[eside-ghost] [Fwd: .COM Domain Names price will increase due to ICANN-Verisign Settlement]

Jue Nov 24 11:46:06 CET 2005

Hola,

Siento no traducirlo, pero creo que es interesante la noticia.

¿qué os parece? Hace poco salió la noticia que EEUU no pensaba soltar el
control sobre la gestión de dominios de internet[1] y encima ahora esto.

[1]
http://www.el-mundo.es/navegante/2005/09/30/esociedad/1128074426.html

--------- Mensaje reenviado --------
De: Do_Not_Reply en directi.com <Do_Not_Reply en directi.com>
Para: iker en irontec.com
Asunto: .COM Domain Names price will increase due to ICANN-Verisign
Settlement
Fecha: Thu, 24 Nov 2005 04:19:10 -0600 (CST)

Hi everyone,

I am writing this letter to all of you personally because it is time for
all of you to stand up for a cause. Some of you might be aware that
ICANN and Verisign recently announced a proposed settlement of their
pending litigation (Verisign had sued ICANN a few years ago and that
lawsuit is pending). We believe this settlement is unfair, unjust,
inappropriate and would be blasphemous to the Internet community and to
your Business.

Some Highlights of the settlement

      * The settlement agreement allows Verisign to increase the price
        of .com domain names to every Registrar by 7% every year.
        Currently Verisign charges all Registrars $6 for every domain
        name. The new settlement agreement however allows them to
        increase prices to all of us without any cost justification.
        They can simply increase the price by 7% EACH year. 

      * This means they could double the price in 10 years. Naturally
        any increase in price would mean all Registrars would have to
        increase their prices to you. This would reduce your sales and
        reduce your potential to sell other Products. 

      * In this settlement proposal ICANN is giving Verisign the chance
        to make more than 2 Billion Dollars extra over the next 10
        years. This may by far be the most expensive settlement proposal
        the world has witnessed. 

      * This 2 Billion Dollars is coming out of your / your customers
        pockets. 

      * The new settlement agreement also doubles the ICANN fees charged
        to Registrars. Currently Registrars pay 25 cents per domain name
        to ICANN. The new agreement will make that 50 cents. This again
        means all Registrars will further increase what they charge all
        of you for dotCom Domain Names. 

      * The new settlement agreement has a perpetual presumptive renewal
        clause. This means that Verisign will permanently hold on to the
        dotCom Registry. There will never be any competitive bid for it,
        except in a very remote circumstance. Verisign now gets the
        right to a perpetual monopoly. This means that they are free to
        do whatever they want with dotCom, without fear of competition.
        Prices therefore will never reduce. 

The entire settlement documents are posted online at
http://www.icann.org/tlds/agreements/verisign/settlement-agreements.htm

The part with regards to pricing is in Section 7.3 of
http://www.icann.org/tlds/agreements/verisign/com-registry-agreement-22sep05.pdf

What can you do?

This settlement agreement will be signed very soon unless the ICANN
Board is convinced otherwise. You all represent the voice of the various
Domain Name Consumers worldwide. All of you should send your comments
about this settlement and how it will affect your business.

Send your comments to settlement-comments en icann.org

Keep the following points in mind before sending your comments:

      * Put in your company name, and specify how long you have been in
        business, and how you represent the voices of hundreds and
        thousands of Customers in your specific region. 

      * You may specify how any increase in the dotCom domain name
        prices will affect your business. 

      * Readup existing comments by other people at
        http://forum.icann.org/lists/settlement-comments/. Your comments
        can be similar to the ones already posted. More number of
        comments about the same issue from different people across
        different countries would clearly show that everyone is
        concerned about the same issue. 

Feel free also to forward this email to your Customers and Resellers and
urge them to individually post comments as to how this would impact
their respective Business.

Why ICANN should not sign this Settlement?

      * ICANN itself has stated publicly that it is more likely to win
        the lawsuit than lose it. There is no reason for it to sell out
        the Internet to settle this litigation when there is a greater
        chance of it winning the lawsuit anyways. 

      * The outcome does not provide benefits to the Internet community
        that both ICANN and Verisign were intended to serve. 

      * The ICANN staff are proposing to provide Verisign the ability to
        increase their prices by 7% annually. Everywhere around the
        world prices for domain names and web services are reducing.
        There is no reason for ICANN to grant an increase in the
        prices. 

      * ICANN is supposed to act as an administrator of the Internet on
        behalf of the Internet community. This proposed settlement
        however benefits ICANN and Verisign at the cost of the
        community. 

It is important at a time like this for you to stand up and make
yourself heard. The Internet should not belong to any one organization.
Any changes affect millions of businesses worldwide. It would be unfair
if any such changes are made without consensus from the community as a
whole.

Regards,
Bhavin Turakhia
Founder, Chairman & CEO
Directi

-- 
Iker Sagasti Markina
Irontec, Internet y Sistemas sobre GNU/LinuX - http://www.irontec.com
+0034 94.427.86.97