that it 
><http://www.siliconvalley.com/docs/news/svfront/domain051501.htm>likely 
>will approve a proposal to extend Internet registrar VeriSign's control 
>over the valuable global ".com" registry. Under the 
><http://www.icann.org/melbourne/proposed-verisign-agreements-topic.htm>terms 
>of the proposed arrangement VeriSign would retain control over the 
>registry until at least 2007. At that time, the Internet Corporation for 
>Assigned Names and Numbers would offer VeriSign a "presumption favoring 
>renewal of" the company's .com contract. While critics of the proposal 
>argue that it is unfair for VeriSign to act as a retail domain-name seller 
>while retaining an outright monopoly over wholesale .com address sales, 
>U.S. regulators apparently view the situation differently. They don't seem 
>as concerned as they might be over 
><http://www.siliconvalley.com/docs/opinion/gmsv/archive01/morn03152001.htm>the 
>extension of VeriSign's monopolistic powers. 
><http://news.cnet.com/investor/news/newsitem/0-9900-1028-5924752-0.html?tag=ats>"The 
>Department of Commerce has been reviewing the VeriSign-ICANN proposal," 
>Commerce General Counsel Ted Kassinger said Monday. "We have communicated 
>our general thinking, are pleased with the progress, and are confident an 
>agreement can be reached in the near term."



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