The most recent agreement to allow Verisign to increase its wholesale price for .com TLDs is completely unreasonable. As far as I can tell, there are no additional costs which could justify this increase. There are no additional services provided to TLD lessees, and there has been no appreciable increase in Verisign's operational costs. Based on the agreement as proposed, the price for domains could increase by as much as 100% over just the next decade, with all of that money going directly into Verisign shareholder pockets. This is nothing more than oligarchical cronyism, pure and simple. Owners of .com TLDs are not just Facebooks and Googles. I own a personal .com TLD for my personal business as an independent contractor and artist. Any increase in costs--even modest ones--makes a real difference in my bottom line. Domain name resellers will have to pass that cost on to me, the consumer. I insist that ICANN rescind this agreement as it exists today and begin public negotiations. Verisign should be allowed to make modest profits for its service to the public good, but the interests of TLD registrants must come first. -- *William Southerland* (he/him/his; what is this? <https://www.elon.edu/u/academics/catl/inclusiveteaching/how-do-we-teach/link...> )