Domain tussle lands in court

0 Comments | Gazette, The (Colorado Springs), Mar 8, 2004 | by JIM BAINBRIDGE Gazette online reporter

These are harsh times to be in charge of assigning Internet Protocol addresses. The folks at the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers have reached the point where they are ready to say ICANN't take any more after being sued -- on back-to- back days -- by VeriSign Inc. and a group of eight domain name registrars, over a program for processing expired domain names called Wait List Service.

VeriSign is suing over delays in approving their new service for back-ordering Internet domain names, claiming ICANN has overstepped its authority as a technical coordination body.

The registrars are seeking to prevent the new services' implementation altogether, naming VeriSign as a co-defendant.

The registrars' lawsuit, filed late last month in the U.S. District Court of Los Angeles, accuses VeriSign and ICANN of "planning to implement a scheme to dupe consumers into buying domain names (they) will never be able to register, and an unlawful and fraudulent protection racket," according to court filings.

The battle is over how to reregister the 10,000 to 25,000 top- level domains that become available each day after their owners fail to pay renewal fees, said Bill Mushkin, CEO of Name.com Inc., one of the registrars behind the lawsuit.

www.icann.org

www.verisign.com

Yahoo digs deeper to challenge Google

In its continuing battle to take market share away from Google, Yahoo.com has begun a systematic effort to draw more content into its searchable database of Web documents. The program is designed to index the billions of documents contained in public databases that are largely inaccessible to search engines, what's called the invisible or deep Web. Yahoo has aligned with the Library of Congress, UCLA, National Public Radio, the University of Michigan and Project Gutenberg, among others, to begin expanding its index with fresh, searchable material to satisfy Web surfers' queries.

"We aim to extend the way we discover content for free," Tim Cadogan, Yahoo's vice president of search, told CNET. "One of the challenges is that the interaction between content providers and search engines is lacking. So we said, 'let's reach out to the public domains and nonprofits and try to get more of that content exposed.'"

www.yahoo.com

Cincinnati utility offers Net access

A division of Cincinnatibased utility Cinergy Corp. plans to offer high-speed Internet service over its power lines, letting customers connect simply by plugging a computer modem into existing electrical outlets. The idea of broadband service over power lines, or BPL, has been around for some time, but this appears to be the first large- scale rollout of the technology by a major utility.

"There have been several utilities working on this quietly and doing pilot programs," Alan Shark, president of the Power Line Communications Association, told The Associated Press. "Everyone has been very cautious in deploying this technology, but I think the demand will be incredible."

www.cinergy.com

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