Dear sir or madam, My name is Drew Pendergrass, and like many owners of a .COM domain name I am alarmed by the betrayal to the fundamental values of the internet that ICANN is considering. The web was designed to allow people around the world to share knowledge and communicate better with one another -- a fundamentally democratic dream, created by idealists in a physics laboratory. That dream has never been fully realized, and, with the centralization of the internet, the original vision of a dispersed free web may be falling away. You are adding fuel to the fire. Corporations won't mind a price increase, but individuals and artists and academics and the weirdos who make the internet great will be stifled, pushed off of their sites and into boring conformity. There is no changing that the .COM TLD is the lingua franca of the internet. It isn't for companies, anymore; it is for everyone. This proposed change adds absolutely no value to the web or its ability to foster communication. It is a vile form of rent-seeking, growing fat off of increased rates. Verisign provides nothing in exchange. This proposal is shameful, and if I had my way every official at ICANN who participated in this scheme would be removed. Perhaps people who actually care about the web could replace them, not thieves like yourselves. All best, Drew Pendergrass