Verisign's abuses

[trochee]

Verisign has recently started abusing their control over the .com and .net domain-name registries. (read more here and here, for example).

Here's what they're doing: if you type in a web address that doesn't exist, they (in violation of RFC) return a valid IP (instead of returning domain-not-found, which is the correct and socially-responsible value). For example:

mystique:~$ host verisign-is-pirating-the-commons.net
verisign-is-pirating-the-commons.net has address 64.94.110.11
mystique:~$ host verisign-is-pirating-the-commons.com
verisign-is-pirating-the-commons.com has address 64.94.110.11

But note that .org doesn't do this:

mystique:~$ host verisign-is-pirating-the-commons.org
Host verisign-is-pirating-the-commons.org not found: 3(NXDOMAIN)

This may not seem like a big deal, but here are some considerations:

• non-existent domains now resolve, which breaks spam blockers, ping, traceroute
• If you or your friends are running a website, now Verisign gets to find out all the people who mistyped it by one letter and offer them competitors' bids and their own "search" tools -- which don't agree with (e.g.) AltaVista or Google.

Don't let them get away with this abuse of their monopoly. Take action:

• Sign this petition
• send ICANN a complaint (comments (at) icann (dot) org), or use the web complaint form); they need some reinforcements here, and a demonstration that the users of the internet shouldn't have to put up with this.
• Don't forget to cc Verisign complaints@verisign.com. (spambots, feel free to send mail to Verisign too).
• If you have business with Verisign (or their subsidiary, Thawte), tell them how pissed you are. Tell them you'll be taking your business elsewhere.
• Encourage your ISP to install the BIND or tinyDNS patch which blocks the Verisign "oops" page, or, if you are an ISP, do it.

Comments

[tree]

i knew about this, but i didn't know [a] why it was bad, and [b] how i could take action.

thanks for the education :)

[trochee.livejournal.com]

you're welcome.

I intended to go into a longer rant about how the internet has become a commons, and this move is one of many attempts by private corporations to horn in and privatize what had previously been a shared resource.

It bears a disturbing resemblance to the economics of pollution -- one can increase quarterly profits of a small corporation by shifting the costs onto the public.

An analogy: the USA Mining Act of 1872 (I think this is the one). The government, in the name of promoting business and homesteading (and, er, relocating those pesky indigenous folk), encouraged speculators to buy up land very cheaply for the purposes of "exploitation".

In the process, millions of acres of land have been devastated by open-face mineral extraction -- cyanide pools, strip mining, etc. Didn't do much good for the First Nations, either, especially since they weren't interested in the "exploitation" of their sacred lands, even if they had been allowed option to buy, but a few corporations got very very rich at the expense of the public -- the expense being the loss of 90% of the Black Hills and the destruction of the enormous ecological zone known as the American Northern Plains. Even though some people got very rich off this, the net added value to the nation and the world seems like it's a loss to me.

Here, ICANN, with the urgings of the US Department of Commerce, has opened up the privatization of the top-level-domains (TLDs), ostensibly because competition will make things better. (and since it worked so well for Enron... :p ).

Verisign stands to make a large profit -- but, once again, at a public expense far larger than even their projected profits. Domain name resolution has a NXDOMAIN-NOT-FOUND response for a reason.

One user (I think I saw it on NANOG) brought up the point that since all misdirected email will go to them as well -- and bounce around in queues for hours if not days before the domain has a chance to reject it! -- the Department of Justice will have a field day subpoena-ing these as well.


Well, I seem to have worked the rant in after all. :)