[bc-gnso] Dot-Pro tries to get fee reductions from ICANN

["Rick Anderson" <RAnderson@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I agree with George about the troubling business of TLD operators
renegotiating key terms of their agreements.  Unless ICANN takes the
view that a contract is a contract, it will only be encouraging
applicants to make promises and forecasts which are unreliable with the
sense that there is no downside to doing so and with the expectation
that key terms can always be renegotiated after the fact.  This would
undermine the value of the entire application and contracting processes.

However, I do not agree with George that registries should be deemed
"failures" simply on the strength of volume of registrants, nor that
some less-successful (or even failed) TLDs mean other potential TLDs are
a bad idea.  ICANN has to provide for stability, for sure, but we cannot
make the possibility of "failure" a disincentive to innovation and
competition.  If that was the rule society had followed, we'd not have
light bulbs or telephones, never mind the Internet.  

Offering the registrant market choices - competition - is good in and of
itself, otherwise we shall stifle innovation and service and prop up
overpriced legacy operators.  Plus, expanding the available real estate
is also good. 

cheers/Rick

Rick Anderson
EVP, InterBorder Holdings Ltd.

randerson@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
cell: (403) 830-1798



-----Original Message-----
From: owner-bc-gnso@xxxxxxxxx [mailto:owner-bc-gnso@xxxxxxxxx] On Behalf
Of George Kirikos
Sent: Wednesday, June 17, 2009 3:07 PM
To: BC gnso
Subject: [bc-gnso] Dot-Pro tries to get fee reductions from ICANN


Hi folks,

The following letter posted to ICANN's website might be of interest:

http://www.icann.org/correspondence/sigmar-to-pritz-17jun09-en.pdf

where a registry who already had a contract with ICANN is trying to
gain one-sided concessions.

In the world of ICANN, if you're a registry operator, you can promise
the world when you apply for a new gTLD, but if things don't work out,
you simply ask for concessions. The rule should be "a contract is a
contract is a contract" (unless it's an anti-competitive one that is
against the public interest, like the monopoly dot-com contracts,
where the government or the courts should feel free to break/void
those contracts to protect consumers).

Go back to their initial business plan/application/approval:

http://www.icann.org/en/tlds/pro2/
http://www.icann.org/en/tlds/pro2/Registry%20Operators%20Proposal.htm
http://www.icann.org/en/minutes/prelim-report-14mar02.htm

In D13.2.2 of the 2nd link:

" A detailed profit and loss account that provides a breakdown of
revenue and costs on a monthly basis. From a revenue perspective, we
have assumed that RegistryPro commences operations in month 6 and that
during the initial sunrise and landrush period, 1,000,000
registrations are sold. After this period, registrations are
anticipated to be approximately 90,000 a month and increase at between
0% to 10% per month depending on the level of marketing activity."

Keep reading the above links for their fiction about the "demand for
.pro", their marketing plan, etc. (and keep that in mind whenever you
read anything from new gTLD advocates, including ICANN). And then go
back to their letter to ICANN saying:

"A lower fee would enable the registry to invest in marketing and
branding initiatives that will make us competitive with other
similarly sized registries."

Hmmm, what about your original BUSINESS PLAN???

.pro is a failed registry, with only 36,000 registrations after 6
years. It should be put out of its misery and be phased out of the
root. They should serve as a poster child of why new gTLDs are a bad
idea.

Sincerely,

George Kirikos
416-588-0269
http://www.leap.com/

 
 
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