CRITICAL ANNOUNCEMENT: Entire Domainer Community

[carlton]

The planning of the Gang Bang--> This is the letter (dated 6/27/2006) to ICANN from Neulevel (who administrate the .biz domain space). Taken form ICANNwiki ...

Specifically, we have negotiated terms that are consistent with contractual updates to recently concluded agreements, including presumptive renewal, elimination of fixed pricing, and a new fee structure. Presumptive renewal will help to secure NeuLevel’s long-term involvement and investment in the gTLD community and the DNS, and to help us compete fairly with other gTLD registry operators. We have increased our fees to ICANN in recognition of the key role registries must play in supporting ICANN’s operations and the important and challenging issues that lie ahead for the community.

Allow me to interpret the above excerpt: Allow us to charge whatever we want ... and we'll scratch your back, ICANN, for a long, long time.

Dirty politics!

[7721]

signed.

[think]

Signed also.....

[GeorgeK]

Signed too. I agree with Stocdoctor, this should be a sticky. Or, even worthy of a newsletter mailing to all DNForum members.

[DomeBase]

Signed too. I agree with Stocdoctor, this should be a sticky. Or, even worthy of a newsletter mailing to all DNForum members.

This should definately be a sticky. IREIT issued a press release on this so they definately care about it. Today .INFO, tomorrow .COM (Verisign has expressed support for these contracts with unlimited price increasing power). If I were a moderator here, I would sure make it a Sticky.

[Acro]

This needs a PR release. Signatures mean little; sent it out to Slashdot etc.

[linkdomain]

also signed. pure greed.

[carlton]

This should definately be a sticky. IREIT issued a press release on this so they definately care about it. Today .INFO, tomorrow .COM (Verisign has expressed support for these contracts with unlimited price increasing power). If I were a moderator here, I would sure make it a Sticky.

Ditto Domebase. I hope that more DNForum fans will find this thread and be called to action. Domain registrants and domain enthusiasts need to know how ICANN are violating their trust and needlessly sacrificing a large segment of the internet community.

[DNReaper]

i signed up 2 days ago i was no. 94

one of the first 100's

[oldtimer]

It might be a good idea to establish a domain owners Association with strong financial and legal resources in order to challenge some of the unfair practices and tactics that are conspired against domainers in order to liberate their valuable domains from them. A domainers Association can also protect domainers from frivolous UDRPs and reverse hijacking and help to recover their domains, it might also be able to provide members with additional services such as legal advice, domain registration and insurance, discounts on hotel and airfare or group health and life insurance. In order for this idea to work the Association must be neutral and must surpass any boundaries or negative competition between major forums by having trustworthy officers from all forums and the support of all domainers.

[chording]

Signed.

[Ian]

signed too! I hope these proposals dont go through because they make internet business difficult!

[Daniel Domainer]

Maybe I'm missing something here. I read the proposal as allowing the market to set pricing rather than have dictated price controls. Isn't that the case with most everything in a free market economy?

Bottom line is if something is priced too high, it doesn't sell!

If registries raise their prices to say $500 (which I think is a highly unlikely price leap) they might well sell a number at that price, but their total dollar volume will certainly decline. Those registries aren't foolish. They are in a competitive marketplace with Verisign.

I think the more likely scenario is instead of <$10 cost they will be in the $25 range. And if you're not generating at least $25 a year from each of those domains in your portfolio, are they a worthy investment anyway?

There are already a couple of TLD's that are in the 3-figure range to buy (.tm, .mobi) ... the bottom line is do those names have value to you at that price?

I know some are quick to yell "restraint of trade" or "the man is keeping us down" but I think looking at the overall economy of domaining, this is not as big a deal as some would like to make it out to be.

[Acro]

You miss the point. Tiered pricing means this...

You have ABCKLSJDLJD.org and you pay $10
You own SEX.org and you pay $3,000 a year.

Or, your JUNKCRAPCOOL.org gets 2 million hits monthly and you end up paying $5,000 a year.

[carlton]

...this is not as big a deal as some would like to make it out to be.

The agreements as written would allow registries to indiscriminately charge whatever they decide for renewals or new registrations. It could bankrupt existing small businesses and suppress new small business in favor of large corporations with deep pockets. Gettin' the picture? People/businesses already heavily invested in a domain space are dependent upon predictability and reasonable price consistency.

How would you like it if the single source power provider to your home was suddenly deregulated and able to charge you $2000/month instead of $200? And you had no recourse. And the power company had big industry buyers on the flank ready to buy your power at a premium?

[GeorgeK]

by having thrust worthy officers

"thrust" worthy? Sounds very kinky. :tounge_smile:

[oldtimer]

Thanks for bringing that to my attention, but what do think of the idea to have a Domain Owners Association.

[GeorgeK]

If the officers are "thrust worthy", recruited from the pages of www.onemodelplace.com or www.playboy.com , it could become very popular.

[safatweb]

Signed...

[oldtimer]

George, I have read many of your articles in the past and I assumed that you would be taking this idea more seriously.