[IP] more on ICANN to allow domain registries to charge 'what the market will bear' for domain names & renewals?
Begin forwarded message:
From: Karl Auerbach <karl@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: August 29, 2006 7:28:09 PM EDT
To: dave@xxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: [IP] ICANN to allow domain registries to charge 'what
the market will bear' for domain names & renewals?
David Farber wrote:
From: joe mcguckin <joe@xxxxxxx>
I have not seen very much discussion about this, but if it's not
some sort of idle rumor, many of us may be in
for an unpleasant surprise when we renew our domains...
There has been plenty of discussion, but unless it is made on ICANN's
official web pages, ICANN pretends that it does not exist.
And even if comment is made in proper form it is likely to be
ignored. I remember when I was on the board that when "staff"
summarized the comments for the board (seemingly few board members
read the actual comments) the summary was very, very, very short and
pretty much cherry picked the items that supported the outcome that
"staff" wanted.
As for the new contracts:
The pain of the proposed arbitrary pricing is exacerbated by ICANN's
decision to transform the conception of a registry from that of a
licensee of a right to operate a TLD into that of permanent ownership.
ICANN has taken the original names, - .com, .net, .org, .edu - that
existed before there was an ICANN, before there was a Network
Solutions or Verisign - and is busily transforming them into fee
simple absolute properties of Verisign, PIR, and other registries by
virtue of its decision to give to the registries the gift of
perpetual presumptive renewal.
That's as if the US Park Service hired a company to maintain the
roads in Yosemite and six years later decided to gift the entire
property of Yosemite, lock stock and barrel, in perpetuity to that
company.
Now, the issue in .biz and .info is different - there is some
argument that the registry has built some equity into the name
(although that is not tantamount to saying that they deserve
ownership in perpetuity.)
As for the pricing:
For the old TLDs in which so many of us have built our internet
identities this is a potentially devastating change for users. We
are largely locked into these TLDs. Imagine, for example, how much
money it would cost for IBM, EBay or Google to move from .com to some
other TLD? Those same kinds of costs exist for every one of us who
is locked in and who never had any ability to buy domain name in a
competitive marketplace.
With these proposed changes we could find that when it comes time to
renew that we have to pay a charge that is determined by the
registry's arbitrary determination of how much they can squeeze out
of us.
ICANN makes the silly argument that "oh, you will have six months
notice, so you can buy a ten year term and thus defer the big-bite
for a decade. That's hardly realistic - I plan for my identities and
business names (trademarks and service marks) to have lifetimes
longer than that.
James Bond had a license to kill. That's pretty draconian. ICANN is
merely issuing licenses to extort domain name owners within a dollar
of their lives.
ICANN has transformed itself from a caretaker into an auctioneer.
--karl--
-------------------------------------
You are subscribed as roessler@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
To manage your subscription, go to
http://v2.listbox.com/member/?listname=ip
Archives at: http://www.interesting-people.org/archives/interesting-people/