Re: [alac] Losing SiteFinder
Here's a draft for an ALAC statement based on Wendy's text...
The ALAC welcomes ICANN's decision to remind Verisign of its
obligations by demanding immediate suspension of its sitefinder
"service", and Verisign's compliance with this demand.
SiteFinder's suspension was not only necessary because it broke
hundreds of specific applications, and because it was forced on
Internet users around the globe without any advance consultation or
notice: SiteFinder needs to be stopped because it breaks with the
end-to-end architecture of the Internet to give one company
monopolistic control of a resource in the center. It's not a contest
between SiteFinder's search page and MSN's, but between giving
VeriSign sole, centralized control of the error-handling for
incorrect URLs and distributing that choice among users and
applications at the edge of the network. The question is whether
users can choose what services fit their needs best, or whether
Verisign can take that choice away from users, forcing them to do
what's best for Verisign's commercial benefit.
Sitefinder not only affects the web, but any other applications
running on the net. The question here is whether the network is
kept open for new protocols and applications, or whether it's left
to Verisign to decide which applications the Internet supports well.
Keeping SiteFinder out of the center leaves the greatest flexibility
in the network for those who want to innovate by adding new
protocols, services, and features on the ends.
ICANN has called for "further evaluation and study" of the impact of
SiteFinder. The proper evaluation is for VeriSign to determine
whether it will reimplement its advertiser-supported search as an
option at the edge of the network -- where users can elect or
decline to use it at their will -- or not at all.
--
Thomas Roessler <roessler@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
At-Large Advisory Committee: http://alac.info/