I am strongly opposed to the proposed price increase to .COM domains.

"ICANN is a not-for-profit public-benefit corporation with participants from all over the world dedicated to keeping the Internet secure, stable and interoperable."

If ICANN is supposed to operate for the public benefit then how exactly does this policy help to promote public benefit when a major multi-billion dollar corporation is solely benefited?

There is no financial justification to raise the price, it's the upkeep of a simple database the price increase is simply because they can as proven advancements in technology are driving the cost of operating a registry down, yet domain prices keep going up for registrants.

Verisign is merely the manager, not the owner, of the .COM Registry. It is allowed to operate the extension by contract and should have no role in setting the price.

There is no "public benefit" justification to these changes. It is simply a handout to a company with a de facto monopoly at the expense of registrants.

This is on the heels of the .ORG contract debacle where ICANN ignored the overwhelming public sentiment against it, and moved forward in removing price caps.

Now we also have the pending .ORG sale to a private equity company which involves several former ICANN leaders and connected parties. This deal is currently being investigated by the California Attorney General.

ICANN is facing a crisis in credibility. Is ICANN actually working in the public interest or not?

I have seen some reports that claim that ICANN is pocketing $20 million dollars over 5 years from Verisign as a part of this deal, in most sectors of business this is called bribery and should violate most code of ethics policies, regardless of how it's being branded as a support for ICANN's future initiatives because there is no specifics around how the money must be spent. I would be ok with this if I 100% knew it wasn't ending up in personal pockets.

Thanks,

Darrel S