July 31, 2002

Wed, 31 Jul 2002 18:25:01 GMT

WASHINGTON - Alleged Russian organized crime leader under arrest in Italy on charges he tried to fix the ice-dancing competition at the 2002 Winter Olympics. [Source: Yahoo! Wireless] - Fix it how? Handing out free beer at the events would be a start.
Posted by system at 01:25 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) | Permalink

Wed, 31 Jul 2002 18:12:11 GMT

Tucows has released its latest comments on the work of the ERC with specifics comments directed to the names policy development process, and in particular on the workings of the current DNSO and its proposed successor, the GNSO. This latest document summarizes prior proposals, to the extent they may be still relevant to the work of the committee, and make further and more specific suggestions as to how the future policy process can work better. Tucows Comments to the Implementation Committee on the Names Policy Development Process; [HTML][DOC][PDF] Supporting materials can be found at http://www.byte.org/heathrow
Posted by system at 01:12 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) | Permalink

Wed, 31 Jul 2002 13:29:51 GMT

On July 26, 2002, Susan Crawford, of Wilmer, Cutler and Pickering, filed a submission to the ICANN Public Comment Forum on the WLS on behalf of SnapNames that suggests that the Board review of the recommendations of the Transfers TF related to the WLS is "...a process not based in any contractually supported or legally permissible role of the Board." Needless to say, I couldn't disagree with the arguments made in this submission more strongly (except in two regards - read the paper ;) and have fi led a response with the Transfers TF for their consideration. My basic feeling is that; 1. The WLS constitutes a fundamental change in the domain names market which permanently advantages one player. 2. The safeguards recommended by the Task Force to allay some of these advantages are reasonable and should receive the support of the Board. 3. The Board of ICANN should deny Verisign's request to amend the contract until such time that Verisign can actually agree to and practically implement the necessary changes to the functional specification of the WLS. I will post a marked up and annotated version of my submission later tonight.
Posted by system at 08:29 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) | Permalink

Noodle this please

Please pay attention to this issue. Resolution of the disputes that fall out of the various contracts between various registries, registrars and ICANN is an extremely important issue that the community needs to noodle further.
Posted by system at 06:25 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) | Permalink

MelbourneIT CEO Resigns

Melbourne IT today announced that their CEO, Adrian Kloeden, had tendered his resignation to the Board. Apparently Adrian "had not been seeking to leave Melbourne IT but had been made an offer than was too good to refuse." by Serco. I'll miss seeing Adrian at various industry events. He is a thoughtful man that always had something interesting to talk about. My sincere best wishes for him in his new role.

Posted by system at 05:54 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) | Permalink

July 30, 2002

Terminal.Failure@Internet.Monopoly

Desktop Linux has an "interesting" interview with Karl concerning the litigation and a few other interesting points. Not sure if a story that uses the word "infofascist" in its lead can be truly unbiased, but... Personally, I would take exception to Karl's characterization of ICANN as a shield for APNic, RIPE and ARIN. While the relationships between the entities continues to be strong (as far as I can tell anyways), the RIR's have always acted according to their own agenda for the most part - with or without ICANN's "shelter". Anyways, this is a short bit - worth the read even if just to enjoy a class rant from Mr. Auerbach ;)
Posted by system at 11:03 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) | Permalink

HP Wields DMCA Against Security Researchers

As I mentioned earlier this week, Bruce Perens, Debian founder, Open Source advocate and HP evangelist, backed down from his promise to flaunt the DMCA in an upcoming public presentation. This week finds HP targetting researchers for discussing a software vulnerability in what appears to be the first attempt to expand the DMCA to security flaws. While CNET indicates that the incidents are unrelated, Bruce has already publicly stated that "I am not happy to hear this at all. And if it's true, I'll take them to task for it."

Hopefully Ben will find some success so that Bruce can hold on to his job ;)

Posted by system at 10:47 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) | Permalink

Telecom execs tell Congress: No network disruptions.

Telecom execs tell Congress: No network disruptions. FCC chief also reassures lawmakers [InfoWorld: Top News] ""There's something bad wrong -- I don't know what it is," said Sen. Max Cleland"

I wonder if Senator Max has read any of Saltzer, Reed & Clark's discussions on the gravity defying feats that the telecom sector attempted...

Posted by system at 10:32 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) | Permalink

July 29, 2002

Tue, 30 Jul 2002 01:12:09 GMT

That Fausett guy... For those of you that don't follow ICANNWatch closely (shame on you ;), I have to pass on this comment from one of their readers regarding Brett Fausett's commentary on the Auerbach v. ICANN case. "That Fausett guy might have a career as a serious reporter if he should ever give up the lawyering thing."

Well, I thought it was funny...had to be here I guess ;)

Brett's complete notes on the proceedings have been posted to his blog.

Posted by system at 08:12 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) | Permalink

Mon, 29 Jul 2002 22:12:43 GMT

Another "Oops"...4:24PM Register.com misses by 4 cents (RCOM) 7.25 +0.27: Reports Q2 EPS of $0.02, $0.04 worse than the Multex consensus; revs were $27.0 mln, vs consensus of $28.8 mln. [Briefing.com]
Posted by system at 05:12 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) | Permalink

Mon, 29 Jul 2002 22:10:32 GMT

(update) Qwest admits incorrect accounting in three years. Will restate earnings from 1999 to 2001 [InfoWorld: Top News] Ummm...Oops. Tomorrow's headline - "Thousands of 401K holders restate retirement plans, 'Freedom 78' becomes a hot option"
Posted by system at 05:10 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) | Permalink

Mon, 29 Jul 2002 20:43:20 GMT

Auerbach Wins, Court Criticizes ICANN. Lawsuits, lawsuits, lawsuits. The only thing that they all have in common (other than the DNS) is that they are all being decided against the favorites...more at Fausset's icann.blog.us....
Posted by system at 03:43 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) | Permalink

Mon, 29 Jul 2002 14:20:33 GMT

According to William Walsh in a post to the ICANN GA List, a recent anonymous post to the GA regarding the Johnson v. Verisign litigation was actually written by "...a long time list participant, and in fact, someone who works for one of Verisign's competitors." He notes that "...anyone with a smidgen of technical ability..." should be able to figure out who the author actually is.

While the content of the anonymous post isn't all that exciting - just a pointer to yet more allegations against Verisign in one of ICANN's public forums, the thought that a member of the GA and fellow registrar would abuse the GA list in such a manner is repugnant. The GA has enough to deal with in managing the inanities of John Palmer and Jeff Williams - it certainly doesn't need more coming from a registrar with an axe to grind.

Whomever actually posted this has dropped about three notches on my credibility scale. As Kennedy once said (Ted, not JF.) "Never sacrifice your political convictions or integrity for the convenience of the hour." While perhaps not the best source of advice in this regard, the statement holds truth.

Posted by system at 09:20 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) | Permalink

July 27, 2002

Sat, 27 Jul 2002 15:12:17 GMT

Wow. According to this Virginia Court document, "the Court finds that Defendants did in fact submit false testimony at trial" in the Michael Johnson v. Verisign proceedings. This should be interesting to watch develop further. [Update: I've fixed the link, removed the earlier correction and added an HTML converted copy which can be found here.]
Posted by system at 10:12 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) | Permalink

July 26, 2002

Fri, 26 Jul 2002 23:43:42 GMT

Well Ben, I guess it's all up to you now ;) - it appears that Bruce has had to back down from his earlier plan to lie down in front if the DMCA tank. I suppose that the paycheque tank is a little bit more threatening ;)
Posted by system at 06:43 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) | Permalink

Fri, 26 Jul 2002 15:12:40 GMT

CEOs say keep politics out of corporate reform. Execs ask politicians to stay out of boardroom [InfoWorld: Top News]...

Apparently the convenience of this relationship is no longer valued as it once was...say up until this year. I wonder if "Execs" will put their money where their mouth is and reciprocate by stopping their campaign contributions and keeping the CEO's out of politics.

Posted by system at 10:12 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) | Permalink

July 25, 2002

Thu, 25 Jul 2002 17:07:10 GMT

ACLU lawsuit targets copyright law. Filing suit on Thursday, the civil liberties group hopes to prompt the first ruling that would curtail the wide reach of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. [CNET News.com]

Way to go Ben. Between you and Perens, there might be some hope that this heinous law might get the attitude adjustment that it needs. Best wishes!

Posted by system at 12:07 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) | Permalink

Thu, 25 Jul 2002 16:20:53 GMT

This just in...

 
Sent: Thursday, July 25, 2002 10:44 AM
Subject: BLOCK THIS SPAM - Verisign Domain Move for $15

> This morning we received spam from Network Delusions/Vericrime advertising
> to our customers to move their domains to them for $15. We are taking
> action. A look at the headers shows that the spam is coming from
> "verisign-direct.com" and "devondirect.com" which we are now blocking 
> with our spam filtering server.
>
> I suggest that other ISPs that sell domain registration also block 
> them.

Note that I haven't yet confirmed the spam (ie - haven't seen a copy), but it is consistent with VRSN's past practices.

Update: A kind soul has been nice enough to send me a sample of the SPAM - no headers, but the message is pretty clear. You can view it here.

Posted by system at 11:20 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) | Permalink

Thu, 25 Jul 2002 15:26:53 GMT

A few people have asked me about the status of Verisign's proposed Wait List Service given the recent Names Council vote to accept the Final Report of the Transfers TF regarding WLS. George Kirikos theorizes that the WLS is as good as dead.

I beg to differ slightly.

The final answer really depends on what the ICANN Board decides to do with the NC recommendation and the TF Final Report. My guess is that there is sufficient leeway in the final report to provide the Board with an opportunity to actually approve the WLS, but string it up with conditions that make the entire implementation rather beneficial to the community. If you read the final report, you'll notice that there are conditions that would potentially require the implementation of a standardized domain deletion policy and the redemption grace period before the WLS can actually be offered. And of course, this would entirely depend on whether or not VGRS would still view the WLS as being attractive economically if the Board requires a cost-based pricing review as per the recent gTLD selection process.

The fact is that there are still a ton of issues up in the air, and what happens next is anyone's best guess. I sincerely hope that the board can do the right thing without getting them into the catch-22 that seems to be looming. Catch-22? Try and approve a service generally opposed by the community. Also try and deny it against VGRS's strong Washington lobby.

Posted by system at 10:26 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) | Permalink

Thu, 25 Jul 2002 14:27:43 GMT

Yeah! Wireless at the office coming soon. I finally got tired of being tethered and decided to pick up an AP that I can just plug into the switch under my desk. I probably paid too much for it but...I was disappointed that the seller wouldn't let me come over and pick it up (seeing as how he is local)..alas...

Probably paid too much as well ;)

Posted by system at 09:27 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) | Permalink

Thu, 25 Jul 2002 13:50:58 GMT

IT pros foresee major cyberattacks on horizon. BSA report seen as a wake-up call for private sector [InfoWorld: Top News]

Wow...an association whose members include firms like Network Associates and Symantec is issuing a wake-up call to businesses regarding security. Progressive. What will they do next, issue wake-up calls to businesses regarding piracy run rampant in SOHO America?

 

Posted by system at 08:50 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) | Permalink

July 24, 2002

Thu, 25 Jul 2002 04:30:26 GMT

Interesting that no one has "officially" picked up on Verisign's latest alleged shenanigans yet. Of course, the rumor could turn out to be false, but some of the statements check out against other scuttlebutt that I've come across before. This wouldn't confirm the charges, but it does (in the absence of a denial) lend some minimal "authority" to the claims...
Posted by system at 11:30 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) | Permalink

Thu, 25 Jul 2002 01:54:07 GMT

I was quite surprised to see how much home broadband routers have dropped in price over the last few months. I purchased a SMC Barricade a few months back for roughly $250 CAD and now they've dropped in price to as little as $100. I was able to find a buyer for my used one for roughly the same amount which allowed me to get into wireless at home for roughly no cost (thanks eBay), but it looks like the technology is going to start finding its way into the home in a big way.
Posted by system at 08:54 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) | Permalink

A last-minute shopping spree

Year-end surge to lift IT spending. A last-minute shopping spree as IT buyers scrape out their budgets will push computer technology spending beyond 2001 levels, predicts research firm IDC. [CNET News.com]...

Gotta love stories like these. Remember, 2001 was a hang-over year IT spending-wise (that pesky little Y2K rumor), which puts 2001 pretty close to the bottom of the barrel. Typical of IT reporting though, the cart has to pull the horse before anyone makes a move. Sigh.

Posted by system at 06:16 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0) | Permalink