] For all these reasons, ICANN has today insisted that
] VeriSign suspend the SiteFinder service, and restore the
] .com and .net top-level domains to the way they were
] operated prior to 15 September 2003. If VeriSign does not
] comply with this demand by 6:00 PM PDT on 4 October 2003,
] ICANN will be forced to take the steps necessary to
] enforce VeriSign's contractual obligations.

As Decius has said, now the court proceedings start. Best case scenario is that ICANN can get a preliminary injunction against Verisign forcing them to turn SiteFinder off. If so, it will be very difficult for them to turn it back on.

Does anyone else think its insane that a domain registrar should control the master databases? Its a HUGE conflict of interest! Why doesn't ICANN (or some other non-profit/NGO) run it??

ICANN | Announcement | 3 October 2003