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

[Comments-org-renewal-18mar19] Proposed Renewal of .org Registry Agreement
by Kahlil Wyche April 26, 2019

April 26, 2019

I am a domain name registrant. I've read about a lot of bad decisions under the UDRP. The URS seems even worse. I heard the URS is very new and is being reviewed now to see if it is working properly. It is too soon to include an untested policy on .org domains where for a few hundred dollars anyone could try to shut down someone else's website. Telling the .org registry that it can charge any price it wants for renewing a domain name is a terrible idea. Why would you allow them to set a crazy high price? They could try to force the domain owners to pay a very high price each year to renew their domain name, and if the domain owner either won't or can't, then the .org registry could take away their domain name, set a high registration price on it, and then try to find someone else who is willing to pay a high price for it. This is very unfair to long time .org domain owners who may see their prices raised sky high for no reason. You let the new domain extensions charge any price they want, but that hasn't gone so well. Lots of people got burned when the new registries offered low rates for the first year, and then after people registered the domain names and some built web sites on them, some of the prices were raised through the roof. .Org has been working just fine for decades where the prices maybe go up a little bit each year. Allowing huge price increases from one year to the next could ruin .org for everybody. I think you should pay a little more attention to what is good for the owners of .org domain names. The registries are doing fine. They don't need your help as they are already making plenty of money. Sent from my iPhone

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[Comments-org-renewal-18mar19] Proposed Renewal of .org Registry Agreement
by Kahlil Wyche April 26, 2019

April 26, 2019

I am a .org registrant (not-for-profit). ICANN does not seem to recognize the difference between a legacy extension created with the support of the US government, that predates the existence of ICANN and that has millions of existing users and the brand new extensions that started off with a new set of rules, in particular no price controls, and no existing registrants. They have completely different characteristics, history, and ownership structure. It is not acceptable for ICANN to ignore these differences and to propose that they be treated the same. Removing price caps is not fair to .org domain owners. Many of them have websites that they have used for years. If price caps are removed, the cost to renew their domain names may become too expensive, and they could be forced to give up websites that are important to them. The Uniform Rapid Suspension policy is too new and untested to apply on domain names that may be 20 years old or more. With the URS, the domain names could be taken down in a matter of days with little notice. ICANN should be doing more to protect owners of .org domain names. Why is ICANN trying to remove price protections for .org domain owners, so many of which are non-profits, so that they can be overcharged for their domain names? Sent from my iPhone

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[Comments-org-renewal-18mar19] Keep price caps for .org
by RL Meyer April 26, 2019

April 26, 2019

Price caps for .org domains must remain in place. Many small nonprofits use .org domains. They operate on volunteer systems and lack large profits. Access to the internet is vital to their missions. Removing price caps on their domain name extension could effective curtail their work and their access to the internet. Moreover, a significant price jump could cause many website archives to be suddenly taken down because of the expense of the domain name. This could represent a significant loss in heritage and content value. Rev. Dr. Russell Meyer Tampa Florida USA

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[Comments-org-renewal-18mar19] No Unlimited Price Increases
by John Singleton April 26, 2019

April 26, 2019

This proposal will hit not for profit organizations the hardest, those who can least afford it but are vital to the internet community.

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[Comments-org-renewal-18mar19] increase in rates for .org web addresses
by Nina Chung April 26, 2019

April 26, 2019

To Whom It May Concern, I would like to register my grave concerns about the proposed removal of price caps for .org websites. Although I’m not necessarily against the idea of a market driven pricing for these addresses, I am concerned about the potential drastic change and huge impact on a small charitable organization like ours, and many others. We have enough budget constraints to worry about in 2019! The huge challenge with our URLs is that changing them has a drastic effect on our communications and implies other budget effects. So if we find ourselves with unaffordable costs, we are very limited as to our solutions. Changing our web urls not being a very valid option. This means that we are not really in a ‘free market’ situation as would be the case with other types of products that might incur price hikes. Please reconsider the approach you propose and at least ensure us that we will not be faced with unaffordable rate hikes once you implement your decision. Thank you for your kind consideration. Sincerely, Nina Chung President / Founder Elimu Development Projects

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[Comments-org-renewal-18mar19] Proposed Renewal of .org Registry Agreement
by Berkay Öztürk April 26, 2019

April 26, 2019

I am a domain name registrant. ICANN staff should not unilaterally impose URS in legacy TLDs when that issue is precisely what is being examined by the volunteer ICANN Working Group who has been mandated to review this issue. ICANN policy making is supposed to be a ‘bottom up, multi-stakeholder model’. I believe that legacy gTLDs are fundamentally different from for-profit new gTLDs. Legacy TLDs are essentially a public trust, unlike new gTLDs which were created, bought and paid for by private interests. Registrants of legacy TLDs are entitled to price stability and predictability, and should not be subject to price increases with no maximums. Unlike new gTLDs, registrants of legacy TLDs registered their names and made their online presence on legacy TLDs on the basis that price caps would continue to exist. Unrestrained price increases on the millions of .org registrants who are not-for-profits or non-profits would be unfair to them. Unchecked price increases have the potential to result in hundreds of millions of dollars being transferred from these organizations to one non-profit, the Internet Society, with .org registrants receiving no benefit in return. ICANN should not allow one non-profit nearly unlimited access to the funds of other non-profits. ICANN appears to be entirely catering to registries by removing price caps. ICANN should stand up for the public interest and registrants!

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[Comments-org-renewal-18mar19] proposed renewal of .org registry agreement
by New England Symposium on Statistics in Sports April 26, 2019

April 26, 2019

I am a domain name registrant. ICANN staff should not unilaterally impose URS in legacy TLDs when that issue is precisely what is being examined by the volunteer ICANN Working Group who has been mandated to review this issue. ICANN policy making is supposed to be a ‘bottom up, multi-stakeholder model’. I believe that legacy gTLDs are fundamentally different from for-profit new gTLDs. Legacy TLDs are essentially a public trust, unlike new gTLDs which were created, bought and paid for by private interests. Registrants of legacy TLDs are entitled to price stability and predictability, and should not be subject to price increases with no maximums. Unlike new gTLDs, registrants of legacy TLDs registered their names and made their online presence on legacy TLDs on the basis that price caps would continue to exist. Unrestrained price increases on the millions of .org registrants who are not-for-profits or non-profits would be unfair to them. Unchecked price increases have the potential to result in hundreds of millions of dollars being transferred from these organizations to one non-profit, the Internet Society, with .org registrants receiving no benefit in return. ICANN should not allow one non-profit nearly unlimited access to the funds of other non-profits. ICANN appears to be entirely catering to registries by removing price caps. ICANN should stand up for the public interest and registrants! - Mark Glickman -- New England Symposium on Statistics in Sports http://www.nessis.org

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[Comments-org-renewal-18mar19] Proposed Renewal of .org Registry Agreement
by Jason Vertrees April 26, 2019

April 26, 2019

I am a .org registrant. I've read about a lot of bad decisions under the UDRP. The URS seems even worse. I heard the URS is very new and is being reviewed now to see if it is working properly. It is too soon to include an untested policy on .org domains where for a few hundred dollars anyone could try to shut down someone else's website. Telling the .org registry that it can charge any price it wants for renewing a domain name is a terrible idea. Why would you allow them to set a crazy high price? They could try to force the domain owners to pay a very high price each year to renew their domain name, and if the domain owner either won't or can't, then the .org registry could take away their domain name, set a high registration price on it, and then try to find someone else who is willing to pay a high price for it. This is very unfair to long time .org domain owners who may see their prices raised sky high for no reason. You let the new domain extensions charge any price they want, but that hasn't gone so well. Lots of people got burned when the new registries offered low rates for the first year, and then after people registered the domain names and some built web sites on them, some of the prices were raised through the roof. .Org has been working just fine for decades where the prices maybe go up a little bit each year. Allowing huge price increases from one year to the next could ruin .org for everybody. I think you should pay a little more attention to what is good for the owners of .org domain names. The registries are doing fine. They don't need your help as they are already making plenty of money. Regards, Jason Vertrees

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[Comments-org-renewal-18mar19] Proposed Renewal of .org Registry Agreement
by Nick Cross April 26, 2019

April 26, 2019

I am a .org registrant. I do not agree with this proposal. The .org scheme predates your organisation and is heavily used by non-profits i.e. for the public good. Your change seems to encourage profiteering and is reprehensible - I think this blog post encapsulates the issues - http://www.circleid.com/posts/20190423_spurious_justifications_for_eliminat… ICANN does not seem to recognize the difference between a legacy extension created with the support of the US government, that predates the existence of ICANN and that has millions of existing users and the brand new extensions that started off with a new set of rules, in particular no price controls, and no existing registrants. They have completely different characteristics, history, and ownership structure. It is not acceptable for ICANN to ignore these differences and to propose that they be treated the same. Removing price caps is not fair to .org domain owners. Many of them have websites that they have used for years. If price caps are removed, the cost to renew their domain names may become too expensive, and they could be forced to give up websites that are important to them. The Uniform Rapid Suspension policy is too new and untested to apply on domain names that may be 20 years old or more. With the URS, the domain names could be taken down in a matter of days with little notice. ICANN should be doing more to protect owners of .org domain names. Why is ICANN trying to remove price protections for .org domain owners, so many of which are non-profits, so that they can be overcharged for their domain names? Thanks Nick

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[Comments-org-renewal-18mar19] Proposed Renewal of .org Registry Agreement
by Lynn Davis April 26, 2019

April 26, 2019

Please do not remove price caps on all .org. Lynn A Davis "Truths that are known but not practiced become a judgment rather than a benefit." J MacArthur

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