Thanks for moving the thread. Hopefully as more folks become aware of the implications of these new gTLD discussions on their
existing .com/net/org/biz/info gTLD domains, they'll make their voice heard, and not allow the registry operators to whittle away the rights of registrants. ICANN staff are obviously not looking out for our interests.
You can see it in the attitude on the ICANN blog when I brought it to their attention the first day the draft was released:
http://blog.icann.org/?p=380#comments Quote:
As to your wider question about whether the wording could in future allow for existing registries to ask for changes in their contracts, well that’s what this public comment period is for.
You are raising a theoretical future possibility based on draft documents. The answer to that is always going to be: raise it as part of the public comment process and the community can discuss it.
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That reminds me of the same runaround that ICANN's lawyers were giving me when I wanted them to cost out the present value of the 7% annual price increases given to VeriSign for .com. To them it was some "theoretical possibility" that may or may not happen. We saw what happened there -- maximum price increases each year by VeriSign.
Or Vint Cerf's naive attitude 2 years ago for the .biz/info/org proposals when he said it would be "suicide" for a registry operator to try it. And then they "compromised" and gave them 10% annual price increase allowances instead! It makes one wonder what the registry operators will try to get this time as a "compromise", to once again steal away the hard gains registrants fought for 2 years ago.
VeriSign's stock price is below $20:
http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=VRSN
and Neustar is near its 52-week lows too:
http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=NSR
Remember, every contract ICANN signs with registries has a clause like 8.5 in the .com contract:
http://www.icann.org/en/tlds/agreeme...om-01mar06.htm Quote:
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No Third-Party Beneficiaries. This Agreement shall not be construed to create any obligation by either ICANN or Registry Operator to any non-party to this Agreement, including any registrar or registered name holder.
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In other words, you don't even have standing to sue ICANN or VeriSign. You don't have direct contractual relations with them. You have to rely upon ICANN to watch out for your interests. That means
WE have to watch ICANN and have our voices heard so that they don't give in to the registries.