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