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

[Comments-info-renewal-18mar19] NO DOMAIN PRICE INCREASES
by Strategic Investment Management Ltd. Corporate April 29, 2019

April 29, 2019

April 29, 2019 To ICANN and the .ORG, .INFO and .BIZ registries (and to all other registries): CEASE AND DESIST NOTICE Any regulation, rule or law which allows anyone (including ICANN, and / or any registry) to raise the price of any domain above the initial price paid for the domain is fraudulent and should be understood as illegal. It is an uncompetitive business practice, and amounts to the operation of a monopoly, and US anti-trust laws and civil and criminal procedure should prohibit and such action. Neither I, nor the company I founded, have ever agreed to any price increase over the original price paid to register a domain. The fact that a domain must be renewed does not imply our acceptance of the legality of an increased price, but rather your fraudulent and unfair business practices and monopoly practices. We have had to keep renewing our domains or lose them, so we have had no alternative but to renew them for higher prices and expect to be refunded every penny paid over the original purchase price once a competent and fair and just court understands and decides in this continuing matter. No one goes into business in a competitive market unless they can understand their costs; To allow a registry to increase costs over the originally agreed-to price (which is an agreement to pay a specific price every year for the infinite future) is already a very serious financial commitment. We business-people will not allow a for-profit (or any type of) registry to continue raising the annual price of such a business asset. That would be agreeing to fraudulent theft from one's own business - nothing any American or other nations' citizen should ever agree to. It is, in fact, shameful that this is happening at all, and ICANN has the shame for being "in bed" with the registries in this matter, rather than representing the real backbone of the Internet- the millions of domain name owners (that you still call Registrants) who have paid for domain names, web hosting services, website construction and web app construction services, web advertising and web marketing, etc. These are the drivers of the economy and the Internet, not the cash cow monopolistic registries. We expect a competent court to recognize a real ownership interest in a domain name by the registrant, as common law already has, and this means that the price paid to register a domain name is the price that must be paid annually for as long as the domain owner/registrant wishes to keep the domain name. It's as simple as that. Please stop this theft, this fraud and these unfair and uncompetitive business practices in allowing registries to change prices for domains already registered, and start the massive refund process for every price increase over the $6 original fee for a year of domain name ownership. Furthermore, to ICANN, stop taxing us $0.18 per year of domain name ownership. That is taxation without representation – something that is not allowed in the United States of America. Sincerely, Matt Hooker Chairman Strategic Investment Management Ltd. Corporate(a)S-I-M.biz

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[Comments-info-renewal-18mar19] NO DOMAIN PRICE INCREASES
by IDOA - Internet Domain Owners Association April 29, 2019

April 29, 2019

April 29, 2019 To ICANN and the .ORG, .INFO and .BIZ registries (and to all other registries): CEASE AND DESIST NOTICE Any regulation, rule or law which allows anyone (including ICANN, and / or any registry) to raise the price of any domain above the initial price paid for the domain is fraudulent and should be understood as illegal. It is an uncompetitive and unfair business practice, and amounts to the operation of a monopoly, and US anti-trust laws and civil and criminal procedure should prohibit and such action. Neither I, nor the company I founded, have ever agreed to any price increase over the original price paid to register a domain. The fact that a domain must be renewed does not imply our acceptance of the legality of an increased price, but rather your fraudulent and unfair business practices and monopoly practices. We have had to keep renewing our domains or lose them, so we have had no alternative but to renew them for higher prices and expect to be refunded every penny paid over the original purchase price once a competent and fair and just court understands and decides in this continuing matter. No one goes into business in a competitive market unless they can understand their costs; To allow a registry to increase costs over the originally agreed-to price (which is an agreement to pay a specific price every year for the infinite future) is already a very serious financial commitment. We business-people will not allow a for-profit (or any type of) registry to continue raising the annual price of such a business asset. That would be agreeing to fraudulent theft from one's own business - nothing any American or other nations' citizen should ever agree to. It is, in fact, shameful that this is happening at all, and ICANN has the shame for being "in bed" with the registries in this matter, rather than representing the real backbone of the Internet- the millions of domain name owners (that you still call Registrants) who have paid for domain names, web hosting services, website construction and web app construction services, web advertising and web marketing, etc. These are the drivers of the economy and the Internet, not the cash cow monopolistic registries. We expect a competent court to recognize a real ownership interest in a domain name by the registrant, as common law already has, and this means that the price paid to register a domain name is the price that must be paid annually for as long as the domain owner/registrant wishes to keep the domain name. It's as simple as that. Please stop this theft, this fraud and these unfair and uncompetitive business practices in allowing registries to change prices for domains already registered, and start the massive refund process for every price increase over the $6 original fee for a year of domain name ownership. Sincerely, Matt Hooker Founder IDOA Internet Domain Owners Association Info(a)IDOA.info Contact(a)IDOA.info -- IDOA.info the Internet Domain Owners Association info(a)IDOA.info

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[Comments-info-renewal-18mar19] Increased risk of price gauging if price caps are removed
by Paul van den Burg April 29, 2019

April 29, 2019

I'm very concerned about this proposal to remove the price caps on the .org and .info TLDs. Competition to keep prices low and fair only works if there are actual competitors. However by design there is only one vendor for each TLD which prevents any competition. Competition from other TLDs is barely existing. As an domain is of great value for a company as well as consumers and can't be easily replaced by a domain with a different TLD. Which makes the current domain owners very vulnerable for price gauging from the practical monopoly the current TLD vendors have. Such monopolies can only work if there is a strict regulation of the market, for which the current price caps seem to suffice fine. Additionally there seems to be no benefit for removing the price caps. The only people to possibly benefit are the current owners of the TLD while hurting all current owners of a domain. It is definitely not going to reduce prices, because they were free to do so already. -Paul van den Burg

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[Comments-info-renewal-18mar19] Registration Renewal
by Stephen Scott April 29, 2019

April 29, 2019

To whom it may concern, I am writing to ask that you maintain the current methodology for price increases on domain registration. Removing the limit increase would create much higher costs and would limit individual's accessibility to registering. Thank you for your consideration. Sincerely, Stephen Scott

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[Comments-info-renewal-18mar19] Renewal increase
by Ivan April 29, 2019

April 29, 2019

Dear Sir or Madam I understand that you plan to increase the cost of hosting. Many people are pensioners who host a web page as a hobby and not for profit. It does not cost much for you to provide this service, so please do not increase the prices as I and many other will not be able to afford it. Best regards Ivan Coppins

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[Comments-info-renewal-18mar19] Keep the price cap
by Michael Toth April 29, 2019

April 29, 2019

Keep the price cap on .info gTLD. All gTLDs should have a reasonable price cap.

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[Comments-info-renewal-18mar19] Strongly in favor of price caps in the renewal agreement
by matthewlewisnewton＠gmail.com April 29, 2019

April 29, 2019

Hello ICANN, my name is Matt Newton and I am a software engineer who works on the web. I am strongly opposed to uncapped prices for TLD registrars, who can use this monopoly power to enrich themselves at the expense of small players on the web. I believe this proposal will exacerbate the centralization of the web by pricing out small companies from getting hosting independent of centralized platforms like Facebook. It is contrary to the mission of an open web for all and serves only to enrich a few TLD registrar middlemen beyond their operating costs.

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[Comments-info-renewal-18mar19] Stop the .info price increase and URS!
by Konstantinos Zournas April 29, 2019

April 29, 2019

I am a .info registrant and I strongly oppose uncapped price increases in .org domains and the introduction of URS. Shame on you ICANN for even suggesting a comment period for such despicable changes to the legacy extensions: .org (PIR), .biz (Neustar), .info (Afilias) and .asia (DotAsia Organisation Ltd. and Afilias). How does ICANN justifies these huge price increases on domain names that cost less than $1 to maintain and operate? Shame and disgust on the privileged registries that have made millions over the past few years from us all. Us all the domain name registrants that come from all over the world. "Legacy" TLDs, such as .org .net .com .biz .info and .asia, have absolutely nothing in common with all new gTLDs. Legacy extensions were created 15 to 30 years before the new gtlds and are essentially a monopoly on the internet. All 1000+ new gtlds represent less than 5% of all domains. The 10+ legacy tlds have the other 95% of the market share. PIR, Afilias, Neustar and Neustar did not create these extensions as it happened with the New gTLDs and they certainly did not or currently have any competition. New gTLDs companies paid millions in auctions to get the rights of these extensions. What would happen if the legacy TLDs were put up for auction with today’s capped price increases? Other companies would pay millions to have the privilege of being one of the respective extension operator. Popular New gtld extensions were auctioned of for millions while the legacy extensions were simply awarded to be operated by the respective registries. Verisign paid $135 million for the rights of .web domains. How much do you think the .com registry would be auctioned today? Even if .com prices were set at $3 or $5 the high bidder registry would probably end up paying billions. These legacy extensions were NOT created by PIR, Afilias, Neustar or Verisign. The extensions existed before these companies and will exist after these companies. These are not their extensions. They are our extensions. And by our I am talking about the registrants around the world. And some people in the US this they own the extensions. They don’t. The legacy extensions belong to the whole world. ICANN should stop catering to the big registries and pay more attention to protect the owners of .info domain names. The registries have made billions of dollars over the past 20 years. The registries are already operating a ridiculously high profit margin (65%-70% or even higher) that are not met in any other industry. The Verisign .com monopoly reported last week a huge operating margin that was 65.4 percent for the first quarter of 2019. Instead of being grateful for this gift that it is being given all the legacy registries are asking for domain name price increases. It is time that all legacy contracts are put up for grabs for a more competitive prices. The .com extension can be operated for maybe $2 or $3 per domain and companies would pay millions to have the privilege to operate the extension at this level. Same with .info domains. Companies would easily pay a couple of billion to operate the .com at $5 per domain for the next 6 years. Or they could easily pay 500 million to operate the .com registry at $3 per domain for the next 6 years. Yet ICANN strangely allows this Verisign, Afilias, PIR and Neustar greed and arrogance. It makes you think what "organization" ICANN has become over the past few years... Instead of price increases with should be having price decreases on all legacy extensions including .info domains. New domain extensions charge any price they want and they have been a disaster so far. Registries are suddenly increasing registration and renewal fees of up to 3,000%!!!! Lots of people are complaining because of this and this has already been very bad for the domain name industry’s reputation. .info has the right to raise prices 10% every year that already too much and well above the current inflation. Allowing huge price increases from one year to the next could ruin .info for everybody. The .info registry or any other legacy extension operator must not be allowed to raise prices are they wish. These domain names belong to the whole world and not just these 4-5 registry companies. They are only paid to be the administrative operator and nothing more. And the current price is well above what the current price for a new gtld backend is. New gtlds backend registries are charging $1 per domain or less. These are companies like Afilias, PIR and Neustar that are now getting paid $10+ from us the world domain name registrants and yet they want a lot more. And ICANN is surprisingly willing to give them whatever they want instead of doing their job that is to protect the registrants. Increasing .info and other legacy tld prices will be a disaster. What happens if prices go to $100 per domain or $1,000 per domain? This is about the whole effect this will have on the global. How is such a huge price increase justified? An increase of all legacy domains (lets say about 200 million of legacy domains) from $10 to $100 per year would mean that an extra 180 BILLION dollars will go to just 4 companies over the next 10 years. 4 US companies. How is this justified? All these domain name registrants now pay about 20 billion over 10 years. They will have to pay 200 BILLION dollars at $100!!! Or 2 trillion dollars at $1,000 per domain! Greece's gross domestic product is about 200 billion per year. We would love to take over these extensions and run a few servers around the world. This is free money. Companies have already paid for the rights of these .org, .info or .com domains. Any price increase would effectively mean that Afilias, Verisign or PIR would cease our domains and make us pay rent on them. This is domain name confiscation!!! Before you know it your company or personal .info domain will cost $200 or $3,000 per year or $10,000 per year depending on what Afilias decides that you have to pay them depending on the domain name. They will essentially confiscate your domains (that you either bought years ago or even paid thousands or millions to purchase) and make you pay them rent on them. At this point new gtld prices are held down because of the capped legacy TLDs prices. If legacy domain prices get to $200 per domain per year then all domains will cost $200 or more. Or $1,000 or more. There is little competition in all domain names as Verisign, PIR, Afilias and Neustar are basically monopolies. They have a 95% market share. It only takes these 4 companies and soon all domain names could cost $200 or $500 or more. *Practically these large companies are attempting to steal all our land and homes and rent them back to us. Domain names are our land and homes on the internet. This attempt is only possible with the help of ICANN and their executives that hide behind a non-profit organization while making millions in salaries and while NOT protecting the domain name registrants.* We are now paying an administrative fee to these companies. An administrative is pretty much set in competitive world. New gtlds are paying $1 or less per domain. But there is no competition in these registries. They are essentially monopolies that will be able to charge us whatever they want if ICANN allows them to have no price caps. Anything above $2 or $3 per year is already too expensive for the backend registries that Verisign, PIR, Afilias and Neustar truly are. *.info domains don’t need the URS. There have been a lot of bad decisions under the UDRP from the unregulated UDRP providers. The URS is even worse.* Konstantinos Zournas OnlineDomain.com

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[Comments-info-renewal-18mar19] Statement in opposition to .info domain changes
by Al Mithani April 29, 2019

April 29, 2019

Hello, I am against having .info domains follow the same rules as the new TLDs, including allowing the registry to set prices arbitrarily. The .info TLD is now part of the fabric of the internet, and it should have a separate set of rules from the new TLDs. The registry for the .info domain is a steward of a public resource, and should not profit off of the value of the .info TLD which was created by the public. If the registry wants to arbitrarily set prices, it should create a new TLD - not take advantage of the history of the .info domain name. -Al Mithani

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[Comments-info-renewal-18mar19] Intellectual Property Constituency (IPC Comments re: Proposed Renewal of .info Registry Agreement
by Brian Scarpelli April 29, 2019

April 29, 2019

On behalf of the Intellectual Property Constituency, I am submitting comments on the proposed renewal of the .info registry agreement. Best regards, Brian Scarpelli Senior Global Policy Counsel +1 517-507-1446<mailto:+1%20517-507-1446> | bscarpelli(a)actonline.org<mailto:bscarpelli@actonline.org> ACT | The App Association 1401 K St NW (Ste 501) Washington, DC 20005

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