Domain name madness

Domain name madness...

Some people worry about the power of Google.

There's only one force on the Internet that I worry about and that's...

The institutions that control the domain name system.

Why? Because they have the power to change the domain name rules radically.

Who cares? You might care if when you domain name comes up for renewal, the charge is $1,000, or $10,000 - or whatever the market can bare.

That's impossible, right? Not only is in not impossible, but ICANN - the domain regulation entity that controls .org, .info and .biz - has a proposal on the table right now that make such prices possible.

If they get away with it, you can be sure that Verisign which controls the .com domains will not be far behind.

I only just learned about this from my colleagues Rick Schwartz and Howard Neu late last night and the public comment period ends today.

Here's what we need to do:

1. Go to the ICANN web page that discusses this:

http://www.icann.org/announcements/announcement-2-28jul06.htm

2. Compose a letter that opposes the variable pricing of domain names and send it to each of the three e-mail addresses listed on the web page - for .org, .info,  and .biz

3. If you need ideas of things to write, just read the comments that others have posted which are on the page.

4. If you are a business owner who uses the web, let them know that you are and that you oppose this radical change to the domain system. 

5. The key phrase is variable pricing, so at a minimum put something like "No to variable pricing" or "Opposed to variable pricing" in the subject line.

In the body add something like "As a small business owner who has made a considerable investment in developing the domain names I own, I am firmly opposed to the variable pricing of domain names by the .org registry." And then send a separate note for .biz and .info.

The posting information is all here:

http://www.icann.org/announcements/announcement-2-28jul06.htm

Speak now or forever hold your peace.

Some of us are working to try to extend the public comment period, but don't count on getting a second shot at going on the record.

Variable pricing of domains by the registries is a terrible idea for web site owners.

ICANN and Verisign enjoy government granted monopolies. The current system - which works fine and serves the Internet community - should be kept as it is.

Comments

[David]

Ken,

So is this just like how prices are going to skyrocket after .COM and .NET TLD pricing restrictions were removed in 2005? Oh, right, there was no price hike. Seriously, your article is alarmist and inaccurate. Or maybe you just think market forces shouldn't be used when determining commodity pricing?

[Ken McCarthy]

David,

I'm going to guess that you are a "free market" theorist and not an actual business owner.

I don't think that after someone has invested time, sweat and money into increasing the value of an asset exponentially, that a government-granted monopoly should stick its hands out and demand to share in the wealth.

That's what's at issue here.

Think it all the way through.

What gives ICANN the right to come back to me ten years after I built a successful business on a domain to tell me I know have to pay their idea of the "market" price for the name?

ICANN doesn't own these names and it certainly didn't create them. They were granted the right to administer them. Their proposal is insane.

[Socli]

I couldn't figure out how to post a comment there.

As a web site operator, I create the value of my business by advertising my business name and promoting my website. This takes a lot of effort, and is in fact a full time job. In the real world, the good name I build for my business is mine. But now on the internet, you want to charge me a fine equal to the value I have added to my business name, and if I don't pay it you want to resell my name on the open market.

[Rockie]

For one, this would just be completly insane and assinine of ICANN. Also, I could give 2 shits less if google controled the world, I think it would be a swift move of Google's behalf to start their own domain extension like .ggl or .goog or something. I would almost bet they would give em away for free too. Thats what I like about google, almost everything is free, and at that, much better then other services. ICANN can shove it up their ass and twist a couple thousand times. I wouldnt pay anywhere near that much for a stupid domain. I am sorry for all of this swearing, but ICANN is becoming more retarded with time, and it is time either a campaign is set up to force them into a low set price, or ban them all together and aquire co.uk or com.au addresses. Who agrees with me here?

[Ken McCarthy]

I saw this public comment on Digg about this issue from Howard Neu and am reposting it.

You can read the original post here: http://www.digg.com/?s=ICANN

Gentlemen:

It has come to my attention that you are planning to adopt an agreement with the registries of .info, .biz and .org that will allow those registries to selectively price domain registration fees. It is apparent that this may be in direct violation of the U.S. Constitution.

I realize that you are an international body, but you were created by the U.S. Congress and subject to the jurisdiction of U.S. laws. One of the first 10
Amendments to the U.S. Constitution (Bill of Rights) is that which creates "Equal protection" and has been consistently enforced by U.S. Courts. By entering into an agreement with these registries to allow them to selectively price individual domains, leaves you open and extremely vulnerable to a law suit declaring the application of your actions to be unconstitutional as denying "equal protection" to owners of domains and web sites that may have been more successful or popular than others.

I therefore strongly urge you to reconsider this position or, in the alternative, get your attorneys to guaranty that you are not in violation of the Constitution, or they will defend you in multiple lawsuits at no cost.

Very truly yours,

Howard Neu, Esq.
LAW OFFICE OF HOWARD NEU, P.A.
1152 NORTH UNIVERSITY DRIVE
PEMBROKE PINES, FL 33024
954-431-3990
FAX 954-431-5113
howard@xxxxxxxxxx

[sam greene]

"...The analogy I will give is that the proposed variable pricing would be like saying the registration fee for an Acura will cost more than registering a Chevy Cobolt simply because the Acura has a higher market value. Crazy...there is no more management or paperwork required to "register" Google.com than www.my-air-purifier.com..."

That's funny someone whould raise that point - that's how the registrations work in phoenix. Not so out of the question.

[Tom]

way 2 go howard, wat are icaan thinking? have they lost the plot?

[David]

Uh it's "bear" not "bare" one means "to endure" the other means "uncovered".

[Colin Kingsbury]

Seems to me this is crying out for some precedent. In the US, IIRC, there are some rules around business phone numbers, particularly toll-free ones, that basically forbid these kind of shenanigans. While you don't literally "own" 1-800-Flowers there are a lot of rules in terms of what AT&T (or whoever hosts it for you) can actually do with it.

[aafd]

Its so sad when 99% of the comments left are by people whom have not read the story or are not able to think for themselves.

The truth is that the prices of domains are not going to rise drastically , Thus I and most people would like to see either domain prices hiked up or more more safeguards in place to remove Squatters, Scammers,Domain prospectors who hold onto millions of domains with no intention of use.

Hopefully Within the next few years Domain Kiting will become irrelevant as its killing the internet and growth of the internet.

[Ken McCarthy]

People who use domains for scams will not be effected by this at all.

They buy junk names which they throw away within weeks if not days.

Kiting is the practice of signing up for thousands of names and only keeping and paying for the ones that pay out from type-in traffic.
This won't stop kiting either.

The problem is that potentially renewal fees will not be based on a fixed rate, but on a case-by-case basis.

"Valuable" domains - those that have lots of links, good page rank, reputation, traffic etc. - will potentially cost more to renew.

It's like charging Shakespeare more for his paper because he writes good plays.

If there is a modest, across-the-board increase in renewal fees, that's manageable, but that's NOT what we're concerned about.

[Floyd Fisher]

I got here too late to register any comment.

Here's my take on the situation. Just because you can set a certain price, does not mean they will.

You could price a Camry at $100,000 per car, but who would buy them.

Yeah, prices may go up, but probably not nearly as much as planned. The only way the prices would go up that much is if ICANN actually forced registrars to set those kind of prices. Otherwise registrars like godaddy would simply undercut the competition and take all the business.

I didn't see anything in there where ICANN would be forcing those kinds of pricing changes on registrars. And how would they benefit from it? Would they actually make more money doing it? And where would that money go?

Too much conspiracy, too much competition for that to happen. But that is just my opinion on the whole thing.

[abc]

The arbitrary pricing language is contained in the appendix pdf's, not the main agreement pdf's. The pricing section denotes the price per domain to be about $6.00US. The clause in question is the last line/paragraph in that very same pricing section. The clause is not present in the .org appendix but that may be a typo. Go read it again people.

[Ken McCarthy]

The window for posting opinions on the proposed changes to the ICANN site ended at 9 PM Pacific time so I'm closing comments on this article out as well.

We've heard every possible variation of why the ICANN proposal is of no concern.

I want to encourage all the "know it alls" who've been knocking themselves out insisting that ICANN's proposal has no downside to actually read the proposal - appendixes included - and read the public comments on the ICANN site from experienced domain name attorneys who have articulated numerous reasons for opposing the proposed changes.

[Hari]

It is only surprising and greedy move for a registry like .org, which mostly has non-profit organizations who use the .org extensions to pay variable pricing for renewal of domain.

[Ray T]

This proposal by ICANN to allow variable pricing essentually allows them to blackmail certain businesses.