Important information regarding .COM domain names

**dahamsta** · 25/11/2005, 8:50 PM

This comes via Tucows / OpenSRS regarding a proposed agreement between ICANN and Verisign with regard to COM domain names. If you have a COM domain name, or are thinking of registering one at any point in the future, you should read this as it will directly impact on the cost and usability of COM domain names.

adam

ICANN and Verisign recently announced a proposed settlement of their pending litigation. We believe that the current terms of this settlement will have a direct and negative impact on your business and your customers. We think you should be aware of the details and make your views known to all of the organizations that can stop this decision: ICANN, the United States Department of Commerce, the United States National Telecommunications Infrastructure Administration in addition to your local government representatives and agencies.

Key Points:

The proposal allows Verisign to increase the price of .com domain names by 7% each year. Currently, prices are capped.
The proposal doubles the fees that accredited registrars must pay to ICANN.
The cancellation terms would be difficult to implement. Therefore, Verisign will essentially gain perpetual control of the .com registry.

This effectively eliminates all incentive for Verisign to improve quality of service.

The entire settlement documents are posted online at:

http://www.icann.org/tlds/agreements...agreements.htm

This settlement agreement may be signed very soon unless the ICANN Board of Directors hears otherwise from the internet community. We strongly recommend that you make your voice heard.

Your comments should be sent to each of:

ICANN: settlement-comments@icann.org
US Department of Commerce Secretary, Carlos Guterriez: cgutierrez@doc.gov
US NTIA, Assistant Secretary: mgallagher@ntia.doc.gov

Citizens of all countries should consider making your views known to your national governments and agencies as well.

Please keep the following guidelines in mind when sending your comments:

State the name of your company, specify how long you have been in business, what region you are located in and how many registrants you represent.
Specify how the negative aspects of this proposal will affect your business.
You can review comments made by other stakeholders before sending in your own at http://forum.icann.org/lists/settlement-comments/.

Feel free to forward a similar message to your customers, and urge them to individually post comments as to how this would impact them.

**A face** · 25/11/2005, 9:09 PM

What can Joe Soap on the street do about this ??

**dahamsta** · 25/11/2005, 9:28 PM

Send an email outlining your objections to the email addresses mentioned in the newsletter, as outlined above. At it simplest, you should mention the fact that there is no justification for price rises, and that handing this level of control to Verisign - a company that's proved itself anti-competitive time and time again via initiatives like SiteFinder - is simply lunacy.

adam

**finlma** · 29/11/2005, 7:41 AM

Does everyone with a .com address pay the same? I have one and its not costing too much currently. Surely business' and people using the website for profit should be charged more than people who have a .com address for personal use.

**dahamsta** · 29/11/2005, 9:06 AM

Originally Posted by finlma

Does everyone with a .com address pay the same? I have one and its not costing too much currently.

No. Verisign, the operator of .COM, currently charges registrars $6 per domain name at a wholesale level, but the registrars and their resellers can charge what they want. So registrars like GoDaddy charge less because they work in major bulk, and don't give a toss about customer service; people like me charge more because we don't buy in such bulk, and we offer more direct CS. (I charge a little more again because I'm more of a portfolio manager than anything else.)

Surely business' and people using the website for profit should be charged more than people who have a .com address for personal use.

COM is by definition a business domain name (COM = commercial), so your choice to use COM is purely aesthetic. By rights non-commercial applications should be registered in the ORG domain (ORG = organisation), and if people had stuck to the original guidelines, ORG registrants probably would be charged less. But COM became the de facto, and because it's an open registry run on a first-come, first-served basis, there's no way of knowing who's commercial and who isn't.

adam