VeriSign and Icann: Operating "protection racket"?

VeriSign is cementing its reputation as an internet villain according to several small domain-name sellers, who are taking the company, as well as regulator Icann, to court over the issue of waiting.

The US registrars have apparently been doing a brisk trade in snapping up and reselling expired domain names - but they believe that Icann (the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) and VeriSign's plan to create a 'waiting list' for domain names about to run out could threaten their business.

VeriSign counters that it is fed up to the back teeth of being mithered by requests for dead and dying domain names and is favouring a system whereby internet ambulance chasers pay a fee to be put on a waiting list and, when a domain expires, get their hands on it, with the web addresses given out on a first come, first served basis. The only thing is that if the domain name never expires, they're essentially paying money for nothing.

That's unlike the resellers who commonly don't charge their clients until they've secured the disputed domain.

While the registrars are saying their very livelihoods are at stake, domain-name owners and those with a hankering after a tasty new URL might relish the opportunity to cut out the middleman, with some businesses signing up several second-tier sellers to make sure they have a better chance of securing the domain name they want.

However, the eight domain-name registrars that are pursuing the case haven't been mincing their words when it comes to picking out the bad guys. They say in court filings that the two internet overlords are instituting "a scheme to dupe consumers into buying domain names the consumers will never be able to register and [creating] an unlawful and fraudulent protection racket".

The court filings also accuse the two companies of trying to scare insurance out of organisations, encouraging them to sign themselves up to the service before their competitors get the chance. "VeriSign could sell consumers the 'right' to be first in line to register microsoft.com knowing that the Microsoft Corporation will not permit their right to the domain name to become available. VeriSign can then sell the Microsoft Corporation insurance to protect its valuable domain name from ever becoming available to the [waiting-list] customer," said the filings.

The suit, announced last week in Los Angeles, is the second in as many days for VeriSign and Icann. VeriSign took the non-profit organisation to court, claiming that Icann unlawfully prevented it from adding new features to the domain-name database it has a contract to run - among them, the bile-attracting Site Finder, as well as the waiting-list service.