ICANN has done an excellent job at keeping a secure and stable internet. That is incredibly important, but that’s not their only job. They have dropped the ball with regard to a key core value as set forth in the bylaws of ICANN: “…to promote and sustain a competitive environment in the DNS market;” & frankly they have dropped the ball on simply being a “not-for-profit public-benefit corporation”…

 

Imagine if only one company were allowed to provide high speed internet and 1000 other companies were offering dial-up. That one company would probably be able to charge just about whatever they wanted, unless someone kept them in check. Verisign is that company; .com is high speed internet and everything else is essentially a couple crappy modems trying to connect with a crashing static of bloopy bleeps.

 

Verisign has been on easy street for far too long. They have no real competition. Their operating costs have been going down every year for at least the last 10 years. Their total number of employees has been dropping every year for at least the last 8 years. Their net income has increased every year for at least the last 10 years. Verisign’s net income per employee is over $700,000 per employee. That is more than Apple, Microsoft, Google & Facebook. Not only is Verisign ridiculously profitable with the unending gravy train that is the .com monopoly, they also appear to have ICANN firmly in their pocket. It seems Verisign can get ICANN to essentially do whatever they please. Here’s an extra $20 million, dance for me ICANN, dance!

 

So ICANN is choosing to take $4 million more per year for ICANN for five years and Verisign gets an additional ~$1 Billion in pure profit over that span. This doesn’t take into account additional increases in the .com base or further price increases later on. Domain registrants will be forced to pay as migrating to some crappy gTLD just isn’t a serious option. It’s a shame that what appears to be weak minded and greedy individuals are in charge of keeping the public’s best interest in mind. It is surprising that those on the board of ICANN don’t realize that by continuing to be beholden to Verisign they are asking for more scrutiny to their systems, processes and salaries of their not-for-profit public-benefit corporation.

 

With a few keystrokes ICANN could save millions of registrants from continued & unjustified price increases and further, they could even help to lower those set costs by allowing a competitive bid for the .com contract. They could do this with impunity as it is not only part of their intended purpose, it is the right thing to do. Yet ICANN is choosing to increase the profits of one corporation who is already wildly profitable.

 

The new gTLD experiment has proven that .com reigns supreme. No other gTLD is even close. It has also proven that someone else could take over the .com contract and run it while remaining profitable for an amount that is ridiculously less than Verisign. If Verisign were told they had to decrease prices 30% or the .com contract would be put out for competitive bid, they would take the decrease and consider themselves lucky that they still had the contract.

 

One thing is for sure, at some point everyone has to face the decisions they have made in life. When they close their eyes will their decisions help them rest easily, or will they go through life looking over their shoulder always wondering when karma will catch up. Verisign’s coffers are stuffed already and giving them more isn’t going to make the internet a more secure and stable environment no matter how you sell it. It’s very clear that giving Verisign more does not benefit the public’s best interest, it in fact does the opposite. There is a saying that when it is a choice between morality and profit, profit seldom loses. ICANN may line their and Verisign’s pockets temporarily as a result, but what will these decisions ultimately cost them and how long can they continue before it comes crumbling down?

 

Ian Ingram