Seems like I missed most of the final showdown of Episode I of the wildcard wars today. Here's the wrap-up.
In a letter to Verisign (advisory here), ICANN has demanded that Verisign shut down sitefinder by 6 pm PDT tomorrow, until open technical issues are resolved. At the same time, the GNSO is requested to work out a procedure for the introduction of new registry-level services by 15 January 2004.
See also: Commentary by Chris Ambler; discussion at ICANNwatch; discussion at Slashdot; reactions at CircleID.
In response, Verisign has announced that it will temporarily shut down sitefinder (it seems like this step has not yet been implemented, though). It's remarkable that Verisign spokesman Tom Galvin is now quoted characterizing Sitefinder as a non-registry service.
See also: More ICANNwatch discussion; Chris Ambler; Verisign press release.
