New Registry Agreements / Settlements / Domain Pricing
June 29, 2006 1:59 am PST To ICANN: Did you receive the origianl e-mial which we request that you read in the current and ongoing public forum? A copy of it is given, below. Please post it on the forum, and read it at the Public Forum / Open Questions/ Open Floor for discussion and for the public interest. Thank you, Matt Hooker IDOA.info ----- Forwarded message from info@xxxxxxxxx -----
Date: Thu, 29 Jun 2006 04:49:46 -0400
From: International Domain Owners Association <info@xxxxxxxxx>
Reply-To: International Domain Owners Association <info@xxxxxxxxx>
Subject: New Registry Agreements / Settlements / Domain Pricing
To: marrakech@xxxxxxxxx
To the ICANN Board of Directors, and the ICANN stakeholder community, and the U.S. Department of Commerce, PLEASE POST THIS ITEM ON THE MARRAKECH FORUM BOARD FOR PUBLIC DISPLAY, AND PLEASE READ THIS COMMUNICATION AND COMMENT AT THE NEXT OPEN FORUM BEFORE THE BOARD MEETING We, the recently founded International Domain Owners Association (IDOA.info), would like to remind ICANN and the Registries, that the foundation of the Internet is the mass of domain owners, which you refer to as registrants, who have paid from $7 to $35 or more, each year to own the domain they registered. ICANN has always wanted more funds, and the vast majority of ICANN\'s revenues come from the Registries and the Registrars. IDOA is comprised of an ever increasing number of individual and corporate domain owners, who want their ownership rights to their domain respected and recognized. When we register or renew a domain we believe that we are paying for the perpetual right to renew that domain at the same price each year in perpetuity - for as long as we care to own that domain. NEITHER ICANN NOR THE REGISTRY NOR THE REGISTRAR HAS ANY RIGHT TO INCREASE THAT AMOUNT - EVER! I realize that you may dispute this; however you (collectively) need to understand that the masses of domain owners will go to court to enforce this right. You will need to finance your operations from another source, and perhaps take a more streamlined view of what each of you (i.e. ICANN and each registry and each registrar) can afford to do with your growth plans and business models. $6.00 per domain year is quite sufficient to maintain the stability and security of each registry as well as provide database functions (like availability checks and whois checks) with speed and efficiency and with 100% uptime. Additionally, we, the domain owners demand that registrars cease and desist from their sorry actions involving deleting our domains if we're a few weeks late with an annual payment, or charging us an extortionary "redemption fee" for the same reason, or refusing to promptly allow us to transfer our domains to another registrar, or automatically puuting a domain-lock or auto-renew on all of our domains. In a very short time we will have a great deal of collective bargaining power, and we will demand a new bill of rights for domain owners. With all of the tremendous funds, time and resources the domain owner puts into a domain, it should be clear (as it is more and more becoming clear to US courts) that we have a real and actual ownership in our domains that is far more substantial than any interest ICANN, the registry or the registrar has in them, and it should become practically impossible for any of you 3 entities to steal, delete, hijack, or otherwise take a domain from their owners. Many domain owners put thousands, hundrends of thousands, even millions of dollars worth of resources into their domains; the registry puts almost nothing, and the registrar puts $6 into them. Please take a look at the persuasive arguments we make at IDOA.info about why we must not allow any registry annual price increases. We will be posting in July a new Domain Owners Bill of Rights at our web site, IDOA.info, and we will be contacting you by letter for your explicit recognition of such. Until that time, please do not breach our rights and cause any price increases to take effect for any domains that have already been registered. You know that some of our members and members of the ICANN stakeholder and constituency communities have been making this case now (always unheeded by you) for over 5 years. Sincerely,
International Domain Owners Association Attn Matt Hooker, Chairman P.O. Box 330267 San Francisco, California 94133-0267 U.S.A.
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