xxxwebhosting.com
07-21-2001, 12:15 PM
More good reasons to move off of NSI / Verisign ASAP. Networksolutions has now stepped up its efforts to make registar transfers difficult to prevent people from leaving them.
Letter from OpenSRS:
Greetings -
Please find following an update on OpenSRS.
1. Tucows' response to Verisign's transfer allegations
2. Tucows power outage this weekend
3. .info sunrise account update reminder
4. Tucows Tribune link
1. Tucows' response to Verisign's transfer allegations
-------------------
As you may have heard, Verisign has filed a letter of
complaint with ICANN, colouring the increasingly large
number of transfers away from Verisign as fraudulent, and
characterizing the behavior of competing registrars
(including Tucows) as 'slamming' (a term used by
entrenched Telcos when describing spurious practices of
emerging competitors in the telephone business).
These accusations have been shaped in such a way that
they present a small portion of the facts, and interpret
them in a way that favours Verisign's business practices.
Tucows needs the support of our Reseller channel to
elucidate the actual issues in the face of obfuscation
and this questionable interpretation of data.
We are composing a response to Verisign that will consist
of both legal action and media coverage, highlighting
what we believe to be the salient issues:
1. Tucows' policies on transfers are effective, fully
compliant with ICANN regulations, and consumer friendly.
2. Verisign refuses to acknowledge resellers or even the
wholesale model, and misrepresents their current market
share as the result of consumer choice, and not their
long standing monopoly; they continually act in a way
that directly attacks resellers, who have provided and
continue to provide a large majority of name
registrations.
3. In some cases, end users trust their service providers
to select suppliers; that is a part of the value they
provide.
4. This 'muddying' of the issues has been deliberately
orchestrated by Verisign as a result of their
declining market share in the registration business -
essentially, the reality that the majority of their
revenue is not earned by offering any true value but
is leftover from the monopolistic advantage that they
enjoyed for years
This is a call to arms for all resellers that believe in
our position to take action! Please help us by:
a) sending concise accounts of NSI issues to
denied-transfers@tucows.com
b) sending correspondence to ICANN at comments@icann.org
articulating your position
c) educate your customers about these issues; an informed
registrant population will not be fooled by these
tactics.
Further, William Walsh, a Tucows reseller, has drafted a
wonderful response that is completely compatible with our
position. He points out the flaws in Verisign's logic,
and highlights many truths about the domain landscape
(the primacy of the ISP, for example) that Verisign must
ignore to make their position defensible. We join William
in asking any interested Tucows resellers to 'sign' the
petition and add weight to our case.
William's letter may be found at:
http://www.userfriendly.com/transferletter.html
Verisign's original message to ICANN may be found at:
http://www.icann.org/correspondence/cochetti-to-lynn-16jul01.htm
An excellent article that outlines our position may be
found at:
http://www.internetnews.com/isp-news/article/0,,8_805601,00.html
Letter from OpenSRS:
Greetings -
Please find following an update on OpenSRS.
1. Tucows' response to Verisign's transfer allegations
2. Tucows power outage this weekend
3. .info sunrise account update reminder
4. Tucows Tribune link
1. Tucows' response to Verisign's transfer allegations
-------------------
As you may have heard, Verisign has filed a letter of
complaint with ICANN, colouring the increasingly large
number of transfers away from Verisign as fraudulent, and
characterizing the behavior of competing registrars
(including Tucows) as 'slamming' (a term used by
entrenched Telcos when describing spurious practices of
emerging competitors in the telephone business).
These accusations have been shaped in such a way that
they present a small portion of the facts, and interpret
them in a way that favours Verisign's business practices.
Tucows needs the support of our Reseller channel to
elucidate the actual issues in the face of obfuscation
and this questionable interpretation of data.
We are composing a response to Verisign that will consist
of both legal action and media coverage, highlighting
what we believe to be the salient issues:
1. Tucows' policies on transfers are effective, fully
compliant with ICANN regulations, and consumer friendly.
2. Verisign refuses to acknowledge resellers or even the
wholesale model, and misrepresents their current market
share as the result of consumer choice, and not their
long standing monopoly; they continually act in a way
that directly attacks resellers, who have provided and
continue to provide a large majority of name
registrations.
3. In some cases, end users trust their service providers
to select suppliers; that is a part of the value they
provide.
4. This 'muddying' of the issues has been deliberately
orchestrated by Verisign as a result of their
declining market share in the registration business -
essentially, the reality that the majority of their
revenue is not earned by offering any true value but
is leftover from the monopolistic advantage that they
enjoyed for years
This is a call to arms for all resellers that believe in
our position to take action! Please help us by:
a) sending concise accounts of NSI issues to
denied-transfers@tucows.com
b) sending correspondence to ICANN at comments@icann.org
articulating your position
c) educate your customers about these issues; an informed
registrant population will not be fooled by these
tactics.
Further, William Walsh, a Tucows reseller, has drafted a
wonderful response that is completely compatible with our
position. He points out the flaws in Verisign's logic,
and highlights many truths about the domain landscape
(the primacy of the ISP, for example) that Verisign must
ignore to make their position defensible. We join William
in asking any interested Tucows resellers to 'sign' the
petition and add weight to our case.
William's letter may be found at:
http://www.userfriendly.com/transferletter.html
Verisign's original message to ICANN may be found at:
http://www.icann.org/correspondence/cochetti-to-lynn-16jul01.htm
An excellent article that outlines our position may be
found at:
http://www.internetnews.com/isp-news/article/0,,8_805601,00.html