Score one? Really? Hardly. Domains are disgustingly underpriced. If domains were $30 (or more) per year rather than $10, the cost for each genuine Internet provider, using a single domain name, would still be a negligible part of the total cost of operating an Internet presence. However, - The number of speculative domains being hoarded would be dramatically decreased - Since content-free domains would be more expensive to monetize, many typo-squatting sites would vanish too, decreasing end-user confusion - People like myself who hold a handful of vanity domains -- but only need one -- would be more easily persuaded to let go of the redundant ones, further increasing the available pool - Brand owners and others would learn the benefits of using third.level domain names, a facility widely underused because of the cheap cost of second level names A dramatically increased cost per domain, with the extra money used to pay for increased enforcement and public information/participation programs, would be a far better approach from a public-interest PoV. By "holding the line", PIR is doing nobody any favours except for the squatters and speculators -- and their own bank account. Even non-profits can be greedy. - Evan

Score one for PIR!

Actual registry prices: Verisign .com: $7.85 Neustar .biz: $7.85 ($4 promotion) PIR/Afilias .org: $7.70 Afilias .info: $7.42 ($3 promotion) Afilias .mobi: $7.25 ($4 promotion) Verisign .net: $5.86 The promotion prices are temporary and usually limited to new registrations, although .info has been on sale more or less continuously for years. As you can see, PIR's pricing is right in line with everyone else, and considerably higher than Verisign's .net. I agree with Evan that the world would be a better place if there were more friction in domain registrations and people used them as identifiers rather than as fashion accessories, but that horse left the barn in the previous millenium. R's, John