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

[Comments-org-renewal-18mar19] I OPPOSE REMOVING .org, .biz and .info
by Meg Davis April 29, 2019

April 29, 2019

Hello, I oppose removing the .org, .biz and .info caps. As a small business owner, affordable domain names are essential. By removing the caps you are increasing the amount that a person needs to 'buy in' to start a business. This will squelch innovation and small business. As a non-profit you are accountable to people and not the bottom line. Please reconsider! Thanks, Meg -- Meg Davis Founder | Explorable Places <https://t.sidekickopen10.com/s1t/c/5/f18dQhb0S7lC8dDMPbW2n0x6l2B9nMJW7t5XZs…>

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[Comments-org-renewal-18mar19] Proposed Renewal of .org Registry Agreement
by Garrett Frierson April 29, 2019

April 29, 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.

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[Comments-org-renewal-18mar19] Please do not lift .org TLD price cap
by MRW Web Design April 29, 2019

April 29, 2019

Hello, I am a web designer who works exclusively with nonprofit organizations in the United States. Nearly every one of these organizations relies on a cheap, affordable .org domain name to support their work. Many of the organizations I serve are small organizations with limited resources. For these organizations, money spent on technology is money not spent on serving people and improving the world. While I do understand that existing domains will remain at existing renewal prices, many organizations change their names, roll out specific campaigns, or otherwise incur needs for new .org domains. That is also to say nothing of the many yet-to-be-founded organizations that will seek to improve the environment, poverty, education, health, and more. The .org TLD--along with .ngo and .ong--must continue to receive special treatment with limited cost as a service to the donor-funded organizations seeking to improve the world. The organizations and their domains serve a unique social purpose that .com, .net, .biz, .plumber, and other TLDs are not intended to serve. *I hope you will recognize the unique social purpose of the .org domain and NOT remove the price cap.* Thank You, -Mark ———————————————————————————————— Mark Root-Wiley (he/him) *MRW Web Design <https://mrwweb.com> & Nonprofit WP <https://nonprofitwp.org>* *Thoughtful Websites for Nonprofits & Mission-Driven Organizations* info(a)mrwweb.com | 206-745-2581 *Need to send me a password? Please use PWPush.com <http://PWPush.com>!*

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[Comments-org-renewal-18mar19] price caps should remain
by Stefan April 29, 2019

April 29, 2019

Dear friends of ICANN, I sincerely ask you, the people of ICANN, to drop the proposed *removal of**price caps on all .org, .info, and .biz top level domains*, because this change could significantly increase the wholesale price that my domain provider Namecheap pays for domains, and would force them to pass along those increases to me. I kindly ask for your consideration and understanding. best regards, Stefan Wolf

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[Comments-org-renewal-18mar19] .org price cap
by Felix Freiberger April 29, 2019

April 29, 2019

Hello, please do not remove the price cap for .org domains. Domains should only become cheaper over time. Hitting .org is especially bad, as it affects many non-profit organizations. Please help to ensure that my and others' donation go where they belong, not towards paying a registry. Best, Felix Freiberger

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[Comments-org-renewal-18mar19] .org price caps must remain
by Reagan Richey April 29, 2019

April 29, 2019

I am writing in response to the news that your organization is considering removing the price cap from .org registrations. As someone who believes in the value that nonprofits add to our society and who understands the precarious financial nature of running such a business, I sincerely hope that you will leave the price cap in place. Nonprofits bring a tremendous unmeasurable value to our world, and the ability to have an inexpensive web presence (and one that does not need to be moved around) is a big part of their ability to do so much for us on a limited budget. This, Plus the fact that domain registrations have been getting cheaper, not more expensive, makes the idea of lifting such a cap unconscionable. Please reconsider your decision, and leave the price In place for these domains. Sent from my ExoBrain

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[Comments-org-renewal-18mar19] Please do not let .org prices go up
by Danny Wolf April 29, 2019

April 29, 2019

.org is a TLD for primarily non-profits. Adding a price barrier for non-profit missions to gather support on the internet is at best a bad idea, at worst it's immoral. Please consider stopping this new measure. Sincerely, Daniel Wolf

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

April 29, 2019

I am a .org 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. For .org specifically I really would like to know if this was PIR’s idea. And even if it wasn’t (which I highly doubt) then PIR should have been the one opposing this new contract. PIR is supposed to be a non-profit organization. How do they justify increasing the prices that other non-profits pay? Shame on you PIR. "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 .org 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 .org 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 .org 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. .Org 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 .org for everybody. The .org 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 .org 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 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 .org domain will cost $200 or $3,000 per year or $10,000 per year depending on what PIR 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. *Finally .ORG 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-org-renewal-18mar19] .org change - unlimited price increases unfair
by Jeffrey Tratner April 29, 2019

April 29, 2019

Unlike other gTLDs, the legacy domain name registries did not have to take a risk to set up their product. It makes no sense to allow unlimited price increases at the registry level in that context, as it’s effectively rent seeking. .org registrations have traditionally gone to charities, it’s a terrible thing to have unlimited price increases soaking up $$$ that would otherwise go direct to charitable purposes.

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[Comments-org-renewal-18mar19] Proposed Renewal of .org Registry Agreement
by Johnny Li April 29, 2019

April 29, 2019

I am a domain name registrant. Legacy gTLDs are fundamentally different from for-profit new gTLDs and should be treated that way. Legacy TLDs are what the internet was built on. They are essentially a public trust. They are very different than new gTLDs which were created, bought and paid for by private parties. Registrants of these legacy extensions should be entitled to price predictability & stability. Advancements in technology should be driving the cost of operating a registry down, yet prices keep going up? Removing price caps is unfair to the millions of domain registrants. They will have no price protections. Every registrant will be at the complete mercy and whims of the registry. This could result in a transfer of funds from millions of non-profits to one non-profit, with no benefits to the domain registrants. ICANN is supposed to represent a "bottom up, consensus-driven multistakeholder model". ICANN 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 should be looking out for the .org registrants, in particular the non-profits. There is no "public benefit" justification to these changes. It is just a handout to business at the expense of registrants’ rights and protections. Where are the protections for the millions of domain registrants that this could effect in a negative way? These changes would give way too much power to the registry. This is not acceptable for a "public benefit" organization that exists to represent many stakeholders.

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