I wish to register my extreme displeasure with the intended settlement

[ecsd <ecsd@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Dear Sirs.

I operate an ISP based in Oakland, California. I register domains for our 
clients and operate
DNS servers.

No settlement which leaves Verisign in control of anything will be acceptable.
Verisign has repeatedly demonstrated that they think they own what they 
maintain. I have
advised ALL of our clients to get away from Verisign in order to avoid 
Verisign's
piratical practices. Verisign is, so far as I know, the MOST EXPENSIVE place to 
register
a domain - our business has been in operation since January 1996, and I have 
watched as
first Tucows, then many other registrars, have set up for business. For YEARS 
after domains
got first cheap, then cheaper and then much cheaper, Verisign still charged 
more for a single
domain than other registrars charged for THREE (com, net, org.) Verisign, of 
course, bought
NSI to be dealing domains. Verisign on its own as a certification agency STILL 
charges
SEVERAL HUNDRED DOLLARS for 128-bit secure certificates when these are easily 
available
for >> $35 a year <<.

I don't want to see Verisign operate or control ANYTHING and any settlement 
which allows
Verisign to make decisions that affect prices or service will INJURE THE PUBLIC 
GOOD.
Verisign is a poster child for A GREEDY CARELESS CORPORATION. Allowing Verisign 
to dictate
policy concerning .com domains is a step backward, akin to relegalizing child 
labor.

Go back to the table and tell Verisign the public DOES NOT LIKE THEM and that 
you refuse
to concede anything to them. They can operate as just-another-registrar, which 
is what
they are, and if they can't make it without their controlling the game, then 
they should
go out of business. And because they don't understand COST-EFFICIENCY they will 
not drop
their prices and they will go out of business and that is what they DESERVE.

Our business is UC Telecommunications Company. At one point in 1996/1997 our 
DNS contained
1 in every 1000 of all registered domains, which is pretty darn good. Wish we 
still did that.
And frankly, I'll bet I personally could operate a corporation that did 
everything Verisign
does for 1/2 its operating cost.

We (the public) do not need to see a regression to the bad old days of having 
to supplicate
the registrar. We do not need to see an increase in prices for domains. If 
Verisign wants
to increase their charge for operating .com domains, then QUITE OBVIOUSLY the 
management
of .com needs to be put out for bid, or awarded to any competent registrar that 
has not
jerked ICANN and the public around. UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES should Verisign end 
up with
any authority over .com unless they are regulated to the _end of the Earth_.

I think I've made the point.

Eric C. S. Dynamic, CTO
UC Telecommunications Company
436 14th Street Suite 720
Oakland, California 94612
http://transbay.net