more on ICANN to allow domain registries to charge 'what the market will bear' for domain names & renewals?

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Karl Auerbach <karl () cavebear com>
Date: August 29, 2006 7:28:09 PM EDT
To: dave () farber net
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 () via net>

> 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--



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