Icann Board Members: Regarding the .Biz tld agreement

["barry" <barry@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Dear Icann Board Members:

I am writing today to add my voice to the choir of Internet Stakeholders whom 
are all very concerned, as they operate in the universe in which you govern and 
there appears to be a concerted effort on your parts to dis-enfranchise many of 
these Stakeholders by your recent decision to redo the contracts for the 
Registries that operate the gTlds .Biz, .Info and.Org

The news that you are considering allowing for the opening up requirements of 
the pricing guidelines for their operations clearly appears to fly in the face 
of not only your own mandates to govern this medium for the benefits of all 
concerned, but further, it clearly appears to erode your credibility as 
concerned and mindful stewards over this very important global communications 
medium.

It needs to be said strongly and forthrightly that you do not operate a Fiefdom 
of any sort. Yet it now seems clear that you are intent on being persuaded by 
these very limited member parts of the whole family of Stakeholders to 
facilitate only their very limited needs by allowing for them to advance their 
own limited cause at the very disastrous risk to the rest of the full body of 
Stakeholders under your watch.

The act of allowing for the unfettered and unlimited pricing for the 
administration of the Domains under each of their controls spells massive 
trouble for this emerging medium and its large and diverse user members. 

You are NOT in the position to advance the cause and benefits of a few in this 
formula, but rather, to administer the resource that is the Internet with a 
fully Democratic view towards the full user base. 

In allowing for the unchecked pricing for the administration of these Domains 
you are allowing for those benefits to accrue to those few who to date have 
shown little regard for their own mandates to administer each Registry for the 
benefit of its users.

None of the Registries that operate these gTLD's to date have done anything to 
raise the quality of the experience for their users.

They have not invested any real monies to make certain that they are in 
position to properly advance their mandates according to their original 
provisions for their operations. There is NO sound plausible reasoning for 
allowing them to raise prices, they have NO exposure whatsoever to any rising 
costs that would in any functional way impact their capacity to continue 
delivering their services in accordance with their contracts.

None of the Registries that operate any of the gTLD's have a business model or 
process that causes them to have to have unfettered abilities to manage and 
price what is a very static product that they govern.

By allowing for them to become such unregulated Market Makers over their 
resource flies in the face of the basic tenets and concept of your own mandate 
to be stewards over the operations of the Internet for the benefit of all. 

There would be many, many, many current Stakeholders, large and small grossly 
and adversely affected if you were to grant this new regime of Monopolistic 
Market Makers this type of new agreement, which would actually be the 
antithesis of your own mandate. 

As you are a Global Organization with a clear and concise goal, this would be 
bringing great scorn and ridicule to an already suspect process that clearly 
appears to be under siege. 

Your inabilities to harness the full and proper public opinion necessary to 
fully understand the implications and ramifications to the large body of 
Stakeholders puts you in an untenable position of acting against the interests 
of the whole for the egregious benefits of the powerful few.

This would clearly paint you as what many today already perceive you to be, a 
patron to their interests !!!

What the Global Community needs LESS of, is this heavy handed self serving that 
goes on when the Masters of the Medium appear to be capitulating under the 
weight of their obligation to serve.

DO NOT surrender the rights of the many for the benefits of the few no matter 
what you do.

Let those who follow in all of our footsteps come to know that the foundational 
members of the organization who were given the role of stewardship over this 
great new communications medium acted adroitly and appropriately to safeguard 
the long term viabilities for the masses under whose watchful eyes it was 
allowed to grow and flourish unfettered by the willfulness of those few elite 
members who would have them do otherwise.

Choose Integrity, Choose Independence, Choose Ethics, Choose Righteousness !!!

Very Sincerely,
Barry and Sally Letzer
Small Business Owners