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Press ReleasesInternet Society Chapters and Advisory Council Oppose Site FinderThe concerns are too numerous and the implications too grave to be ignored - Site Finder puts the stability of the Internet at considerable riskWashington, D.C. - September 26, 2003 - The Internet Society (ISOC), a global membership organization committed to the development of the Internet, announced today that a survey of their Internet Society chapters and Advisory Council members revealed strong condemnation for VeriSign's actions in deploying Site Finder. This service redirects incorrectly typed URL's to a VeriSign-operated website. ISOC's key concern is that Site Finder was implemented with little or no consultation with the Internet technical community and without a thorough examination of how it might affect the stability of the Internet, nor how it might impact other services that depend upon the domain name system. In a letter to the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) and the US Department of Commerce, Lynn St.Amour, President of the Internet Society stated: "This action violates many of the architectural principles that have so successfully supported the phenomenal growth of the Internet to date. Not to heed these principles or the advice of numerous technical Internet groups is extremely irresponsible and is putting the stability of the Internet at considerable risk." Further, St.Amour explained, if Site Finder is not suspended, ISOC expects to see an increasing number of efforts to develop and deploy software that will "work around" the Site Finder service so that it does not disrupt applications such as spam filters. Unfortunately, while these work-arounds may allow users to bypass Site Finder, some of them may also impact the stability of the network. ISOC is calling upon VeriSign to voluntarily suspend the Site Finder service until they have adequately addressed the concerns of the Internet technical community. "We find their current position untenable; the concerns are too numerous and the implications too grave to be ignored," said St.Amour. " We support ICANN and the United States Department of Commerce taking appropriate action to ensure that VeriSign withdraws the service until adequate consultations have been taken with the Internet technical community." A survey of ISOC chapters around the world and ISOC Advisory Council members found strong disapproval for VeriSign's actions and strong support for the following statements: ICANN: http://www.icann.org/announcements/advisory-19sep03.htm Internet Architecture Board: http://www.iab.org/documents/docs/2003-09-20-dns-wildcards.html ICANN's Security and Stability Advisory Committee: http://www.icann.org/correspondence/secsac-to-board-22sep03.htm Public Interest Registry: http://www.pir.org/news/press_releases/pr_articles/2003-09-23-01 Contact
Julie Williams About ISOCThe Internet Society (www.isoc.org) is a not-for-profit membership organization founded in 1991 to provide leadership in Internet related standards, education, and policy. With offices in Washington, DC, and Geneva, Switzerland, it is dedicated to ensuring the open development, evolution and use of the Internet for the benefit of people throughout the world. ISOC is the organizational home of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), the Internet Architecture Board (IAB), the Internet Engineering Steering Group (IESG) and other Internet-related bodies who together play a critical role in ensuring that the Internet develops in a stable and open manner.For over 12 years ISOC has run international network training programs for developing countries and these have played a vital role in setting up the Internet connections and networks in virtually every country connecting to the Internet during this time. A copy of the letter may be found at www.isoc.org. |
