.com prices to Rise [Archive]

ashokuh

November 24th, 2005, 13:37

I got this email directly from Directi

Hi everyone,

I am writing this letter to all of you personally because it is time for all of you to stand up for a cause. Some of you might be aware that ICANN and Verisign recently announced a proposed settlement of their pending litigation (Verisign had sued ICANN a few years ago and that lawsuit is pending). We believe this settlement is unfair, unjust, inappropriate and would be blasphemous to the Internet community and to your Business.

Some Highlights of the settlement

The settlement agreement allows Verisign to increase the price of .com domain names to every Registrar by 7% every year. Currently Verisign charges all Registrars $6 for every domain name. The new settlement agreement however allows them to increase prices to all of us without any cost justification. They can simply increase the price by 7% EACH year.

This means they could double the price in 10 years. Naturally any increase in price would mean all Registrars would have to increase their prices to you. This would reduce your sales and reduce your potential to sell other Products.

In this settlement proposal ICANN is giving Verisign the chance to make more than 2 Billion Dollars extra over the next 10 years. This may by far be the most expensive settlement proposal the world has witnessed.

This 2 Billion Dollars is coming out of your / your customers pockets.

The new settlement agreement also doubles the ICANN fees charged to Registrars. Currently Registrars pay 25 cents per domain name to ICANN. The new agreement will make that 50 cents. This again means all Registrars will further increase what they charge all of you for dotCom Domain Names.

The new settlement agreement has a perpetual presumptive renewal clause. This means that Verisign will permanently hold on to the dotCom Registry. There will never be any competitive bid for it, except in a very remote circumstance. Verisign now gets the right to a perpetual monopoly. This means that they are free to do whatever they want with dotCom, without fear of competition. Prices therefore will never reduce.

The entire settlement documents are posted online at http://www.icann.org/tlds/agreements...agreements.htm

The part with regards to pricing is in Section 7.3 of http://www.icann.org/tlds/agreements...nt-22sep05.pdf

What can you do?

This settlement agreement will be signed very soon unless the ICANN Board is convinced otherwise. You all represent the voice of the various Domain Name Consumers worldwide. All of you should send your comments about this settlement and how it will affect your business.

Send your comments to settlement-comments@icann.org

Keep the following points in mind before sending your comments:

Put in your company name, and specify how long you have been in business, and how you represent the voices of hundreds and thousands of Customers in your specific region.

You may specify how any increase in the dotCom domain name prices will affect your business.

Readup existing comments by other people at http://forum.icann.org/lists/settlement-comments/. Your comments can be similar to the ones already posted. More number of comments about the same issue from different people across different countries would clearly show that everyone is concerned about the same issue.

Feel free also to forward this email to your Customers and Resellers and urge them to individually post comments as to how this would impact their respective Business.

Why ICANN should not sign this Settlement?

ICANN itself has stated publicly that it is more likely to win the lawsuit than lose it. There is no reason for it to sell out the Internet to settle this litigation when there is a greater chance of it winning the lawsuit anyways.

The outcome does not provide benefits to the Internet community that both ICANN and Verisign were intended to serve.

The ICANN staff are proposing to provide Verisign the ability to increase their prices by 7% annually. Everywhere around the world prices for domain names and web services are reducing. There is no reason for ICANN to grant an increase in the prices.

ICANN is supposed to act as an administrator of the Internet on behalf of the Internet community. This proposed settlement however benefits ICANN and Verisign at the cost of the community.

It is important at a time like this for you to stand up and make yourself heard. The Internet should not belong to any one organization. Any changes affect millions of businesses worldwide. It would be unfair if any such changes are made without consensus from the community as a whole.

Regards,
Bhavin Turakhia
Founder, Chairman & CEO
Directi

__________________________________________________ ____________

WWW.purohits.com (.org domain for $4)

robert allen

November 24th, 2005, 14:14

I got that as well.

Icann are just being greedy, unfair, and they are nincompoops.

This is stupid, and if it happens, i will be forced to give up some of my websites. The $60 transfer fee for a .co.uk domain is enough, this is just totally unfair.

hottweelz

November 24th, 2005, 14:23

C'mon guys, it's been $6 to a year for about 10 years now... cost of living goes up, gas goes up, taxes goes up.

7% increase for a .com .... so it's $6.50 next year.

There is so much more to worry about. Spit up the price increase of 7% and remember what you're complaining about when gas increases 200% or Mortgage Rates go up 1.5%.

We're talking about quarters here.

Polykranopalous

November 24th, 2005, 20:39

Im in agreeance with hottweelz, it's not much more to be asking, they too have to live here too....
I don't think we'll ever see it go up past $10 (us dollars) and really that is not that much for a year-- My look on it is like a hair cut is roughly $20 and it lasts a few months - then you go get another one.

stuffradio

November 25th, 2005, 01:24

Becca

November 25th, 2005, 02:34

Although I partially agree with the argument presented by hottweelz, I think one should be careful because this doesn't only mean that domains could go up to $6.50 next year, but that the cost could increment as the years pass and with no logical reason. I would understand if the company raised their prices if they really needed it or if they had a reasonable argument behind it (apart from greed or other sort of ambitions that have nothing to do with need), but if this is true and Verisign wins, then one wouldn't know what to expect. And, this would affect many people who don't have enough resources. Not everyone who owns a .com lives in the United States (or a country that is well off). If you add to this any other increment in prices of things that are more needed, it would mean that people would put their needs first. I know of people who would rather go to the gasoline station where they will save 5 cents per gallon instead of a different one. So, maybe for those, .50 cents might mean a little more than for those who have the resources that don't let them value .50 cents.

I would be okay with Verisign winning if I trusted them with such liberties. However, I don't. I've seen many big companies take advantage of various (money-making) opportunities (do the math, .50 cents more per every .com, not just one or two)...and I don't blame them because it is all business. But, if it can be avoided, then that would be good.

WL-Michael

November 25th, 2005, 09:38

Not much of a big deal to me. Figured it was gonna come sooner or later anyways.

fireshark

November 25th, 2005, 16:14

itd be ok if it was tied to somehting like inflastion.,l.. but potatoes dont rise 7% per year

themoose

November 25th, 2005, 16:40

but potatoes dont rise 7% per year

think about it. they do.

robert allen

November 25th, 2005, 16:56

It's not Icann doing the rising of the bill. It's Verisign that'd be raising the price.

Nevertheless, it still goes into some rich mans pocket...

WL-Michael

November 25th, 2005, 18:22

Nevertheless, it still goes into some rich mans pocket...
As always...

bored118

November 25th, 2005, 18:46

Oh, well.

As long as the price isn't ridiculous, I won't start any riots.

(If it ever does get to be too high, though, I'll have my pitchforks and torches ready for a mob attack on VeriSign's corporate headquarters.)

Edit: Well, I just checked my e-mail, and I received the same e-mail. The title says ".COM Prices will rise...", yet the body of the e-mail says that the settlement is "proposed." Seems inconsistent to me. :/

hottweelz

November 28th, 2005, 08:22

itd be ok if it was tied to somehting like inflastion.,l.. but potatoes dont rise 7% per year
How much has inflation risen in the past ten years as opposed to TLD's NOT rising in the past 10 years?

krazframe

November 29th, 2005, 00:45

No matter how you look at it pricies rising doesn't help the average internet user, at least, it doesn't help in anyway I can see....

hottweelz

November 29th, 2005, 08:27

No matter how you look at it pricies rising doesn't help the average internet user, at least, it doesn't help in anyway I can see....
The intent is to make a profit while balancing costs, it's called an ROI. Maybe if we didn't give away so much to begin with, it wouldn't follow through in the Dominoe Theory.

It's not designed to "help" internet users.

Trance ADdix

November 29th, 2005, 11:12

wow, its gonna rise by 50 cents a year. whats the big deal the domains are cheap --- hell as they are now. you cheap bastards

Trance ADdix

November 29th, 2005, 11:13

and a-s-s isnt a bad word , lol hell is worser than a-ss

themoose

November 29th, 2005, 12:29

i regulary get .tld domains, so it will not at all help me.

striker

November 29th, 2005, 21:59

this is junk. They are selling you the right to a name. It's not even a tangible product, what does it cost them? Greedy, Greedy bastard, and don't forget it will rise continually and slowly, so as not to get the attention from people like you. For you it's just a little extra change, but for the guy makin the money it's a HUUUUUGE difference. He get's MUCH MUCH richer for no reason. It's not like the domain has gotten any better, just more expensive.

I hate fugging greedy bastardos. GREED is a biatch.

hottweelz

November 29th, 2005, 22:45

this is junk. They are selling you the right to a name. It's not even a tangible product, what does it cost them? Greedy, Greedy bastard, ....He get's MUCH MUCH richer for no reason. It's not like the domain has gotten any better, just more expensive.

I hate fugging greedy bastardos. GREED is a biatch.

Do you have any idea? More ignorance on FWS... shocked? You want to get schooled? Hmm...

Once the IANA decides which top-level domains exist and how they're delegated, the TLDs are carried by a set of root DNS servers that serve as the base for the DNS directory on the Internet. The reality of how the Internet functions is that the Internet service providers ISPs-who maintain the connections-cooperate and by joint agreement use the central root servers designated by the IANA.

Here are how some of the delegations are currently handled:

· .edu, .com, .org., and .net are administered by the InterNIC, which also handles registry for North America.

· .gov is delegated to the U.S. Federal Networking Council and is administered at the InterNIC.

· .mil is managed by the U.S. Defense Data Network.

· RIPE NCC handles registry for Europe, delegating most of the country TLDs to national registries.

· APNIC handles registry for the Asia-Pacific region, delegating most of the country TLDs to national registries.

When the Internet was still funded by the U.S. Department of Defense, it was clear who made the decisions. In today's Internet, things run because several organizations and entities have agreed to cooperate. There exists, however, a centralization of registries that has led to growing dissatisfaction within the Internet community; that is, the InterNIC retains a virtual monopoly on managing the .com domain. Several proposals have been put forth, and efforts are currently under way to change that situation to provide more options for people looking for domain names and to make the registries more competitive.

Get some real knowledge here: http://www.isoc.org/oti/printversions/0996prtrio.html

striker

November 30th, 2005, 00:52

hottweelz

November 30th, 2005, 09:10

Thanks for telling us who "runs the show", even though that was not at all related to my post.

What I was saying is they're raising the price NOT because their is a low supply (which is the normal reason for a price increase), but just because they feel like it and they can.

100% related to your post, specifically quoted for your post.

The days of telling people to wait 72 hours for DNS to propagate are long gone. If you have a good ISP and update nameservers via GoDaddy or someone else... you can propagate in an hour, sometimes 15 minutes... you know why?

The root DNS Servers that are imployed and constantly upgraded,

Just one reason. Would you rather your tax dollars pay for those DNS Servers? Remember these agencies are still Government supported to an extent.

So good. let's keep tld prices at what they are and take $1.00 more out of everyone's paycheck. Then we'll complain about Paycheck Deductions.

Supply and Demand is not the sole reason for Price Increases in Business. It's one of them, but not the only one. ROI, Public Expenditure, Regulation, etc, etc, etc.