] Network Solutions, a full-service provider of domain
] names, Web sites, and e-mail services, today announced
] that it is now accepting pre-orders for its new Next
] Registration Rights service. Next Registration Rights is
] a unique new service that automatically obtains the
] registration for a currently registered .com or .net
] domain name if the current domain name holder fails to
] renew, or affirmatively deletes, the domain name during
] the subscription period. Network Solutions is the first
] retail registrar to accept advanced orders for the
] service that is scheduled to "go live" in October 2003.

What is the story with this one? It looks as if VeriSign is trying to milk its monopoly over .com/.net in every way it can possibly think of.

Even though VeriSign pretty much has complete control of com/net, their growth is pretty flat, hence their stock is performing like shit. They are losing more margin on domain hosting/sales, because more and more people are registering with or switching to other registrars.

] Once the new Network Solutions service goes live, only
] one individual or organization can receive a Next
] Registration Rights subscription for a currently
] registered domain name. In the past, there was no
] control over how many people backordered a domain
] and therefore no one person could be assured that
] they would be able to register the domain when it
] became available.

In short, for $39 a year, you can have VeriSign sit on top of the records for .net/.com, and if the holding registrar gives up the domain you are interested in, they snag it. Sounds simple, but its not possible to compete with Network Solutions here, because they control .net/.com the master records.

] Another benefit of Next Registration
] Rights is that it can serve as an insurance policy for
] current domain name holders by protecting against
] losing a domain name registration that is allowed to
] inadvertently expire.

... or another way to extort some bucks out of people.

Network Solutions® Introduces Next Registration Rights Service

] U.S. regulators will make sure Internet domain-name
] seller VeriSign Inc provides refunds or free
] service to consumers it signed up in a controversial
] marketing campaign last year, according to court
] documents filed late last week.

How ironic. This went over Reuters today.

For those who don't remember.. VeriSign had a scam going on awhile back where they were sending fake "renewal" notices to people who's domain's they didn't host. It was an effort to con people in to switching their domain's from other registrars.

] VeriSign agreed to provide refunds or a year of free
] service to thousands of customers under a class-action
] settlement reached earlier this year in a California court.
] Friday's FTC settlement, in which the company did not
] admit or deny guilt, means that it could face steep fines
] if it resorts to such marketing tactics again.

] VeriSign must also allow the FTC to monitor its marketing
] efforts for the next five years.

Good. I hope they are paying attention to today's events.

Reuters | Verisign already under FTC watch

Looks like the VeriSign engineers have a thing or two they need to learn about sanitizing input.

I promise this link will not fuck up your system, but it could..

[U: They fixed this.. ]

Cross Site Scripting with VeriSign SiteFinder

This is the webform to report a problem with a registrar to ICANN.

InterNIC | Registrar Problem Report Form

Matt
--
Matt Larson [mlarson@verisign.com]
VeriSign Naming and Directory Services

Lots of list chatter about BIND hacks to undo VeriSign's wildcard hack.

NANOG Mailing List | Change to .com/.net behavior

Do some DNS queries that end with .net for some nonexistent domains.. They are all being responded to with an A record pointing to 64.94.110.11, which is a VeriSign search engine.

This is complete bullshit. This must not be allowed.

VeriSign Rerouting .net DNS queries

] RATE radio is a collaborative filtering client/server mp3
] player/downloader. The iRATE server has a large database
] of music. You rate the tracks and it uses your ratings
] and other peoples to guess what you'll like. The tracks
] are downloaded from websites which allow free and legal
] downloads of their music.

Hmm..

iRATE radio home

"Johnny died due to complications from diabetes, which resulted in respiratory failure," Cash's manager, Lou Robin, said in a statement issued by Baptist Hospital in Nashville.

One very interesting tidbit that was on NPR this morning, but I can't find references of on Google yet, is the statement that while in the Air Force, Johnny Cash was a codebreaker. This would make Johnny the Alpha-Geek, and most beloved, as the original codebreaking Man in Black.

The following whitespace is for Johnny Cash:

.

Music Legend Johnny Cash Dies at 71

] In April, the legendary Pixies will reunite for the first
] time in over a decade. The notoriously quarrelsome
] quartet have buried the hatchet, clearing the way for all
] four original members to hop onstage together for a world
] tour, according to a spokesperson for the band.

Yes! I have been waiting for a Pixies reunion for soooo long..

Frank Black said in an interview a few months ago that the idea was being considered.. Looks like its happening.

MTV.com - News -Legendary Pixies To Reunite For Tour, Album

] Owners of the conversational websites known as weblogs
] have recently noticed that their referral logs have
] become the newest target for spam.

] Referral logs, intended to collect information on who
] visited a website and how they happened to arrive
] there, are being stuffed with bogus links. Curious
] bloggers who click on a logged link to see who
] visited their site are instead led to pornography or
] advertising sites.

MemeStreams receives lots of referral spam. This _really_ pisses me off.

Wired News: When the Spam Hits the Blogs