North American Network Operators Group
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RE: Verisign on Process

  • From: Howard C. Berkowitz
  • Date: Wed Oct 08 20:53:34 2003 
At 5:23 PM -0700 10/8/03, David Schwartz wrote:

 > Is it possibly time to suggest that perhaps ICANN should

 call for formal separation of regiSTRAR functions from
 regiSTRY functions, and stipulate that stewards of record
 for regiSTRY functions not participate in regiSTRAR roles?

	Already done -- read the contact between ICANN and VeriSign.


 Certainly it's been shown to be very difficult to resist
 the temptation to extend editorial control over what entries
 get placed into the DNS records as a regiSTRY if you also
 happen to be able to increase the profits from your regiSTRAR
 role.
Sure, but you could also do it to increase the profits from your registry
role, which seems to have been the intent of SiteFinder.

 If the functions are stipulated to be kept separate,

	They are.


 then we have a much better opportunity to engage a system of
 checks and balances, to self-limit potential future abuses
 like this.
How would that stop a registry from, for example, adding a wildcard record
that goes to pages sold to the highest bidder? Registry functions are
supposed to be wholly ministerial. VeriSign doesn't get that and ICANN is
going to have to force them to -- probably more than once.

DS