Verisign has requested ICANN permission to offer a new service under the Registry Service Evaluation Process (RSTEP). There are two services described within the proposed Verisign Anti-Abuse Domain Use Policy. - Periodic scans of websites to identify possible malware - An anti-abuse policy and procedures to take down sites that violate the policy. They would be applicable to the .com, .net and .name TLDs managed by Verisgin. The full request can be seen at http://www.icann.org/en/registries/rsep/verisign-com-net-name-request-10oct1..., and there are articles about the request at http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/10/11/verisign_asks_for_web_takedown_power... and http://domainnamewire.com/2011/10/11/verisign-proposes-takedown-procedures-a.... There are already a few comments on the service - see http://forum.icann.org/lists/registryservice/. In theory, ICANN could approve the service in as little as two weeks from today. However, in this case I suspect that a longer time will be allowed, and perhaps a formal Public Comment period will also be opened. As you will see from the news articles and the early comments, there are a number of issues involved here and the ALAC may well want to comment on this Service Request. Alan