VeriSign still locking domains in
violation of the ICANN contracts.
ICANN still won’t anything and just keeps diverting
complaints. The e-mail address at
VeriSign where they handled manual processing of the domains they locked in
violation of the rules is not being answered. The VeriSign registry says they cannot
do anything.
I feel that all proposals by VeriSign …
registrar or registry … should be put on hold until this issue, that was
supposed to be handled last summer, is resolved.
Russ Smith
-----Original Message-----
From: admin@consumer.net
[mailto:admin@consumer.net]
Sent: Friday, February 01, 2002 6:09 PM
To: 'reconsider@icann.org'
I am seeking a reconsideration request for the actions, or
more appropriately, inaction by a member of the ICANN staff Dam Halloran as
well as general ICANN policy for handling complaints from individual domain
registrants. I am a reseller and
provide domain registration services at http://TheNIC.com. The actions (and inactions) by the ICANN
have served to allowed both the VeriSign Registrar and Registry (formerly Network
Solutions) to disrupt competitors of the VeriSign Registrar (formerly Network
Solutions) including my business as well as domain holders.
The issue concerning Dan Halloran is his refusal to enforce the
registrar transfer procedures described in the letter from Louis Touton to Ms.
Russo of the VeriSign Registry:
http://www.icann.org/correspondence/touton-to-russo-27aug01.htm
Mr. Halloran has received hundreds of complaints and has
verified that the VeriSign Registrar (formerly Network Solutions) has not
followed the procedures outlined in the ICANN agreement and the letter
above. Specifically, the VeriSign Registrar
(formerly Network Solutions) denies all transfers if they, as the losing registrar,
claim they did not receive a properly processed authorization request.
This placed a tremendous burden on registrars competing with the
VeriSign Registrar (formerly Network Solutions) since the administrative work
was substantially more in these cases.
While this situation has lasted many months, in the past the VeriSign
Registrar (formerly Network Solutions) has provided a contact of someone who
processed requests manually.
Now the VeriSign Registrar (formerly Network Solutions) has provided a
new contact for such manual submissions (denab@verisign.com). However, requests to process the
transfers manually are not completed and e-mail sent to this address is not
answered. According to a telephone
conversation with Christine Russo, Manager, Contracts and Compliance VeriSign
Global Registry Services, she stated she was unable to take any action against
the VeriSign Registrar (formerly Network Solutions) and could probably not find
out who at the VeriSign Registrar (formerly Network Solutions) who could
manually transfer locked domains that should have been transferred to another
registrar under the rules.
The second issue concerns the overall ICANN policy at
http://www.internic.net/cgi/registrars/problem-report.cgi
The policy states:
“If you cannot
resolve your complaint with the registrar, you should address it to private-sector
agencies involved in addressing customer complaints or governmental
consumer-protection agencies. (The appropriate
agency will vary depending on the jurisdiction of the registrar and the
customer.) …. ICANN does not resolve
individual customer complaints. ICANN is a technical-coordination
body. Its primary objective is to coordinate
the Internet's system of assigned names and numbers to promote stable
operation.”
Diverting domain name
consumers to “other” private or governmental
agencies is not practicable or reasonable in most cases. The majority of complaints involve
issues that solely relate to domain names and few, if any, other agencies or
organization would be able to help with, or even understand, the issues
involved. Further, if action is to
be taken, it is ICANN or the VeriSign registry who would take such action in
almost all cases. Since the
majority of complaints involve the VeriSign Registrar if is not reasonable to
expect the VeriSign registry to take any
action against their sister company.
Therefore, ICANN is the only possible agency or organization who can
assist with these matters and is the only party who can enforce the contracts
ICANN has with the registrars and registry. This task falls well within
“coordinate[ion] the Internet's system of assigned names and numbers to
promote stable operation.”
I am requesting that
ICANN require the VeriSign Registrar (formerly Network Solutions) to comply
with the register transfers rules.
I am also requesting ICANN to provide reasonable information
to domain registrations who wish to file a complaint and set up system within
ICANN to process and resolve such complaints as well as taking enforcement
action when the complaints involve enforcing the ICANN contracts.
Russ Smith
http://consumer.net