VeriSign Gets ICANN Extension

The Internet governing body allows VeriSign to keeps its registrar and registry entities intact. But the dot-com maker has to cough up some cash and change the way it does business with Network Solutions, among others.

by Jim Wagner of internetnews.com [April 2, 2001]

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) gave its seal of approval to a contract extension with VeriSign, Inc. this week.

With 12 board members voting in favor of the extension—three against and one abstaining, the Net governing body allowed VeriSign remain a combined registrar and registry business and keep its hands on the lucrative .com domain registration for six more years.

Some concessions
While maintaining its dominance of commercial registry services, VeriSign's contract for .org registry services expires in 2003. At that time the registrar will give $5 million to an unnamed non-profit organization, so it can assume management .org domain name registration services.

Also, VeriSign will fund up to $200 million for the research and development of a universal WHOIS database, a method for listing the name and owner of every ICANN-approved top level domain (TLD).

Meanwhile, .net TLD registrar capabilities will remain with VeriSign until 2006, when it will go on the auction block to secure a new registrar through a competitive bidding process.

Cerf says
Vint Cerf, ICANN chairman said the contract was a good deal for the Internet community.

"These new agreements are a significant improvement over the original agreement negotiated in 1999," Cerf said. "The DNS world and ICANN have changed enormously since then, and VeriSign's acquisition of Network Solutions in 2000 means that company has undergone significant change as well. These new agreements reflect both the increasing maturity of ICANN and evidence that VeriSign wants to be a cooperative participant in the ICANN process."

Protests
Public outcry against the proceedings has been loud and numerous, and the emails flew this weekend, which might have done more harm than good in the eyes of many. At issue is what many consider ICANN's policy flip-flop after announcing it was allowing VeriSign to keep its combined registrar and registry business, in exchange for monetary concessions. On top of that, critics say that ICANN was given less than a month to sort through a very complex contractual issue.

Ellen Rony, co-author of The Domain Name Handbook, said emails this weekend were a sign that the ICANN doesn't understand what a public forum is all about and that concessions are just tokens to keep other registrars happy.

"These are things that VeriSign and ICANN shouldn't be deciding between themselves," Rony said. "This is supposed to be international, global and concession-based and this is something that these two major players should not be hammering out on the weekend before they vote."

In 1999, ICANN promised the Department of Commerce it would require VeriSign to divest ownership of its registry and registrar businesses. But this week's policy change shifts the terms of the original deal.

Cease pandering
In an open email to Stratton Sclavos, VeriSign president and chief executive officer, M. Stuart Lynn, ICANN president and chief executive officer delineated several proposals that sealed the deal between the ICANN and VeriSign.

Hoping to appease volumes of complaints about VeriSign's billing structure, Lynn called for VeriSign to drop the one-time $10,000 charge for access to the SRS and eliminate $6 transfer fees when domain names are switched from one, to another domain.

Lynn also said VeriSign's volume discount schedule considerably favored companies like Network Solutions, Inc., which it acquired last June, a practice that should be discontinued.

Another sticking point for rival registrars was VeriSign's registry business requiring 60 days to comply with changes in registry services, prompting Lynn to call for extending compliance deadlines to 90-days.

Sclavos agreed to the terms, saying VeriSign wanted to do what was best for the Internet community.

"VeriSign has been, and will continue to be, both a good corporate citizen in the larger sense and a responsible participant in the Internet community and we've looked at the various concerns that have been expressed from that perspective," Sclavos said in a statement.

The Department of Justice still has to approve of the ICANN-VeriSign deal before it can be implemented, a process that will be scrutinized closely by Congress.

Just last month, the U.S. House of Representatives sent a letter to the Commerce Department encouraging them to ensure that the proceedings are conducted properly.

"We urge you to exercise your oversight authority to ensure that ICANN's final decision is made and implemented in a transparent fashion," said Chairman of the Committee on Energy and Commerce Rep. (R-LA) W.J.Tauzin in his letter.

ICANN Chairman Vint Cerf promised to do just that in hearings conducted on Capitol Hill last month.

—End