Did Verisign just break the Internet?

[R. Andrew Lamonica]

So the other night I was looking up different websites to see if they were owned.  Instead of using â€Ã...“digâ€Ã, or â€Ã...“whoisâ€Ã, I just pinged the site name.  I figured that if the name resolved to an IP then it was owned by someone.  This seemed a valid assumption, however, it turns out it was not.  

Three of the addresses I tried resolved to 64.94.110.11.  At first I though they were all hosted on the same server, but after five more did the same thing and none of my pings failed to lookup I go suspicious.  I looked up the address and discovered that it was â€Ã...“sitefinder-idn.verisign.com.â€Ã,  Apparently, with little fanfare Verisign (the current holder of the .com and .net root domains) decided to make every address resolve.  This was so weird I could not believe noone had mentioned it in the news.  I looked around and found a story that did mention it, but it just said that this was a new feature of the Internet (the site tries to correct typos.  Try http://www.morcrosoft.com and you will see what I mean.)

Today, I finally saw an article that mentions the downside of this.  

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=528&e=2&u=/ap/20030926/ap_on_hi_te/internet_typosâ€Ã,

I think everyone should read this article and decide if Verisign has broken the Internet or just made it more idiot proof.  I welcome any comments.

[R. Andrew Lamonica]

What the ?  I cannot say a$$umption.  I think the censorship policy on this system needs some work.

[Michael Kennedy]

I think they broke it.  I know lots of people are suing them over their actions.  I know my registrar of choice, godaddy.com is also suing them for what they're doing (https://www.godaddy.com/gdshop/pressreleases/verisign_suit.asp?isc=&se=%2B&from%5Fapp=&mscssid=2284709) .  I think they're just using their position to drive out the smaller guys.

Oh, and just for the fun of it:  , , , , , .  :lol:

[Aaron Drake]

Did Verisign just brake the Internet?

Why?  Was it going too fast?  (I wasn't even aware that the Internet had brakes.)  ;-)

[R. Andrew Lamonica]

Good point.  Perhaps I need an Internet Typo Service :-)

I'll fix it.

[Aaron Drake]

Good point. Perhaps I need an Internet Typo Service :-)

I'll fix it.

Sorry, just couldn't help myself.  That was an interesting read, though, about Verisign.

[Michael Kennedy]

I'm becoming pretty fascinated with this now that GoDaddy sued as well.  Here's a link to ICANN's letter to VeriSign.  I kinda hope VeriSign doesn't comply just to see what happens.  :)

http://www.icann.org/correspondence/twomey-to-lewis-03oct03.htm

[William Grim]

And, as you wished, VeriSign did ignore ICANN's request.  ICANN told VeriSign to stop what they were doing by Oct. 4 or legal recourse would be selected.

Here goes another lawsuit.

[Michael Kennedy]

http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=03/10/04/1757203
and
http://news.com.com/2100-1032_3-5086101.html

It looks like Verisign has at least announced "plans" to shut it down.  I don't like Verisign from my past dealings with them, so I was hoping they'd pull an SCO just to cause more people to hate them.  :)

[Chris Swingler]

It's down now, but the question is--for how long?


(18:41:04 <~>) chris$ dnsquery gocubbiesgoandthebravessuck.com
Query failed (h_errno = 1) : Unknown host


--Beanie

[Josh]

It doesn't seem to up right now. But that is messed up. Why can't this fat money loving fat cats leave the internet alone . The internet is a powerfully tool that needs to be kept free. Sounds like Verisign doesn't want to play fare and share.

[Michael Kennedy]

The next thing Verisign needs to do is make sure any "*gocubbiesgo*" searches return an "Unknown host" error.

[Michael Kennedy]

fat money loving fat cats leave the internet alone ... Sounds like Verisign doesn't want to play fare and share.

Hello, welcome to America.  You must be new here.  :)

[Chris Swingler]

Hello, welcome to America. You must be new here. :)

/me edits mek2600's /etc/hosts file so slashdot.org resolves to 64.94.110.11

No more /. for you.  (Though I obviously spend too much time there =p )

--Beanie

[Michael Kennedy]

Yeah, I know, but I couldn't resist.  Just as long as I don't put "First Post!!!" in any topics I start I think I'm okay, though.