VeriSign sues ICANN
VeriSign Inc. has filed a lawsuit against the Internet
Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), claiming it
had no authority to stop VeriSign from offering its Site Finder
service. The controversial service was launched last year and meant
that users who typed in a non-existent .com or .net domain name
were sent to a VeriSign website instead of getting an error page.
ICANN ordered VeriSign to temporarily shut down the
Site Finder service in October 2003 while it underwent a technical
review. ICANN was concerned the service affected the stability of
the Internet, and many in the industry felt that VeriSign was taking
advantage of its position as the sole administrator of .com and
.net domain Registry.
VeriSign is asking the court for unspecified monetary
damages and to determine whether ICANN has the authority to restrict
the products and services it develops.
Notorious cybersquatter jailed
for two and a half years
John Zuccarini, a notorious cybersquatter, was last
week handed a 30 month sentence, after becoming the first person
to be found guilty of violating the Truth in Domain Names Act. The
new law which took effect in 2003, prohibits people from creating
misleading domain names as a means to deceive children into viewing
content that's harmful to minors, or tricking adults into clicking
on obscene websites.
On several occasions, Zuccarini attempted to lure Internet users to
a child pornography site through his use of misleading domain names.
He tactically misspelt domain names favoured by young users, such
as Disneyland, Britney Spears and Teletubbies.
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