First, a proposed increase of 7% each of 8 out of 10 years is over and above the rate of inflation and completely unreasonable.  If a price increase is necessary it should be tied to the inflation rate; a more rational and reasonable increase.  Furthermore, ICANN and/or Verisign should provide a justification for the need to increase prices.

Second, the report that ICANN will receive a $20 million payment from Verisign is concerning.  There has been no explanation of why this payment is being made (sounds a lot like a bribe) or how the additional revenue will be used by ICANN.  ICANN is mandated to operate "in the public interest"; this seems only to be in the interest of ICANN and Verisign.

Third, allowing Verisign to act as a domain registrar is a conflict of interest since they are an operator of a TLD.  Verisign should either be an operator or a registrar.  To allow the company to function in both sectors sets up the significant possibility of abuse of power and the potential for a monopoly or near monopoly.  This is counter to the mandate of ICANN to govern the domain name system "in the public interest".

I urge ICANN to put "the public interest" first and reject this proposal.

Scott Geiger