ICANN and Verisign moving to deal on .com

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) and Verisign have come to a tentative agreement on handling .com domain names - after years of ugly legal wrangling.

ICANN is responsible for regulating the use of domain names, while Verisign is the world’s largest domain registrar, and effectively controls registration of all .com, .net, and .org domain names.

Trouble flared a few years ago, when users seeking a non-existent .com, .org, or .net domain, were instead redirected to the Verisign website.

ICANN forced Verisign to stop this, only for Verisign to sue, claiming ICANN was not in a position to enforce such a complaint.

ICANN replied with a counter legal action against Verisign.

The new agreement, which has not been formally announced, effectively caps Verisign’s fee increases over the next few years - but allows Verisign effective control over .com, .net, and .org domain names until 2012, when it can re-apply to renew its contract with Verisign.

While the move itself will not likely have any direct impact on internet users, it should hopefully bring an end to an acrimonious dispute among the internet’s registration services.