April 2019 - comments-info-renewal-18mar19@icann.org

[Comments-info-renewal-18mar19] Keep price limits on .info
by Geoff Kuenning April 26, 2019

April 26, 2019

Although it was not part of the original "big seven" top-level domains, .info was established a long time ago to allow hosting of useful informational resources. Since then, thousands of sites have sprung up to provide such information. I maintain two of those. Many of those sites, like my own, run on a shoestring or (including mine) entirely on volunteer effort. Removing price limitations on .info would certainly serve to make a few people wealthier (probably people who are already wealthy). But it would not be good for the Internet or for the U.S. population, which both depend on sites such as these to provide valuable information about topics ranging from medical care to hobbies. If price limitations were removed, most of those sites would have to be shut down. There is no reason to remove price limitations. Please keep .info affordable! -- Geoff Kuenning geoff(a)cs.hmc.edu http://www.cs.hmc.edu/~geoff/ Perl is awk with skin cancer. -- Henry Spencer

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[Comments-info-renewal-18mar19] Opposition to removing price caps
by Caroline Taylor April 26, 2019

April 26, 2019

Greetings, I would like to register my opposition to any removal of the price caps for .info and .org domains. I speak as the owner of a .info domain, and someone who is about to register a nonprofit organisation out of Trinidad & Tobago with a .org extension. People like me use .info because it is an affordable alternative to .coms when those top-level domains are already taken; and nonprofits routinely use .org as an extension to reinforce their nonprofit status. Like .info, .org is also currently an affordable extension. The permitted 10% year on year increase already is excessive, and removing price caps altogether would likely make these extensions prohibitive. And for those of us who have already been operating a .info domain for several years, having to purchase another domain that is more affordable — should price caps be removed — would be onerous, and have a severe short-to-medium term impact on our well-earned search engine rankings. Please ensure that you put consumers and people before corporations and profits. Thank you in advance for your consideration. Sincerely, Caroline Taylor

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[Comments-info-renewal-18mar19] .info domain
by Martin Naskovski April 26, 2019

April 26, 2019

I am a .info domain holder for many years and as a free market proponent my suggestion is that if you are going to allow unchecked price increases for this domain - or any of the other ones in question, that you also relax the rules for becoming a domain name registrar so that competition can keep the prices in check. The initial fee of 3500 and 4000/annually to become and stay a domain name registrar amounts to highway robbery for a service that was once free of charge many years ago. If you are going to uncap domain pricing, then I strongly suggest you significantly lower the fees required to sustain a domain name registrar status to a far more reasonable level. Thank you, Martin

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[Comments-info-renewal-18mar19] My comments
by David Mesenbring April 26, 2019

April 26, 2019

I am shocked and concerned to read the proposal under consideration. There is very reasonable fear that prices ill increase dramatically. This will undermine my access to registration, and thousands of others like me who want presence on the internet that we we have no intention of profiting from. The internet has potential to be a great agent of democratization. The proposal under consideration will undermine that potential, serving to make the internet less affordable to lower income users and purposes. This should be avoided at all cost. Sincerely, David David Mesenbring Mesenbring.info

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[Comments-info-renewal-18mar19] Price Cap Increase
by Sylvester Ink April 26, 2019

April 26, 2019

To Whom It May Concern, Removing the price increase cap on domain names will have a detrimental effect on smaller businesses, organizations, and individuals, since over the long term, the prices for these names will rise above an affordable level for these small groups. As a result, there will be less independent innovation and representation on the web, an aspect that makes the internet such a powerful economic force. Please reconsider your position on this decision.

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[Comments-info-renewal-18mar19] Contract price increase
by Robert Young April 26, 2019

April 26, 2019

I think that you should stop this contract update. As a consumer I think this is a ploy to get the single consumers out of the market so big business can take our domains because we will no longer be able to afford them. If you continue down this path then I think our only recourse is to push hard for more regulation so you can not do this to us just to help your big business friends. I think another option would be to have each state have laws to regulate you. Robert Young robertyoung112(a)gmail.com

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[Comments-info-renewal-18mar19] Please retain the cap
by Geoff Infield April 26, 2019

April 26, 2019

Please reconsider your decision to remove the cap on annual increases. The existing cap is already more than generous and I cannot fathom why it would be eliminated.

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[Comments-info-renewal-18mar19] Do not remove price controls
by Rod Roark April 26, 2019

April 26, 2019

This invites price gouging and is outrageous.

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[Comments-info-renewal-18mar19] INFO domain renewal price
by Nitya. M. April 26, 2019

April 26, 2019

Hi, As a general public user and owner of .INFO domains, my kind request to ICANN to not allow big corporates to charge big amounts for domain renewal price. Increase the price only if the domain operating cost increases like DNS server cost...etc. Hope, ICANN will be continuing support for the general public. Best Regards Nityananda Maity

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[Comments-info-renewal-18mar19] Proposed Changes
by Jad Halaoui April 26, 2019

April 26, 2019

The proposed changes on lifting the ceiling / cap on are quite dangerous and if I understood correctly would allow wholesale registries to increase prices as they wish on domain names. My concern is that if a domain name I already own becomes interesting for whatever reason then I can be priced out of that domain in the future by the wholeseller -- *Jad Safi Halaoui* | Co Founder & COO (t): +971.4.770.6822 | skype: jad.washmen www.getwashmen.com

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