I am just catching up on the discussion on this list back in November about the already registered .vc domains. I understand that Tucows and the new management of the registry will respect the ownership of those domains already in the zone file. This is the correct decision and really there was no other choice. Anything else would have violated ICANN's first-come first-served guidelines and could have led to legal action. Although it was true that some firms were charging sky-high prices for registrations, and some of the domains for which they charged such prices did not end up getting registered at all (and in some cases, so I understand, intending registrants have not been reimbursed), the questions as to who acted as *registrar* and how much they charged are irrelevant to the issue of the honouring of successful registrations. Successful registration only happens when the registry adds a domain to the zone file. The .vc registry was under the management of the official ICANN-sanctioned 'technical contact', and in fact it has never been open for business under any other management. No registrar whatsoever had a real-time capability of registering domains 'through' the registry; it wasn't like .com in this regard. Note too that the technical contact is different from the 'admin contact'. There were some personnel changes in the Ministry of Communications in St. Vincent which meant that certain officials there who were less tech-savvy than their predecessors (and yes I could name names, but I won't) did not understand the process. This issue was one of briefing problems within the Ministry, that's all. But the actual registrations which led to domains being added to the zone files, including for such companies as BP-Amoco, Amazon, Compuserve, AOL, and so on, were perfectly legitimate and there is no option but to continue to honour them, and their ownership by their registrants. Remember that even a government does not have the right to manage an associated TLD unless IANA/ICANN gives it that right, and first-come first-served is an important principle taken very seriously. And the conclusion to this sermon is... the owners of domains such as WIN.VC, INVEST.VC, and INTERNET.VC (which have resolved for almost a year) are set to make a lot of money! :-) Good luck to them. Regards, Adam -- Adam Kadmon
