On Mon, 24 Jun 1996 11:54:24 -0400 Jim Gerland <[log in to unmask]> said: >I highly doubt it. My guess would be that 24,900+ of those are names >that "joe lets-make-some-money" applied for but were never actually put >into use or setup via a legitimate name server. I wouldn't be so optimistic. For all I know, LSOFT.COM is one of the domains in question. We should have gotten our invoices already, and we even wrote them asking when we would be invoiced, but there was no meaningful reply ("You will be invoiced in due time, thanks" or something like that). The #1 complaint people have about the NIC is that the invoicing is just not working. People don't get their invoices on time, they get worried, and things aren't resolved in a satisfactory manner. My guess is that this will go on until they delete IBM.COM or the like by accident and get sued for big money. Another thing I find offensive is the stated policy that they won't lift a finger to try and contact the company if the registered contact address doesn't work, and will just axe the domain instead and wait for the customer to get in touch with them once their service has been disrupted. This *might* have been fine if it had been this way from day one, but it hasn't. I wouldn't be surprised to hear that a majority of domain owners don't even know that they're going to be charged, and don't realize the importance of the contact address. Not everyone reads the trade press or checks the NIC's web server regularly. I have yet to receive a direct notification informing L-Soft of the policy, and we do have a working contact address. I can only imagine what the situation must be like in traditional corporate shops where the Internet is a fraction of one person's time and the contact address doesn't work because it's the guy before the guy before the guy. Eric