ICANN
is supposed to resign themselves to just "technical" issues
The statements ICANN
made below are very telling and I don't like what I am hearing. Since when is it
ICANN's job to make sure that Verisign is happy? One of ICANN's tasks was to introduce
competition in the registrar business and now that they have done so it should be
end of story instead ICANN for some reason is compelled to bend over backwards for
Verisign because their share of registrations has fallen to 50%. Wooooh, hold on
a minute are we to understand that Verisign is entitled to special privilege just
because they now find themselves having to compete and are obviously whining about
it. Hey ICANN didn't you ever stop to think that maybe NSI's share of the market
is sinking because they refuse to price themselves competitively and they treat their
customers like shit, yet you find it a priority to step in and protect them.I
don't get it either you want competition or you don't and by the way Let's not forget
the fact that NSI is holding millions of expired domain names from the market and
even has tested the waters by buying GreatDomains.com and during Christmas week released
thousands of domain names exclusively for sale on GreatDomains.com excluding all
other registrars and thus any hope of competitive pricing. This is just a prelude
to full blown auctions since NSI will push things as far as they can to gauge any
opposition. I noticed ICANN has been suspiciously silent in regard to this. I guess
maybe they thought NSI needs the help.
This all has an odor of corruption and it
stinks. It smells like garbage and we all know what needs to be done with garbage…………
>B.
CHANGES IN CIRCUMSTANCES SINCE THE ORIGINAL AGREEMENT
In fact, the introduction
of competition in the registrar business has been much more successful, and more
rapidly successful, than anyone anticipated. By all indications, VeriSign has honored
its obligations under Section 21; ICANN has received no substantial complaints about
discriminatory access to the registries operated by VeriSign, and there is no indication
or evidence that has come to the attention of ICANN that VeriSign has not fully and
effectively erected a complete firewall that prevents any discriminatory information
flow to its registrar business. ICANN has now accredited approximately 180 competitive
registrars, of which about 90 are already operating under the SRS. ICANN estimates
that the average price of a one year domain name registration offered by the competing
registrars in the .com, .net, and .org registries operated by VeriSign has fallen
to under $15; prior to the introduction of competition, the only price at which a
domain name registration was available was $70 for a two-year registration. The range
of service alternatives is enormous, from a simple unadorned name registration to
a large array of different packages of services.
Perhaps most relevantly, VeriSign's
once-dominant market position has been severely eroded. VeriSign's share of total
registrations has fallen to about 50%, its share of new registrations to under 40%,
and its share of net new registrations (taking into account non-renewals and transfers)
to an even lower level. This trend appears to be continuing in 2001.
C. DISCUSSION
OF PROPOSED AMENDMENTS AND TIMING CONSIDERATIONS
For all these reasons, when ICANN
and Verisign began to discuss VeriSign's plans to divest itself of its registrar
business so as to qualify for the automatic four-year extension to operate the .com/.net/.org
registries, it quickly became apparent that the importance and value of the separation
of ownership of VeriSign's registry and registrar businesses to ICANN and the community
had diminished quite significantly over the 15 months since the original registry
agreement was signed. While VeriSign might well wish to retain its registrar business,
the fact that separation of ownership will automatically extend its ability to operate
the .com/.net/.org registries for an additional four years is a powerful incentive
to cause that separation to happen. On the other hand, that ownership separation
is clearly not as valuable to the community or ICANN under today's market conditions
as it appeared it would be at the time the agreement was signed.
Given these circumstances,
the management of ICANN and VeriSign began exploring whether there was an alternative
set of arrangements that would be more attractive to both parties. The result of
those discussions, which have been ongoing since last summer but more intensely over
the last two months, is a proposal that VeriSign has now made to the ICANN Board
to amend the existing registry agreement.
If this proposal is accepted by the
Board and agreed to by the US Department of Commerce (which must approve any such
amendments to the existing agreement), it would dramatically restructure the relationship
between ICANN and VeriSign in several positive ways. As a general matter, it would
go a very long ways toward eliminating the vestiges of special treatment of VeriSign
based on its legacy activities before the formation of ICANN, and in large part place
VeriSign in the same relationship with ICANN as all other generic TLD registry operators
and registrars.
ICANN management believes that there is a persuasive argument
that amending the existing registry agreement with VeriSign as proposed would be
of far more benefit to the Internet community, and do more to enhance long-term competition,
than would the continuation of the existing agreement. Therefore, we have agreed
that we would post this proposal for public comment.
Timing considerations are
important; there is a contractual deadline involved. Even if this proposed amendment
is approved by the ICANN Board, it also requires approval by the US Department of
Commerce because it would involve amending existing agreements. Therefore, as a practical
matter, the Board must make a decision on this proposal no later than 1 April 2001.
On the other hand, because this is likely to be of such interest to the community
generally, and because it does involve a significant change in the most important
of ICANN's contractual agreements, it is important that there be ample time for community
comment and Board consideration of that comment. Therefore, it is contemplated that
time will be provided during the Public Forum in Melbourne for discussion of this
proposal. In addition, a web-based public comment forum has been established to receive
public comment. Finally, a request for any comments and recommendations they choose
to offer has been sent to each of ICANN's supporting organizations.
Should the
Board approve the proposed contractual amendments, they will then be submitted to
the Department of Commerce for its approval. Should the Board decide not to accept
the proposed amendments, the existing contract will remain in full force, including
the automatic four-year extension until 10 November 2007, for all three registries
if VeriSign complies with the ownership separation requirement of Section 23.