Namescout.com Opposition to .COM Settlement

["Dave Chiswell" <dave@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Vint Cerf, Chairman of the Board
ICANN 

Via Email

Dear Dr. Cerf,
 
Once again, we join our colleagues and competitors in the internet community
to voice our concern for, and objections to, the revised ICANN/VeriSign .com
Registry Agreement.  In this regard, we support the comments made in the
Joint Letter to the Board submitted by eight of the largest .com registrars
yesterday.

While the ICANN staff may look like they are listening, they are not hearing
the concerns of this community and they most certainly are not acting on
them. The revisions to the agreement are minor in nature and do not reflect
the changes demanded in Vancouver and in the first round of public comments.

Our comments and recommendations remain:

1. The .com agreement should not be used as a bargaining chip to settle the
lawsuit with VeriSign.  To do so is to violate your responsibility to your
constituencies and you risk irreparable damaged to your credibility within
the internet community. We recommend you separate the VeriSign lawsuit from
the .com agreement as bundling the two represents a clear conflict of
interest.

 2. The allowed price increases are unjustifiable when market indicators and
market demands suggest future price decreases. We recommend periodic
competitive re-bids of the .com and other registry operation contracts. 

3. We strongly reject the presumptive renewal built into the proposed
agreement that would give VeriSign a virtual endless monopoly over the .com
market.  This is to the detriment of all parties, except VeriSign.  ICANN
must open this process up to competitive bidding. 

4. Potential new registry services will stifle innovation and
competitiveness in periphery .com markets and may have repercussions for
registrars and registrants, particularly when those services are not subject
to scrutiny or amendment for a period of two years.  We recommend deletion
of the sections dealing with new registry services and the incorporation of
the registry service PDP prepared by the GNSO and recently adopted by the
ICANN Board.

Sincerely,

Dave Chiswell

CEO
NameScout Corporation

NameScout Corporation is an accredited ICANN Registrar offering domain
registration, web hosting and email services.