The company has also filed a petition with the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) requesting that ICANN terminate Register.com’s accreditation as a domain name registrar based on Register.com’s continuing breach of its registrar accreditation agreement with ICANN.
Verio believes that the Court’s ruling threatens the fundamental intent of public access to the WHOIS databases of domain name registrars. The company firmly believes that it has been lawfully accessing and using Register.com’s WHOIS database. Moreover, Verio has made repeated attempts to get alternative ICANN-required bulk access to Register.com’s WHOIS database, and Register.com has failed to respond to each such request.
The Court acknowledged in its ruling that Register.com’s WHOIS database use restrictions violate Register.com’s accreditation agreement with ICANN, said Doug Schneider, president of Web services for Verio. ICANN made the same statement in its amicus brief to the court in this matter. We believe Register.com’s flagrant disregard of the rules to which all registrars are to adhere is not only a serious issue for Verio but for the entire Internet community.
