Objection to Differential Pricing for .BIZ, .ORG and .INFO

["Chris Beach" <chrisbeach@xxxxxx>]

To the ICANN Board;

I find the proposed .biz, .info and .org registry agreements deeply concerning. 
 I urge you to consider my comments, as the removal of price controls for 
renewal fees, thereby allowing the registries to charge _discriminatively_ for 
renewals, is clearly open to abuse at a number of levels.

Firstly, it allows the registry, and the registrars by proxy, to _price-gouge_ 
owners of developed websites.  It stands to reason that domain owners who have 
the most to lose will pay the most to keep their livelyhood, and there is 
nothing in this proposal that will prevent the registry or registrars taking 
advantage of this.

Secondly, it gives an open slather for the registry and registrars to seize 
back domains that they like, by making impossible fee demands on the existing 
owner.

Thirdly, it opens the doors for underhand anti-competitiveness - a few dollars 
under the table to the registry could ensure your competitor has to pay a 
six-figure sum to renew his domain.  The registry gets a nice bonus under the 
table, and possibly a big bonus at renewal time.

Fourthly, it sets a dangerous precedent for other TLDs and ccTLDs.  I note that 
Chuck Gomes of Verisign has stated their support for these changes.

Domain owners have built their businesses and livelihood on what they believed 
was an open playing field.  In my opinion, this proposal stands to take that 
away from them and goes against the spirit in which the Internet was created.

I also fear that creating uncertainty at the root level will only lead to 
increased pressure from "alternative roots", already vying for the attention of 
new Internet users, who may take advantage of a perceived need for alternative, 
cheaper domains.  I can only see this diminishing ICANN's previous work of 
maintaining a solid, reliable root system.

In conclusion, I would like to propose that a _reasonable_ cap be placed on 
renewal fees, in line with the Consumer Price Index and inflation over and 
above the current fees.  This ensures registry viability into the future, 
without the need for an open slather.

Kind regards,
Chris Beach B.Eng. (E.S.)