[alac] Our comments on new biz, org, and info contracts
The board is meeting in two days. Do we care enough to send them something, like we said we would? Suggested points: 1. The .org contract has three years to run. There is no need to change it now. The other two contracts are not in any immediate danger of expiring, either, so the rush to revise them is baffling and contrary to ICANN's principles of stability and transparency. 2. Once a user has selected a domain, that domain's registry is the monopoly supplier of renewals. Uniform pricing from that monopoly supplier is an important part of the stability of the net. Millions of people have bought domains on the expectation of being able to renew them at about the same price. Prepaying for 10 years is not a substitute for stability, both because 10 years is not a long time in real life, and because it forces users to buy defensive renewals they wouldn't otherwise do. 3. Nobody has ever suggested that registries are not profitable at the current capped price nor are they unwilling to make needed investments in infrastructure. Indeed, the experience of the .net renewal strongly suggests that even at $3 there would be multiple well qualified candidates to run large registries. 4. The current system of fixed price caps has worked well for registries, registrars, and most importantly for users since ICANN began. Removing price caps would needlessly benefit registries at the expense of users. So don't. Perhaps Wendy can add a few more points on other bad things in the proposed contracts. Regards, John Levine, johnl@xxxxxxxx, Primary Perpetrator of "The Internet for Dummies", Information Superhighwayman wanna-be, http://johnlevine.com, Mayor "I dropped the toothpaste", said Tom, crestfallenly.
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