Where is ICANN?

[Tom <kingsnames@xxxxxxxxx>]

I was reading through the comments left by others and I noticed that George 
Kirikos pointed out here:

"I also find it disturbing that the ICANN staff who prepared the draft
agreements stated that for the existing 2005-2007 gTLD agreements for
Section 7.3:

http://www.icann.org/en/topics/new-gtld-draft-summary-changes-24oct08-en.pdf

"ICANNs unsponsored gTLD registry agreements have not included price
controls."

This is demonstrably FALSE, see Section 7.3 of the current .biz, .info
and .org agreements:

http://www.icann.org/en/tlds/agreements/biz/registry-agmt-08dec06.htm
http://www.icann.org/en/tlds/agreements/info/registry-agmt-08dec06.htm
http://www.icann.org/en/tlds/agreements/org/registry-agmt-16jul08.htm

each of which have in place a "Maximum Service Fee" due to the hard
work of many in the ICANN community.

It's very alarming that such misleading information is being put out by
ICANN in regards to the description of existing consumer protections
that exist for registrants. ICANN's registries have managed to create a
"presumptive renewal" for themselves at the expense of the ICANN
community who would fare better if registry operations were tendered to
the lowest bidder. At a minimum, existing domain registrants should
expect presumptive renewal of their own domains at a constant price, or
one that reflects a price index of global technology costs (which is
generally far below that of the Consumer Price Index)"

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My question is why hasn't anyone at ICANN commented on this? George posted this 
in late October. Clearly price controls were placed into effect due to the 
efforts of many 2 years ago. Is this just an oversight by ICANN and no one at 
ICANN actually reads this board? I find this very puzzling.

Another thing I find puzzling is the whole idea of opening up the namespace to 
"unlimited" tlds. The economy as a whole appears to be heading for bad times 
the likes of which no one has seen since the great depression. Shouldn't ICANNs 
focus be on lowering costs for everyone with existing tlds so businesses have a 
better chance to survive in this brutal economic climate? Shouldn't ICANN set 
an example by spending the least it possibly can on its business meetings? 
Shouldn't ICANN's real focus be on providing the most value it can for 
registrants and creating a stable economic environment - one that doesn't need 
to be concerned about potential tiered pricing or price hikes? This, along with 
internet security, seems to me what ICANN should be working on.... ways to 
reduce costs.... not allowing uncapped pricing and potential tiered pricing in 
new tld contracts that could then be applied to existing gtld contracts. Even 
just the psychological effects of the
potential for tiered pricing could destroy the internet economy and the economy 
as a whole completely.

As it stands now, there will likely be many internet businesses going out of 
business even with low domain prices and internet costs. This due to general 
economic mismanagement and the effects of high oil prices which may continue to 
blunt the economy for a long time to come.

The internet needs real leadership from ICANN. Not new tld domain registration 
terms which permit unlimited pricing....something the internet economy was not 
founded on. We need lower prices now more than ever with a looming economic 
depression. The world economy is at stake. The real insult is that domain 
registrants already spoke out on this issue two years ago... even getting 
congressmen involved... no unlimted pricing or tiered pricing...we need price 
caps...I hope someone at ICANN is listening.


Tom