Dear ICANN, One of the great things about the internet is the ability for almost anyone, with almost no money, to be able to buy a little dot-com and make something of it. I cannot start an oil company or an electronics company, but I can start an internet business for just a few dollars for hosting and a few dollars for a domain. (Not to mention that many, many not-for-profit organizations use dot-com domains, as well.) Allowing Verisign to massively increase dot-com prices will have a significant impact on the freedom of the internet. It appears, from the outside at least, that ICANN's decision-making is so separated from the voices of everyday internet users that you may not realize this. There may be tons of new TLDs, but do you think my mechanic is suddenly going to be able to switch over to another TLD? No. No one in the real world has ever heard of .biz, let alone .cars. These changes benefit one constituency: the internet-industrial complex. Not the user or the small-time entrepreneur. Dot-com is the internet, and will be for the foreseeable future. What's more, the anti-democratic nature of ICANN's decision-making processes run against the inherently democratic nature of the internet. To see the long-term impact that this will have on ICANN's legitimacy, one need look no further than the degradation of public trust in institutions that has occurred in democratic countries the world over in recent decades. You cannot make back-room deals and expect to remain relevant in the long-term. This is a really bad decision made in an even worse way. By the way: If you're looking for a model to increase the legitimacy of your decisions, might I suggest citizens' assemblies. You may have heard about the national citizens' assemblies on climate policy in France and the UK. These are tried and tested ways for a representative sample of everyday people to be genuinely involved in complex policy-making. They harness the wisdom of crowds in the most productive of ways -- the ideal of the internet IRL. They're better than elected representatives and a hell of a lot better than back-room deals. Full disclosure: I work for a democracy-reform NGO. I'm very happy to point you toward more resources if these are things you're thinking about internally. Best, Linn Davis Portland, Oregon, USA