What's happening?
Last month, ICANN, the organization that oversees domain names, announced significant changes to the contract it has with Verisign, Inc. who operate the .COM top-level-domain (TLD).
ICANN made these changes in secret, without consulting or incorporating feedback from the ICANN community or Internet users. Although ICANN has a history of making similar deals behind closed doors, and also of ignoring unified opposition against such action, we are focused on leading the fight against price increases that will harm the Internet as a whole. This is a crucial time to raise our voices given that .COM domains make up 40% of all registered domain names online.
What does this change mean?
Wholesale registries charge registrars a set fee per domain name per year. According to this new agreement, Verisign will be allowed to increase the wholesale price to registrars for .COM domains every year for 8 out of the next 10 years, and the increases don’t stop there.
This will mean that .COM wholesale domain prices can grow by more than 70% over and above current prices over the next decade. The contract also allows for other price increases, which could drive prices up further, ultimately making .COM domains less accessible and more expensive for everybody.
Why is ICANN doing this?
Alongside these contract changes, Verisign agreed to pay ICANN an additional $20 million dollars over five years to support
ICANN's domain name system initiatives, without any clarity about how
ICANN will spend the money, or who will ensure that the funds are
properly spent on domain infrastructure.
These changes will have significant impact on the Internet for years to come, and only ICANN and Verisign have participated in this decision.
So, dear ICANN, you should block the price increase of the .COM domain, stop making secret deals with corporations and confess that you do not care about the internet, only about profit !
Shame !
You are responsible for this and must be held accountable for your actions and secret dealings in front of the law !
Stop the .COM price increase !