Joanna,The story might have legs but its going no where. And its nice to sit in our armchairs and talk about penalties but just how on Earth are you going to impose them? I dont care if you want 5 days 90 days or 90 year suspensions. For ICANN to impose a suspension they need some cluase in the contract that Verisign has breached in implementing Sitefinder. Do you not think they would have acted by now had they something to work with? They have as much power to legally stop verisign's sitefinder as I have to stop you from talking about imposing penalties or suspensions. Now I can ask you niceley. I can reason with you. I can bluster. I can call you all sorts of names but at the end of the day... I cannot stop you from talking about suspensions. And ICANN can not force Verisign to susspend their service.
Worse, the sad fact is...anything ICANN might try do to stop Verisign would cause ICANN itself to quickly face legal action.
Joanna Lane wrote:
This story has legs. It's today's lead in Technology News at the BBC, where the headline and ticker is: "Site finding system faces suspension" http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/3129184.stm. Convening a committee of half a dozen Verisign appointees to deliberate the pros and cons while the system remains operational, is not going to fly in this climate. A 90 day Sitefinder suspension by the ICANN Board is in order, followed by a request to the SOs to develop a consensus based decision. Anybody up for convening a GNSO Task Force? Joanna
-- Dan Steinberg SYNTHESIS:Law & Technology 35, du Ravin phone: (613) 794-5356 Chelsea, Quebec fax: (819) 827-4398 J9B 1N1 e-mail:synthesis@xxxxxxxxxxxx