Trust services firm VeriSign Inc., owner of Network Solutions Inc., the largest registry/registrar in the world, Thursday threw the switch on its long-running Domain-Policy mailing list.

The company announced to the list that it would be closed, and promptly put the decision into effect. The list's archives were also removed. NSI created the list in 1996, before its acquisition by VeriSign. At that time, it was the only forum on the Internet for discussing domain policy and intellectual property issues. But since that time, such lists have appeared all over the Net, and O'Shaughnessy said there was no reason for VeriSign to duplicate the efforts that can be found at the Internet Corp. for Assigned Names and Numbers' (ICANN) public comment forum, or places like ICANNWatch. But some members of the Domain-Policy community were angered by VeriSign's decision, especially the purging of the archives. Members of the Domain-Policy list quickly reinstituted their community, through the creation of the DomainPolicy group at Yahoo! e-Groups. Some members speculated that VeriSign's decision to shut down the list may have been connected to a series of postings concerning a $165 million lawsuit filed by a former VeriSign employee that alleged racial bias -- among other charges -- at the firm.