Some have argued the increase was trivial, given people's intuition of adjustments for inflation, etc., and also with a sense that prices were stable for a period (after the initial decline). As you would gather from my prior post, its pretty much nonsense (computing and teleconnectivity costs should be going down, down down).
The material on price increases well in advance of the actual increase taking effect is disgusting and disturbing. They appear to be taking a page from the Oil cartels.
Again, referencing the gentleman from Tucows... exclusive contracts were won in part by expectations of price decreases.
At-Large should have some strong words on this matter for the Board of Directors, however, there is a sense that we are supposed to build up our credibility through "productivity" first.
Could we send a statement to the board reporting these increases to the Internet Community, as Danny indicates, well in advance of the official date... and echoing the sentiment that good stewardship demands better?
On 7/8/07, Danny Younger <dannyyounger@yahoo.com> wrote:
Re: The small increase may seem trivial, but the
principle is more important.
The price increase (which won't go into effect until
October 15) is not trivial -- registrars are already
raising their prices in anticipation of the price
increase:
"AIT Domains says that under the promotion all domain
names will cost $6.49 until July 6. However, due to
recently announced price increases from ICANN, AIT
Domains says it's being forced to raise its prices.
Rates are currently scheduled to go up to $8.49 per
registration year on July 9."
http://www.thewhir.com/marketwatch/070307_AIT_Holds_Fourth_of_July_Special.cfm
What's more important than all of this is the issue of
bad decision-making on the part of the unaccountable
ICANN Board. The Internet community has no way of
"throwing the bums out" because ICANN remains
accountable to no one.
Until this problem is solved it really doesn't much
matter what the community consensus is on the AGP or
anything else... ICANN remains free to ignore the
voice of the people.
Presently, ICANN profits from the consequences of
domain tasting... the more names that are tasted, the
more names that will eventually be registered as some
of these names can successfully be monetized. Profits
for the registries, profits for the registrars,
profits for ICANN... there were about 16 million new
registrations last year (a good chunk of them the
direct result of tasting activities).
Don't expect to prevail on this issue without putting
up a spectacular fight and screaming for action at
every opportunity -- convincing a corporation to kill
a lucrative cash cow can only be an uphill battle.
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