Newsgroup: it.news.net-abuse
Titolo: VeriSign Sued Over Controversial Web Service

dalla reuters - 
http://snurl.com/2e6s
VeriSign Sued Over Controversial Web Service
Thu September 18, 2003 09:13 PM ET
By Elinor Mills Abreu
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - An Internet search company on Thursday filed a
$100 million antitrust lawsuit against VeriSign Inc., accusing the Web
address provider of hijacking misspelled and unassigned Web addresses with a
service it launched this week.
VeriSign's new SiteFinder service takes searches for ".com" and ".net" Web
addresses that are not spelled correctly or have not yet been registered and
redirects them to a VeriSign Web page that includes options and
pay-for-placement topic links.
Since it was launched on Monday, the SiteFinder service has drawn widespread
criticism from Internet users who complain that VeriSign has overstepped its
authority. However, VeriSign says it is merely offering a convenient
service.
The lawsuit filed in federal court in Orlando, Florida, alleges antitrust
violations, unfair competition and violations of the Deceptive and Unfair
Trade Practices Act and asks the court to order VeriSign to put a halt to
the service, said Robert Hart, a spokesman for Popular Enterprises LLC, the
Orlando-based parent company of search provider Netster.com.
According to the lawsuit, Mountain View, California-based VeriSign has been
using its position as the keeper of the master list of all Web addresses
ending in ".com" and ".net," also called domain names, to unfair advantage.
Not only is VeriSign making money off the redirected searches, but it is
improperly interfering with competing services, including Netster's
SmartBrowse and similar services run by Internet service providers like AOL
Time Warner Inc.'s America Online and Microsoft Corp., Popular Enterprises
said.
Typically, Internet users are shown a generic "404 -- cannot be found" page
when a Web address does not exist. SmartBrowse and other services display
Web sites and search options that are closely related to the original search
request.
DIGITAL DEAD END
VeriSign spokesman Brian O'Shaughnessy said he could not comment on the
lawsuit because the company had not seen it and does not as a matter of
policy comment on pending litigation.
He defended the company's new service, saying it was helping people find Web
sites instead of sending them down a digital "dead end."
"Twenty million times a day on our network, people mistype domains and don't
get what they're looking for," he said. "Web navigation can be improved with
services like SiteFinder."
A Web community backlash has led to the creation of software to allow people
to circumvent the SiteFinder service.
The Internet Software Consortium, a non-profit group that developed the BIND
software that directs most Web traffic to the correct address, released new
software on Wednesday that ISPs can use to block the SiteFinder service for
customers, said Paul Vixie, president of the Redwood City, California-based
group.
SiteFinder reduces the effectiveness of anti-spam programs that work by
rejecting e-mail coming from non-existent Web addresses, Vixie said.
It also is raising privacy concerns that VeriSign will have access to log-in
names and passwords that are sometimes included in Web address queries and
information in e-mails sent inadvertently to non-existent Web addresses, he
added.
VeriSign's O'Shaughnessy said the company's technicians were looking into
the complaint about SiteFinder thwarting anti-spam software, but said the
privacy complaint was a "red herring" since the company would not keep such
information.
Vixie said many people believe VeriSign should not have launched the new
service without first getting permission from the Internet Corporation for
Assigned Names and Numbers, the organization that oversees Internet policies
and practices.
"If VeriSign is a caretaker (of Web addresses) then they've exceeded their
authority," Vixie said.
Mary Hewitt, a spokeswoman for ICANN, said the organization knew about
VeriSign's idea for the service but had not given final approval and did not
know it was being activated. She said the group would have more comment on
the matter within the next few days.

 VeriSign Sued Over Controversial Web Service
Mitico Vixie !! se fosse una donna... :-)
-- 
Alex

request.
Questa però è fantastica :-D
-- 
8tto (32,175,MI)
Citroen ZX 1.4GPL '96 & Dyane 6 '78 
VW 1303 Cabriolet '79
Morini Coguaro 350 '89 - KTM 125GS '76 (rotto)

 addresses that are not spelled correctly or have not yet been registered
VeriSign's  e' della microsoft
quindi i prodotti M$ firmati da VeriSign's non hanno valore
tra l'altro M$ vuole il monopolio della rete

quindi i prodotti M$ firmati da VeriSign's non hanno valore
Mi sfugge il nesso logico.
-- 
ciao, |
Marco |  The Italian Usenet Cabal, Abuse Department (TINC)
"It's about damn time that all of us who actually give a damn about Usenet
stand up and tell the people who don't to fuck off and die." -- Russ Allbery