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

[Comments-org-renewal-18mar19] Comment on proposed changes to the .org registry agreement
by Roel Bruggink April 25, 2019

April 25, 2019

Dear ICANN, 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] Proposed Renewal of .org Registry Agreement
by Ken Biggs April 25, 2019

April 25, 2019

How in the world could it be okay to lift any restrictions on .org domain name pricing? Typical .org users are small local organizations trying to accomplish public good with little to no income available. The current wholesale increase cap of 10% is more than adequate to cover any reasonable cost increase for domain wholesalers. Thank you for your consideration! Ken Biggs

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[Comments-org-renewal-18mar19] Feedback on the .org agreement
by Houssine Oulhaj April 25, 2019

April 25, 2019

Dear ICANN, I am a .org registrant and a not-for-profit or non-profit organization. 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?

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[Comments-org-renewal-18mar19] (no subject)
by Blake April 25, 2019

April 25, 2019

Do not allow prices to increase. There is no reason the cost should increase more than the USA inflation rate.

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[Comments-org-renewal-18mar19] Proposed Renewal of .org Registry Agreement
by Design by Thomas Azar April 25, 2019

April 25, 2019

As an independent web developer who manages non-profit sites, removing the cap on .org domain registrations could have potentially catastrophic consequences for the organizations for whom I manage their sites. While the domain name market may have matured, that doesn't mean that the organizations that utilize that market have any extra capital to spend on domain names. A 10% yearly increase can be placed appropriately within a budget, but an it's-anyone's-guess increase every year is unsustainable. Please remove the language from the renewal that removes the cap on yearly price increases. Design by Thomas Azar design.thomasazar.net

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[Comments-org-renewal-18mar19] Please keep previous agreement
by Philippe Cote April 25, 2019

April 25, 2019

Hi, I'm asking ICANN to keep the previous agreement concerning the removal of the registration fee caps on .org domains. Non-profit organizations, are, by definition, not operating for profit. Therefore, raising those fees wouldn’t serve the cause theses organizations are working for. Please keep the previous agreement. Thank you very much. P. Côté

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[Comments-org-renewal-18mar19] Price gouging on .orgs
by Andres Hidalgo April 25, 2019

April 25, 2019

To whom it may concern: I am a .org 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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[Comments-org-renewal-18mar19] Opposed to the provisions of the .org agreement
by Camilche Cárdenas - Atelier Média April 25, 2019

April 25, 2019

Thank you for the opportunity to submit a comment. As volunteer Webdesigner for a lot of non-profit organisations in Canada, I'm proud to join the folowing request. 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! Thnaks for taken attention to this request. Best Regards Camilche Cardenas -

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[Comments-org-renewal-18mar19] STOP THE THEFT OF PUBLIC USE OF THE INTERNET
by jefferis peterson April 25, 2019

April 25, 2019

You want to raise the cost of a domain from $10 a year to over $24,000 year ? Knowing that the .org is used my many non-profits, it will make the Internet unusable. And it will destroy many businesses like mine Fees to be paid to ICANN org (Section 6.1 of the .org renewal agreement): The .org renewal agreement has been modified to match the fee provisions in the base registry agreement. Accordingly, the registry fixed fee of $6,250 per calendar quarter is proposed for the .org TLDbeginning on the .org renewal agreement effective date. The registry-level transaction fee remains at $0.25 for each annual increment of an initial or renewal domain name registration. Peterson Design Studio www.PetersonSales.net 2251 Windmill Run Wimberley, TX 78676 724-301-0783 512-377-6034 (landline)

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[Comments-org-renewal-18mar19] .org price cap
by Arton Ragsdale April 25, 2019

April 25, 2019

Please don’t lift the cap on .org price increases. Many organizations with those domains can’t afford such unpredictable price fluctuations.

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