1&1 Opposes ICANN, VeriSign Agreement

By theWHIR.com , November 30, 2005
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November 30, 2005 -- (WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) -- Web hosting provider 1&1 Internet (oneandone.com) said on Tuesday that it is part of a group of domain registrars opposed to a proposed agreement between ICANN (icann.org) and VeriSign (verisign.com) that would give VeriSign control of the .com registry until 2012.

The group believes the agreement harms competition and would enable VeriSign to arbitrarily increase domain fees by up to seven percent a year. 1&1 says Web hosts and domain registrars would have no choice but to pass these costs on to end users.

"The current draft of the agreement practically assigns .com to VeriSign forever," says Eric Schaetzlein, of 1&1. "This contradicts ICANN's core mission to promote competition in the Internet industry, which was established in its own bylaws and in the Memorandum of Understanding with the US Department of Commerce."

The agreement between ICANN and VeriSign is part of a larger agreement that resolves several legal disputes between the two parties, including the controversial and now defunct Site Finder service.

"We think that ICANN wanted to protect itself from possible cost risks and problems with this settlement rather than act in the best interest of both the Internet community and the general public," says Schaetzlein.

On Monday, Internet trade group The World of Domain Name Developers filed a lawsuit in federal court, alleging that the settlement between ICANN and VeriSign violates US anti-trust laws.

More than 30 domain registrars have signed a statement against the draft contract, demanding major changes in the current proposal.