Verisign hijacked unused .COM and .NET domains

From: Jem Berkes (jb_at_users.pc9.org)
Date: 09/16/03 

Date: 16 Sep 2003 04:01:20 GMT

As of today (2003-09-15) Verisign has hijacked/squatted on ALL unused .com
and .net domain names. These unused domains will now resolve to a Verisign
IP which runs http and smtp. The host will accept incoming mail.

Implications:
1. Instant departure from clearly established, expected DNS behavior
2. Verisign demonstrates total ownership of .COM and .NET root hierarchy
3. Unilateral action to insert corporate advertising into heart of Internet
4. Junk filtering that checks existence of domains is now broken
5. Nameservers around the world will now cache all sorts of useless junk
6. Mail to invalid domains (typos, bounces) will go to Verisign
7. Admins will have a harder time determining site configuration errors
8. Invalid URLs can now pollute search engines and automated systems

You might want to complain to ICANN [ http://www.icann.org/ ]
The largest influence will probably come from ISPs, who I'm sure _will_
suffer weird, unforseen problems from this action. 

-- 
Jem Berkes
http://www.sysdesign.ca/

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