ICANN limits VeriSign domain control

Vint Cerf, ICANN chairman, calls the VeriSign deal "a significant improvement"

In this story: Thumbs up for 'Plan B' Shifting control to non-profits RELATED STORIES, SITES

By Staff and wire reports

MELBOURNE, Australia -- The Internet's top naming authority on Monday modified VeriSign's control over domain name suffixes.

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) voted Monday to limit VeriSign's rights to the .org name to the end of 2002, in exchange for longer rights to manage the .com address.

ICANN says the new agreement, called Plan B, reached with VeriSign eliminates the prior special treatment VeriSign had received, and puts the company on the same footing as other registry operators.

Thumbs up for 'Plan B'

ICANN chariman Vint Cerf told Wired.com that the deal was "a significant improvement over the original agreement negotiated in 1999."

VeriSign competitors -- including Register.com, Melbourne IT and BulkRegister.com -- had opposed plan B.

However, VeriSign supports the plan, which allows it to keep the popular .com name through November 10, 2007, and have the right to renew this agreement for a new four-year term if it meets certain criteria.

VeriSign operates the world's largest domain name registries.

"We are certainly pleased with the board's decision," says VeriSign spokesman Brian O'Shaughnessy.

"The board's 12-to-3 vote clearly indicates the substantial and substantive reasons that Plan B provides the best possible scenario for the Internet community as a whole."

Shifting control to non-profits

Under the new agreements, VeriSign would provide $5 million to the non-profit group that takes over .org, invest at least $200 million in research and development, pay its full share of ICANN expenses, charge equal fees for registering names and eliminate the one-time $10,000 new registrar and other fees.

Once VeriSign's right to the domains expire, the .org name will then be turned over to a not-for-profit organization and .net tendered to interested companies, says ICANN.

The U.S. Commerce Department oversees ICANN and must approve the terms of the agreement reached between VeriSign and ICANN. Three U.S. congressmen last week asked the department to take a closer look at early versions of the agreement.

The original agreement had given VeriSign an automatic right to operate the three registries through 2007, but jitters over VeriSign's future rights to the names had sent its stock price tumbling.

Shares of VeriSign closed up 5/16 to $35-3/4 on the Nasdaq Monday, close to its 12-month low of $29-7/8 and far from its high of $214-3/8.

Reuters contributed to this report.

Asia's multilingual mess on the Net
February 19, 2001

ICANN | Information on Proposed VeriSign Agreement Revisions
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