Dear Madam, or Sir,

I am concerned about this amendment to the Registry Agreement because it will affect, not just me, buy any individual who would like their own domain name. I am 100% sure that no corporation will object to the 28% cost increase every six years as they earn money off their domain name and paying almost any amount would be acceptible to them. However, there are a great deal of small businesses that would see this as a burden as well as individual users out there that have purchased their own domain name and are using it for personal use, not commercial use. Several of us have multiple domain names, if for no other reason than to protect our own names from being used to run a website. I personally have about 6 that I use to protect myself and my family while also allowing my children to be able to have a domain name that is exclusively theirs.

20 year Cost analysis:

$ 7.85 / year 2018

$10.29 / year 2023 (31% increase over 2018)

$13.49 / year 2029 (72% increase over 2018)

$17.68 / year 2035 (125% increase over 2018)

$23.17 / year 2041 (195% increase over 2018)

I am aware that the 7% is a maximum per year for each of the four years and, theoretically, there could be no increase or a sub 7% increase some years, however, I have little faith on this being the norm and, most certainly, CANNOT plan on it being any less than the full 7% in any fiscal plans made.

I understand it would be extremely difficult for you to create a regulation that would charge businesses more and individuals less, however, that may be what is required at this time. This would leave a loophole for businesses to have an individual register their domain name, however, no corporation of any size will be willing to leave their domain names in private hands. This would also allow fledgling businesses (aka startups) to keep their costs low at first. Remember, many businesses have been started in individual's garages.

You may also assume that all ".com" domain names are used for, or are supposed to be used for commercial purposes, however, this is not the case today. If this had been defined and enforced from the beginning of the internet, this would be a non-issue, however, to start enforcing it today would cause many many individuals to lose their domains. Yes, there are other top level domains they can move to, however, that doesn't alleviate the fact that they would be losing an asset they had invested much time, money, and resources acquiring.

Please keep the annual fee very low or consider a more flexible charging system for the .COM top level domain that will keep it accessible to individuals and small businesses.

Thank you,

Andrew Farnsworth