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

[Comments-org-renewal-18mar19] Proposed Renewal of .org Registry Agreement
by Luke Hodde April 25, 2019

April 25, 2019

Greetings, I am the IT person for a small local library in New York. We are funded by the community through donations. A significant increase in the cost of renewing our .org domain name would negatively impact our ability to provide information and services to our community, which is in a low-income area. In our operation, every penny counts because every penny was donated by someone who believes in our positive impact. I'm sure there are many other non-profit organizations using .org domain names who are in similar situations. It doesn't make any sense to me to consider the .org TLD for a potentially massive price increase. Thank you, Luke Hodde IT Specialist Ford Memorial Library

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[Comments-org-renewal-18mar19] Submitting comments opposed to the proposed .org registry agreement
by robert＠solsticeservices.biz April 25, 2019

April 25, 2019

Dear ICANN, 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. Robert Ortiz-Dietz Solstice Services

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[Comments-org-renewal-18mar19] Opposed to the changes proposed in the .org agreement renewal
by Liam OBrien April 25, 2019

April 25, 2019

Dear ICANN, I am a .org registrant and a not-for-profit or non-profit organization. The proposed changes are completely unacceptable as outlined below. As a charitable organization, we have limited funds in which to maintain an online presence. Completely unrestrained price increases would be a disaster. It would almost certainly mean that maintaining a website in the long-term would be unsustainable. As an organization, the "org" is critical to our identity and alternatives would not have the same impact. 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! Regards, Liam O'Brien -- lobrien(a)clubi.ie celtic.coder(a)gmail.com

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[Comments-org-renewal-18mar19] Reject Elimination of Price Caps on .org TLD
by David Stewart April 25, 2019

April 25, 2019

ICANN has a public responsibility to stand up for the best interests of the internet community. The request to remove price caps on .org domain registration does not provide any benefit to registrants. As a legacy top level domain used by millions of small non-profit organizations operating on thin budgets, .org is fundamentally different than the newer 'for-profit' domains. While I can appreciate that ICANN needs to work with both registries and registrants, approval of the request to remove price caps entirely caters to the registries and will only harm millions of smaller non-profit organizations. ICANN needs to stand up for the public interest and registrants and reject the elimination of price caps for .org domains. David Stewart

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[Comments-org-renewal-18mar19] .org fee changes
by Aaron Myers April 25, 2019

April 25, 2019

I'm writing to ask ICANN to reconsider removing the registration fee caps on .org domains. These domains are used by nonprofit trade associations and individual member associations as well as tax-exempt charities. Donors and members give us funds to accomplish our nonprofit missions, and while they understand there are essential operating costs, the idea of turning domain registries into a profit stream at our expense would not be well received. For an organization of our size the proposed registry fixed fee of $6250 per quarter ($25,000 per year) would be a material hit on our budget. The current arrangements have worked well - please don't allow nonprofit organization to be subjected to this usurious fee increase. -- Aaron Myers Chief Information Officer CSIS | Center for Strategic and International Studies 1616 Rhode Island Ave, NW Washington, DC 20036

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[Comments-org-renewal-18mar19] Why?
by waynec444＠earthlink.net April 25, 2019

April 25, 2019

Isn't 10% a year enough? That is much higher than inflation! I think I read that existing registrations will NOT be affected by the removal of the cap. If so that if OK with me but it is NOT OK with new registrations. Keep the cap in place!

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[Comments-org-renewal-18mar19] Opposed to the changes proposed in the .org agreement renewal
by JD Knisely April 25, 2019

April 25, 2019

respectfully make the following comments. 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. I am a non-profit. Any increase would certainly hurt our library. -- Jane Knisely Library Director Claysburg Area Public Library 957 Bedford Street Claysburg, PA 16625

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[Comments-org-renewal-18mar19] Price increases
by Christopher J. Wells April 25, 2019

April 25, 2019

If you want more water, you increase the size of the pipe, you don't completely break or remove it. Removing the regulation on price increases for org (or info or biz) domains is simply allowing people to charge whatever they want. Ultimately, this just means higher prices for non-profit organizations who cannot afford radical price increases. Markets need some regulation. -- Christopher J. Wells

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[Comments-org-renewal-18mar19] Section 2.10 of the .org renewal agreement
by Anthony Bologna April 25, 2019

April 25, 2019

Hi there, As an employee of a non-profit organization that owns a .org domain, I strongly disagree with the decision to remove the price cap provisions in the current .org agreement. Removing that price cap is something that wholesale registries can and *will* take advantage of, potentially charging astronomical prices. This removal could be especially damaging since .org is used so commonly *by non-profits.* Had this price cap not been in place when we were looking to purchase our .org domain, we may not have been able to afford it. Please do not allow for this unnecessary burden. Maintain the current .org price cap provisions. -- [image: photo] Anthony Bologna Harvest Church Media A 303 Grooms Road, Clifton Park, NY 12065 P (518) 371-2997 <(518)+371-2997> E anthony(a)soldoutforjesus.com <anthony(a)soldoutforjesus.com> W soldoutforjesus.com

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[Comments-org-renewal-18mar19] Opposed to the new .org agreement
by pau guerrero April 25, 2019

April 25, 2019

Dear ICANN, I am a .org 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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