Dot-com domain control stays in VeriSign's hands

In a 12-3 vote, the directors of ICANN (the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) allowed Verisign to continue its dual function for a further six years, with certain stipulations.

As stated in a silicon.com story yesterday, ICANN's regulations originally required the manager of the registry to be separate from the domain name registrars themselves to ensure full competition was introduced into the process.

But despite this, VeriSign still has fingers in both pies, although ICANN has attempted to curb its activities by applying some hefty conditions on the company.

It must hand over management of the dot-org registry to a not-for-profit organisation by December 31, 2002, along with $5m funding.

It must stop imposing $10,000 fees on new registrars seeking access to its database, and it must even cut its charges on all subsidiary registrars.

VeriSign's ownership of the dot-net registry will expire on 1 January 2006, but the company will be allowed to bid for a renewal licence. Likewise, management of the dot-com registry will be opened to competition on 10 November 2007.

In a significant development for the internet as a whole, VeriSign is also required to invest at least $200m into a universal WHOIS service that would detail the ownership of every site on the web.

WHOIS was pioneered by Network Solutions, the US government-funded body that VeriSign took over in 1999. It provided names and contact details of site owners, facilitating a burgeoning trade in web addresses.

Last night's agreement is subject to ratification by the US Department of Commerce.