What will it take for us to force Verisign to explain themselves? - IDN Forums

**Ryu** · #1 (**permalink**) 18th March 2016, 05:15 PM

Hi everyone,

I have been wondering about all the chaotic things that have been going on with コム and if anything could be done about it. For various reasons, I am personally not interested in pursuing legal options and would like to seek other course of actions.

The way I look at it is, this "コム" being established as a TLD entirely separate from "com" (i.e., allowing separate ownership) is great injustice to all current "com" users/holders, both ascii and IDNs. And whilst Verisign "may" be legally entitled to go forward with it, they are morally required to explain why such a move is fair/justified to their current customers.

The question I ponder is, what will it take for us to force Verisign to explain themselves? Since this is an issue that negatively affects all current "com" users/holders, could we somehow get online petition or something like that started, which asks Verisign to explain why they could do such a thing against their customers, and ask as many current com users/holders as possible to sign it?

Do you think something like this is feasible? I think this is a completely safe option for us to pursue, and if we could successfully force Verisign to address to the question of business moral/fairness, I think it may be possible that Verisign will be forced to drop the current plan. Or am I just dreaming?

Could I seek your opinions, please?

domainguru · #2 (**permalink**) 18th March 2016, 05:55 PM

I'm not sure how many US corporations operate on the basis of morals / fairness .... their first responsibility is to shareholders.

Rubber Duck · #3 (**permalink**) 18th March 2016, 06:04 PM

Take too long and the outcome would be delliberately vague.

SUMMARY.

Pointless.

puyang · #4 (**permalink**) 19th March 2016, 02:18 AM

Starting an online petition might be a good idea, but needs to target on Japanese websites using ASCII.com. Everyone wants to protect his/her own interests. It's understandable that ASCII.com endusers do not care or even suppress IDN. We need to find a point of entry and we do not give up persuing good dream.

NameYourself · #5 (**permalink**) 19th March 2016, 02:55 AM

A petition will do nothing, they will just ignore it.

**Ryu** · #6 (**permalink**) 19th March 2016, 04:22 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by domainguru

I'm not sure how many US corporations operate on the basis of morals / fairness .... their first responsibility is to shareholders.

Customer interests are also important, are they not? Due to the nature of registry business, Verisign can probably ignore their customers up until a certain point, but shouldn't there be a limit?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rubber Duck

Take too long and the outcome would be delliberately vague.

SUMMARY.

Pointless.

But wouldn't the outcome be uncertain whatever we do?

Quote:

Originally Posted by puyang

Starting an online petition might be a good idea, but needs to target on Japanese websites using ASCII.com. Everyone wants to protect his/her own interests. It's understandable that ASCII.com endusers do not care or even suppress IDN. We need to find a point of entry and we do not give up persuing good dream.

I agree that non-Japanese ascii.com endusers are unlikely to care about コム, but コム is just a start and will be followed by Russian kom also, right? If I were running, say for example, an English ascii.com website, I would be very unhappy to see someone starting an ascii.kom website. Internet beginners and elder people can be fooled by such dummy sites. Oh, and if ascii.com endusers want to suppress IDN, then that'd add to a reason to question Verisign of their action.

Quote:

Originally Posted by NameYourself

A petition will do nothing, they will just ignore it.

A petition was perhaps a very naive idea. The question for me really is, what is it that Verisign cannot ignore and would be forced to explain.

What they are doing is very fishy/phishy, so they certainly will not want to explain, and will try to ignore any customer that tries to ask them of a reason. But wouldn't there be any venue or means at all where Verisign cannot ignore?

I cannot remember very well, but when ICANN was asking for public comments about new GTLDs, Verisign wasn't planning this, was it? If so, we were thus far given no opportunity at all to address the issue of orally identical therefore confusing and phishy new extensions.

domainsell · #7 (**permalink**) 19th March 2016, 05:18 AM

Maybe start asking questions to them directly on their facebook and twitter page. If enough people blast their social media pages asking them why they are screwing idn.com owners over they may respond?? Maybe shaming them in public via their own pages is a good start??

domainsell · #8 (**permalink**) 19th March 2016, 05:19 AM

https://twitter.com/verisign/

https://www.facebook.com/Verisign/

have at it!!

domainsell · #9 (**permalink**) 19th March 2016, 05:29 AM

I just asked them @verisign on twitter. Get going everyone. Public shaming is the best way these days to get things addressed.

**Ryu** · #10 (**permalink**) 19th March 2016, 05:30 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by domainsell

Maybe start asking questions to them directly on their facebook and twitter page. If enough people blast their social media pages asking them why they are screwing idn.com owners over they may respond?? Maybe shaming them in public via their own pages is a good start??

Thank you for your input, domainsell. Just one thing. I think it's very very important to not limit the case as one concerning only idn.com owners. Verisign's new extensions are available in ascii words, too. What Verisign is doing is damaging to all current com owners.

domainsell · #11 (**permalink**) 19th March 2016, 05:36 AM

looks like we have a few questions @verisign keep it up everyone.

domainsell · #12 (**permalink**) 19th March 2016, 05:37 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ryu

Thank you for your input, domainsell. Just one thing. I think it's very very important to not limit the case as one concerning only idn.com owners. Verisign's new extensions are available in ascii words, too. What Verisign is doing is damaging to all current com owners.

This is a good place to start.

get going everyone.

))

**sbe18** · #13 (**permalink**) 19th March 2016, 05:41 AM

Ryu,

Please post Japanese tech or business press that address this.
I agree the idn.コム is one base.
but Japanese ASCII.com need to voice their anger as well.

Each of the new idn gtld in (com) to follow is going to have new angry constituencies.

so much goodwill and marketing possibilities are being flushed down a toilet for poorly chosen premiums..

bullshit Japanese premiums prove that the other scripts are likely to be horrible .

**Ryu** · #14 (**permalink**) 19th March 2016, 05:51 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sbe18

Ryu,

Please post Japanese tech or business press that address this.
I agree the idn.コム is one base.
but Japanese ASCII.com need to voice their anger as well.

Each of the new idn gtld in (com) to follow is going to have new angry constituencies.

so much goodwill and marketing possibilities are being flushed down a toilet for poorly chosen premiums..

bullshit Japanese premiums prove that the other scripts are likely to be horrible .

I'll see what I can do in the Japanese language web space. But Verisign is an American company, so it's as much or more important that questions are asked in Engilsh.

Also, I personally think, unless you are contacting Verisign personally, it's better not to talk much or at all about the issue of premium pricing. 99.999999% of the world don't care about premium pricing. Also, in the eye of the public, domainers getting angry about premium pricing could be perceived as very greedy fellows scared of losing their vested interest.

puyang · #15 (**permalink**) 19th March 2016, 10:32 AM

We might need a famous Japanese ASCII.com who voluntarily start to use idn.コム for better marketing or other reasons.

In terms of Versign, .com business is now their cashcow, but .com is subject to the approval from the US ministry of commerce and is due in 2018. If LOTS of .com holders and Versign's stockholders expressed their worry that Versign might not be able to renew .com contract in 2018, the stock price might drop.
The good news is that their .com_in_idn contracts are not subject to the US ministry of commerce. I believe there will be a point in time Versign for own interests starts to push all .com holders to shift to .com_in_idn.

123 · #16 (**permalink**) 19th March 2016, 10:58 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by puyang

We might need a famous Japanese ASCII.com who voluntarily start to use idn.コム for better marketing or other reasons.

In terms of Versign, .com business is now their cashcow, but .com is subject to the approval from the US ministry of commerce and is due in 2018. If LOTS of .com holders and Versign's stockholders expressed their worry that Versign might not be able to renew .com contract in 2018, the stock price might drop.
The good news is that their .com_in_idn contracts are not subject to the US ministry of commerce. I believe there will be a point in time Versign for own interests starts to push all .com holders to shift to .com_in_idn.

In my opinion they don't care at all. They will of course be able to renew their .com contract. So far for them there is very little money in IDNs.They pointed out that .TV was insignificant for them and they will think the same about .IDN. It's only when their .com monopoly is threatened they might look for alternatives but that's not really happening. If .com fades so will .IDN so we shouldn't wish for that.

Perhaps 2025. Who knows.

puyang · #17 (**permalink**) 19th March 2016, 11:05 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 123

In my opinion they don't care at all. They will of course be able to renew their .com contract. So far for them there is very little money in IDNs.They pointed out that .TV was insignificant for them and they will think the same about .IDN. It's only when their .com monopoly is threatened they might look for alternatives but that's not really happening. If .com fades so will .IDN so we shouldn't wish for that.

Good point. Let's start to find reasons to challenge ASCII.com monopoly but good for IDN.com_in_IDN then.

For example, other registries might not want Verisign to renew .com contract... Maybe we could try contacting donuts.domains for reasons that might impact Versign's stock price?

Edwin · #18 (**permalink**) 19th March 2016, 12:04 PM

I think posters on this thread are VASTLY over-estimating how much the rest of the world cares about this issue. In reality, nobody cares (rounded down).

NOTE: I'm not comfortable about the idn.コム launch process either, but I'm under no illusions that the rest of the world outside a few people on an IDN forum share that view...

idn · #19 (**permalink**) 19th March 2016, 02:29 PM

Personally I'm not sure any of it matters at this point. Not as though these are getting traffic and I haven't heard of any marketing plans.

As of now it looks like we will just start trading these among ourselves as we always have.

**Ryu** · #20 (**permalink**) 20th March 2016, 03:14 AM

Actually this matters less to us than to future victims of コム scams. Anyone with some foresight can see that's a real possibility and when that happens, a part of responsibilities without doubt lies on Verisign and ICANN.

It's true like Edwin says that the rest of the world hardly cares about this issue at the moment. People start caring only when they realize they got scammed. And it's too late by then. Likewise with current Japanese com operators. They will realize the nastiness of this コム introduction only when they start seeing their dummy sites.

And when all this can be so easily predicted, there is no way to address the risk? How sad!