Hi Charles, many thanks for your help.
In return I can maybe fill in some details regarding what happened with registrations in 1999. Between February and May, as I understand it, domains were added to the .vc zonefile by the .vc registry, which, along with some other Caribbean registries, was run technically by a single IANA-accredited technical contact. In fact he is still the IANA technical contact for .vc. Domains were registered by him on a strict first-come first-served basis. He is an efficient guy and an upright guy, and he does his job properly. He collected all the info from registrants which is collected when people register .com domains etc. - admin contact, technical contact, name, contact details, DNS, etc. A few firms which were acting as resellers or registrars for other domains got to hear of this and charged large sums to take people's details and send them to the .vc registry, figuring that a) some .vc domains would be seen as quite attractive, and b) few people would have the sense to find out for themselves the address of the registry (despite the fact that it has always been available at the ICANN website). They presented themselves as "registrars", which I guess they were in the sense of being agents of registrants, but they weren't accredited. The registry dealt with all applications, including direct from companies and individuals, on exactly the same basis. Companies that applied direct included such names as Amazon, AOL, and Microsoft. The .vc registry was not involved in any side-room deals, and was always run on an efficient, even-handed, fair, and proper basis. It received every application on a first-come first-served basis, and did not discriminate between people who applied direct and people whose agents applied on their behalf. It's a little known fact that a lot of the already registered domains are held by people who applied direct to the registry without using agents. The registry took the details, took payment (a flat price, the same for everyone, and not a large price - the mark-up by some of the agents was huge), added the registration details to the file, added the NS details to the DNS zonefile, and sent confirmation to the registrant (or their agent) and a receipt for the money. The registry has maintained the zonefile ever since. Whichever way you look at it, this was a registry and indeed it has been a registry even after it stopped doing registrations, in the sense that part of the job of a registry is to maintain the zonefile and the details of registrants. In taking registrations it was working according to proper standards. It would be scandalous and against ICANN guidelines if the existing domains were de-registered and either assigned to someone else or made available to new applicants. Later, a certain person got promoted to a regional job away from the ministry in Kingstown (capital of St Vincent), and his old job was taken over by an ignorant buffoon named after a sun-god, about whom I could tell a fair few stories, and who is chums with an emigre who runs a small ISP, but I expect you may have had a few experiences with this guy already :-) Maybe I'd better stop there! Chrissie _________________________________________________________________ Join the world�s largest e-mail service with MSN Hotmail. http://www.hotmail.com
