ICANN Proposes Revised Settlement Agreement With Verisign

by Glen Shapiro, LawAndTax-News.com, New York

02 February 2006

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) at the weekend announced that it has published revised proposals regarding agreements with domain name registry, Verisign.

The agreements, if approved, will settle all pending litigation with VeriSign, including the dispute over Verisign's 'Site Finder' service, in addition to imposing a cap on price increases for domain name registration.

In 2003, VeriSign took advantage of its privileged position to launch a new service known as 'Site Finder', to which internet users who misspelled URLs were directed.

ICANN ordered VeriSign to shut down Site Finder, arguing that it conflicted with spam filters and gave VeriSign an unfair advantage over other providers of search services. In response, VeriSign sued ICANN, suggesting that its ability to make money had been hindered by the decision.

The newly proposed agreements contain significant changes from the October 2005 proposed agreements, in response to Internet community feedback.

The proposed changes include the following:

• The elimination of the proposed registry-level transaction fee (which would have been passed through directly to registrars);
• A direct contribution from VeriSign in the form of significantly increased fixed registry-level fees (which VeriSign will not be permitted to pass through directly to registrars);
• A new limitation on the frequency of permitted price increases for domain name registrations;
• A revision to the ICANN consensus policy limitation relating to the introduction of new registry services;
• A clarification of the permissible uses of traffic data; and
• The incorporation of new service-level specifications for the .com registry.

Under the proposals put forward in October of last year, Verisign would have been granted permanent control of the .com domain, and would have been permitted to increase the price of domain name registration by 7% per year.

Comment on the revised proposals is invited until Feb 20.

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