I am just wondering how long until some sharp lawyer sues the heck out of Verisign.
While one could argue about who owns unregistered names, there is little or no question about who owns registered names. Verisign's current implementation breaks down for registered names that are not in the zone for some reason. The legal problems
1. This could be considered hijacking of the domain name
2. If the domain name is trademarked, it could be a trademark violation
3. If a registered name goes on HOLD for a day, mail service is suspended (most MTAs keep retrying when the name doesn't resolve). Under the new scheme it all bounces
4. By bouncing mail using the name, it could be the unauthorized use of a domain (that's a crime in California)
If one wants to experiment, use dorkslayers.com as your test case. Its a valid paid-for active domain name with no nameservers.
Might make a nice class action suit on behalf of all the owners of domain names that aren't in the zone. Could be worth a lot of legal fees.