[Infowarrior] - ICANN condemns registry DNS redirection

[Richard Forno]

ICANN condemns registry DNS redirection

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/11/25/icann_dns_redirection_condemned/
Seeks ban on SiteFinder-like typo-squatting

By Dan Goodin in San Francisco • Get more from this author

Posted in Networks, 25th November 2009 21:28 GMT

The group that oversees the internet's address system is taking a hard  
stance against domain name registries that redirect internet users to  
third-party sites when a non-existent URL is typed.

Earlier this week, the Internet Corporation of Assigned Names and  
Numbers (ICANN) said the practice - known as NXDOMAIN substitution and  
DNS redirection - threatens net stability and deteriorates user  
experience. In a memorandum (PDF) published Tuesday, ICANN went on to  
reiterate that all managers of newly created top-level domains would  
be prohibited from following the practice under draft rules now being  
considered.

The proposed restriction is aimed at preventing the kind of  
controversy that was created in 2003 when VeriSign introduced a  
service that automatically redirected all mistyped addresses ending  
in .com and .net to a proprietary website. Internet purists howled in  
protest, arguing that VeriSign's SiteFinder breached time-honored  
practices for handling mistyped or non-existent addresses. (VeriSign  
soon dropped the service).

ICANN's prohibition is aimed at managers of so-called registry-class  
domain names, or RCDNs, better described as the registries that act as  
the gate keepers for top-level domains such as .com, .info, or .biz.

"Normally if someone wants to make use of a domain, they have to  
register it (and pay a fee for the right to use it)," ICANN's memo  
states. "In the case of NXDOMAIN substitution in a RCDN, the registry  
would be making use (and perhaps profit) from all or a subset of the  
uninstantiated domains without having registered or paid for them."

It would appear that the prohibition, which was discussed in June  
during an ICANN meeting in Australia, has no effect on internet  
service providers and other services that redirect subscribers who  
type non-existent addresses. Services including Comcast, Verizon, and  
Virgin have been known to offer such services, often with no warning  
or easy way for users to turn it off.

Other services, most notably, OpenDNS, have built an entire business  
off of the practice. What sets this last one against the rest is that  
it's entirely opt-in. That means users who want to prevent themselves  
from accidentally ending up at a harmful site because they mistyped a  
URL have to go through the trouble of configuring their systems to use  
the service.

VeriSign's SiteFinder, by contrast, didn't. ®