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

[Comments-org-renewal-18mar19] Proposed Renewal of .org Registry Agreement
by Bojan Keseljevic 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. ᐧ

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[Comments-org-renewal-18mar19] ICANN is creating an unregulated monopoly
by greg.pote＠apsca.org April 28, 2019

April 28, 2019

This proposal is nothing short of outrageous! Public Interest Registry (PIR) - the Registry Operator for the .org top-level domain (TLD) - is currently allowed to operate a regulated monopoly. ICANN's "Proposed Renewal of .org Registry Agreement" will effectively create an unregulated monopoly and hand PIR carte blanche authority to charge whatever prices they choose thereby severely disadvantaging all owners of .ORG website. Internet domain registration fees are already at astronomical levels and continue to rise. The current PIR "regulated monopoly" arrangement allows for fees to rise by 10%/annum - this is already extremely high. Since when are the costs of doing business increasing by 10% every year? If ICANN wants to change the existing arrangement then they should allow for other registry companies to offer .ORG domains, thereby removing the uncapped monopoly and allowing market forces to determine appropriate domain registration fees. Greg Pote Chairman, APSCA Shanghai, China o: +86 21 31200321 m: +86 186 02199700 <http://www.apsca.org/> www.apsca.org <https://www.linkedin.com/company/2109399/> <https://twitter.com/APSCA_Updates> Upcoming events: Digital Payments South Asia 29-30 August 2019, Mumbai Evolving the Payments Ecosystem to Displace Cash For Banks, Mobile Wallets, Payments Services Providers & Solutions Providers Transport Payments Asia Pacific 18-19 September 2019, Manila Open Payments for Integrating Transport and Retail Services For Transport Authorities & Operators, Transport Ticketing Schemes, Banks and Solutions Providers Next-Generation Cards 15-16 October 2019, Novotel Singapore Clarke Quay New Solutions for Payments, Identity & Authentication For Payment Card Issuers, Governments, Schemes & Card Industry Experts <https://www.apsca.org/event/APSCA_2019_Events_Program.pdf> https://www.apsca.org/event/APSCA_2019_Events_Program.pdf

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

April 28, 2019

I am a .org registrant (non-profit). 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 Philippe Leprince

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[Comments-org-renewal-18mar19] Org pricing proposal
by Kars Barendrecht April 28, 2019

April 28, 2019

I am against this proposal. Org has been one of the legacy tld's for years. And shouldn't get an increase of price. It is better known than other tld's and therefore shouldn't become less accessable for the lower wealth.

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[Comments-org-renewal-18mar19] Price ceiling for .org
by Tricia S April 28, 2019

April 28, 2019

Allowing unlimited charges on .org pricing will devastate organizations, small nonprofits and groups that are on the internet to provide help to our others. Our organization berkshirecoalition.org which provides education and support for suicide prevention would not be able to afford an unlimited ceiling for our url and would be forced to change urls to survive the costs. This in turn would hurt our outreach into our community. Please reconsider for .org based urls

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

April 28, 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? -- -Jeff Chien

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[Comments-org-renewal-18mar19] Proposed Renewal of .org Registry Agreement
by Vincent Ollivier 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] Proposed Renewal of .org Registry Agreement
by Keen Wong April 28, 2019

April 28, 2019

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 %2��bottom up, multi-stakeholder model%2��. 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! Sent from Yahoo Mail on Android

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

April 28, 2019

I am a .org registrant (non-profit). 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] Proposed Renewal of .org Registry Agreement
by Forest Schafer April 28, 2019

April 28, 2019

I am a .org registrant and assist multiple non-profits with websites. These organizations, like many others, are operating on extremely limited budgets and volunteer time. Often, one of their most valuable assets is their public trust reinforced by their presence on the web and undergirded by search rankings, web links and electronic points of contact. Creating unpredictability for these organizations is harmful to the public benefit mission of these organizations and erodes the fundamental promise of the internet as a force for good. For these reasons I strongly oppose the proposed changes that would eliminate price caps and treat legacy domains like new gTLDs. Forest Schafer 527 Cheney St, Reno, NV 89502 775-690-7506

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