Hi there, I was recently made aware that ICANN announced significant changes to its contract with Verisign to be able to increase the price of .com domains by up to 70% over the current price over the next 10 years. This is absolutely ridiculous on multiple levels. One, there was NO transparency into the nature of this deal, and the high price tag ($20 million over 5 years??) is way too high to sit well with regular consumers. There is no explanation why Verisign did this, how ICANN will spend the money, or who will ensure that the funds are properly spent. It seems like the parties involved proceeded in this deal not to help consumers or to help the internet as a whole, but purely to make a profit. There seems to be something really shady going on here, and I do hope that the deal does not go through and if it does, both parties are thoroughly investigated by governments worldwide. .com domains make up over 40% of the internet, and to make arbitary price increases would not only be absurd, but harmful to businesses. I am an independent web designer and developer who helps clients build their websites, including the purchasing and management of domain names and DNS services. It’s already hard enough to sell my services to small businesses as don’t always have the money to invest in design or development services. Medium and large businesses are cognizant of costs, and though they see the value of the service I provide, more price increases leave a bad taste in their mouth. To increase prices in a world where SaaS and subscriptions reign could potentially stifle not only my business, but small and growing businesses as well. The internet is supposed to be a democratic arena where anyone can build a website if they have a couple bucks and the desire to learn to code. The more that price increases happen, whether on the domain level or hosting, the more power gets taken away from the layman and into the hands of the few powerful corporations. This deal will affect millions of people worldwide, and I strongly urge both parties to drop these plans purely for the sake of greed and profit. If it does go through, I hope all the other TLDs gain enormous popularity and .com becomes an obsolete thing of the past. Cheers, Mary-Ann Zykin — 661 645 2318 maryannzykin.com