Just got this in my inbox today and felt it might be of interest to anyone else who doesn't have domain registered with them. Naturally Dotster has a financial angle to consider here but the wider implication still holds ground. There's a petition you can sign at the bottom.

Greg Moore


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July 12, 2002

Dear Dotster Customers,

I am writing you today to let you know of some potentially harmful changes
that are being proposed for the domain name registration industry. These
changes, if adopted, would restrict consumer choice, cause domain pricing
to drastically increase, and re-create the monopolistic atmosphere that
once existed in our industry when Network Solutions (now VeriSign) was the
only game in town. Dotster, and other smaller registrars, need your support
to help us maintain the healthy, competitive environment that currently
exists today.

First, let me give you a little background on this issue. At the end of
2001, VeriSign proposed to ICANN a Domain Name Wait Listing Service (WLS)
as a way to manage the registration of expiring domain names (for those of
you unfamiliar with ICANN, this is the organization that was established
several years ago to govern the domain industry when the Network Solutions
monopoly was broken up). This proposal includes a partnership between
VeriSign and SnapNames, a competitor to Dotster and other registrars in the
secondary domain market sector. This proposed partnership would effectively
eliminate all other competition in the secondary market, thereby
eliminating your choices and the competitive alternatives that currently
exist. At the recent ICANN meetings in Bucharest, it was determined that a
final position regarding the proposal must be decided by the end of this
month.

Dotster strongly opposes this proposal as harmful to the consumer and the
entire domain registration industry. I recently wrote a letter to Marilyn
Cade, Chair of ICANN's WLS Task Force, to express Dotster's position on the
proposal. The entire letter is available for review by clicking the link
below, and I encourage you to review it and consider the implications that
adopting this proposal would place on the entire domain name system. How
will it affect you?

Letter to Chair of WLS Task Force: http://www.dotster.com/resources/wls.pdf

We need your support! If you agree with Dotster's stance on this issue,
please let me know. Send me an e-mail at WLS@dotster.com to share your
comments and support. We are currently in a 10-day comment period, and we
need your comments before the end of July. In addition, I ask that you post
your opinion at the ICANN WLS forum at:

http://forum.icann.org/wls/

and participate in the petition against WLS at:

http://www.petitiononline.com/antiwls/petition.html

Thank you for your continued support of Dotster. VeriSign is an industry
giant, but banded together it is my hope that we can preserve an
environment that fosters innovation and healthy competition for the benefit
of you, the consumer.

Sincerely,

Clint Page
President, Dotster Inc.
WLS@dotster.com.

I got the same thing but will fully read into it tomorrow. I got the basis of it and signed the petition. So far it looks like Network Solutions and SnapNames are trying to corner the market on domain registrations with this so-called "waiting period".

I signed it :D

I've got about 30 domains with Dotster and haven't received that message yet, but I probably will.

Sounds like an interesting topic....I'll read this letter to that task force guy later and sign that petition. It's 2:30am so I'm not thinking too clearly at the moment. :D

Another site to mention: www.icannatlarge.com

The WLS is simply a cash grab for Verisign. There is nothing wrong with the way dropped names are resold today - the problem is registrars are not required by ICANN to actually drop names on a regular schedule. Once names are forced to drop on a regular schedule, the last of the dropped domain problems will be resolved by the free market.

Vote NO on WLS. It changes nothing in the current scheme of things with the exception of pumping millions of dollars into Verisign's pockets and granting them a monopoly on the dropped name market.

-t

I fear that it won't help much but I signed and posted a comment on the forum...

I don't totally understand the nature of the issue. Does this mean once a domain name expires (if this proposal goes through) that Verisign and its partner SnapNames will be able to snap it up regardless of the registrar? And if that is the case, then two questions follows:

1. Wouldn't a proactive renewal of said domain name (i.e. renewing it before it expires) prevent such an occurrence?

2. How long would Verisign get to hold onto it for?

I'm not big on anything that will decrease competition as a general rule of thumb but I really don't understand all the ramifications of such a proposal.