VeriSign Inc., the firm that operates a key piece of the Internet's address system, said it would temporarily shut down a new service that makes money off the typos of Web users after the Internet's oversight body threatened to take legal action against the company.

Earlier today, Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) President Paul Twomey sent a letter to VeriSign demanding that the company take the service down or face legal consequences. Under its contracts with VeriSign ICANN can impose up to $100,000 in fines or strip the company of its authority to operate the registries that handle dot-com and dot-net Internet addresses.

"Without so much as a hearing, ICANN today formally asked us to shut down the Site Finder service," said VeriSign spokesman Tom Galvin. "We will accede to their request while we explore all of our options."

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VeriSign also angered the close-knit group of engineers and scientists who are familiar with the technology underpinning the Internet. They say that Site Finder undermines the worldwide Domain Name System, causing e-mail systems, spam-blocking technology and other applications to malfunction.

VeriSign said the claims are overblown.

"There is no data to indicate the core operation of the domain name system or the stability of the Internet has been adversely affected," VeriSign's Galvin said. "ICANN is using anecdotal and isolated issues in an attempt to assert a dubious right to regulate non-registry services."

"War is breaking out between the regulators and the people they regulate. This is a real power struggle [over] who controls the rules on the Internet going forward," said said Paxfire's Lewyn.