HDL is opposed to the settlement agreement with Verisign

["Steve Pierce DomReg" <DomReg@xxxxxxx>]

I am a domain holder and hosting company based in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
 
I am opposed to the currently proposed settlement agreement between Verisign
and ICANN. The agreement is not fair to hosting companies that often times
find themselves in direct competition with Verisign while at the same time
having to beg Verisign for service and resolution to problems. Too often
domains have been held hostage and the recovery fees for domains is
expensive and unnecessarily complicated. Verisign has also built in
processes and procedures under the guise of protecting domain holders, that
actually have the negative effect that prevents domain registrations from
being moved to competing registrars.
 
At a time when the cost to register and renew domains should be decreasing,
the proposed agreement allows regular price increases with no basis for
determining those fees based on the actual costs to provide the service.
With a virtual lock for Verisign far into the future and an exclusivity
clause for Verisign that no matter how unresponsive Verisign and or how
egregious their behavior may be in the future, Verisign is guaranteed a
contract. All we have to remember is domain redirecting fiasco Verisign did
several years ago to understand that Verisign does not have the best
interests of the small provider at heart and in fact has actively worked to
drive out competition from the market place.
 
Moreover, Verisign routinely locks expired domains and prevents the
acquisition of domain names in a fair and open market. As the exclusive
registrar for .com and .net, Verisign has unprecedented control and
influence of the registration process that gives them an unfair advantage
over other providers that too often find themselves competing with Verisign
for other non-related domains services like email and web hosting.
 
Therefore, I ask ICANN to not sign the proposed agreement, and instead
rewrite the agreement so that it is fair to both ICANN and Verisign while at
the same time protecting the rights of others in the Internet community and
fosters the promotion of a fair and open market for Internet related
services.
 
While I am not optimistic that ICANN will in fact re-write the settlement
agreement and I have been discouraged by past agreements that ICANN has
entered into, I do appreciate the opportunity to share my thoughts and I
hope ICANN will carefully consider the issues that I and many others have
shared with ICANN during this comment period.
 
Thank you for your time and consideration.
 
 - Steve

Steve Pierce, HDL
Albuquerque, NM
Direct: (734) 482-9682
Website: http://www.HDL.com