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

[Comments-org-renewal-18mar19] Proposed Renewal of .org Registry Agreement
by weddingspeeches April 28, 2019

April 28, 2019

I am a .org registrant. 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] .org renewal
by wis 2011 April 28, 2019

April 28, 2019

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] .org renewal proposals
by Andrzej Glowinski April 28, 2019

April 28, 2019

Intolerably stupid. SO prejudicial against us less wealthy individuals who have used .org private domains for many years, now open to unscrupulous exploitation. It is completely unjustified to hike prices retrospectively — I would have most likely made a different choice if I had any idea this kind of monopolistic price gouging might have been in the offing. The disruption this would cause me and countless others is immeasurable, you should be ashamed of yourselves. I can’t afford the kind of price hike this will lead to, and the pain of changing everything — oh no, not again! — is just not worth it. Goodbye internet? Someone involved in the thinking behind this must be a complete imbecile. Thanks, suckers (I believe that is the US expression?) …. from an internet / darpanet / janet user of near 40 years. Some of you seem to hate the freedom part of the Internet idea, wonder why?

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[Comments-org-renewal-18mar19] Proposed Renewal of .org Registry Agreement
by Jonathen Bartholomew April 28, 2019

April 28, 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] Proposed Renewal of .org Registry Agreement
by Privatnu April 28, 2019

April 28, 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 with [ProtonMail](https://protonmail.com) Secure Email.

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[Comments-org-renewal-18mar19] Against change in 10% cap on price increase
by Robert Doyle April 28, 2019

April 28, 2019

Against change in 10% cap on price increase. Maybe a bit higher but not unlimited.

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[Comments-org-renewal-18mar19] I'm against removing the price cap for .org domains
by Foster Schucker April 28, 2019

April 28, 2019

As the owner of a number of .org domains for a number of years (I've had schucker.org, for a very, very long time) I'm against removing the cap. Without a cap, my .org costs could go from $20 a year to $200 a year and jump to $2000 a year after that. While I know it costs money to keep the root .org servers alive, it's pretty much a database record. The cost of computing is dropping year after year. If the .org want to raise prices by a 2-3% amount each year I'm fine, but wholesale removal of the cap is a really bad idea. Thanks Foster Schucker

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[Comments-org-renewal-18mar19] protest against price cap removal
by Robert Puskas April 28, 2019

April 28, 2019

Dear ICANN, I'd like to express my concern about your proposed removal of price caps on .info domains, as these domains are mainly used by non-profit organizations and individuals, who are not making money through their webpages. As the domain name itself suggests, websites using such a domain are purely for providing information about the individual and/or organization and as such removing the price cap will inevitably result in drastic price increases in the following years, which will put a completely unnecessary extra burden on people already using such a domain. Let me repeat, most of these people/organizations do not make money with websites using this domain, so removing the price cap would be highly unfair towards them. Please leave these individuals/organizations a cheap way to provide information about themselves without the need to resort to exotic, hard to remember, and in many cases completely unprofessional domains. I understand the need for ever increasing profits, but why tax non-profit people? I'm sure large international companies such as Google, Amazon, Apple, Microsoft, Alibaba, Ebay, etc. are more than capable of handling the extra charges, but for small people and non-profit organizations this extra burden might be just too high. Thus, because of the aforementioned reasons, I hereby protest against the proposed removal or price caps, and ask you (ICANN) to remove the passage describing the abolition of existing price caps. Price caps were there for a good reason in the past, and those reasons still exist. Thank you in advance. -- Robert Puskas -- - rpuskas0(a)gmail.com -

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[Comments-org-renewal-18mar19] Proposed Renewal of .org Registry Agreement
by Michael Trachtenberg April 28, 2019

April 28, 2019

I have owned a .org domain since 2004, which I use for a vBulletin forum focused on a New Jersey, USA community. It generates no revenue. My registrar recently advised me that ICANN proposes to eliminate the price cap on .org domains. Plain and simple, given a large enough price increase it will no longer be financially viable to retain the domain. I urge ICANN to preserve the existing cap. Thank you.

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[Comments-org-renewal-18mar19] .org domains -- comment
by Dean Vance April 28, 2019

April 28, 2019

Your current contract with Public Interest Registry currently allows them to increase the wholesale price of .org domains by 10% a year. Now you are proposing extending the contract to operate .org but *letting PIR set whatever prices it wants*. With this approach, PIR could suddenly start charging registrars 100 times as much. In turn, registrars would have no choice but to pass these charges on to customers. This is NOT a wise, good or fair thing to do to consumers. We need our .org domains to be AFFORDABLE -- particularly since many of us are NFP organizations trying to do good in the world. If those prices go up, that money comes DIRECTLY out of the charity's pocket. That means is does not reach those in need. PLEASE reconsider your plans and keep those increases under control! Thank you Dean Vance

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