<<< 1. Who gave ICANN the right to decide unilateraly on a $50,000 application
fee. >>>Who gives ANY agency the right to decide on ANY kind of fee.
Furthermore,
fees have to be unilateral. To adjust any kind of fee for individuals, corporations,
countries or continents is discriminatory.
<<< 2. Why was the process too poorly
advertised in Africa? >>>
ICANN advertised no where, to my knowledge. It was carried
on the
wings of the media, and on the Internet itself, which is global.
Perhaps
the lower presence of the Internet in Africa had something
to do with it, eh?
Don't you think? That cannot not be the fault of ICANN or ANY agency involved in
this process. Please be specific in
what you think they should do.
<<< 3. To
facilitate and encourage free enterprise, this process should not cost money. >>>>
Firstly,
if it didn't cost money, everyone and their uncle would
be sending in applications.
What the hell. I would too, and I wouldn't
know how to turn on the database. Just
what ICANN needs. 2 million
applications from incompetants and cranks. They already
have NSI.
What do they need with MORE incompetants and cranks?
Furthermore,
running a strong registry costs BIG money. The
technology is not to be taken lightly,
and lots of money need to be
in place in order to rescue the registry from a potential
catastophe.
Every registrant is at severe risk otherwise.
That itself costs
money. A company that does not have $50,000 is
not prepared to run a domain registry,
plain and simple. Databases
are not toasters, and technological security is not
afforded by
Baidaids.
Certain businesses have financial obligations even to
start-up.
The nature of risk in ANY endeavor--and the means by which disaster
can
either be avoided or repaired--are appropriately examined by far
more entities
than ICANN. It is a sound, reasonable, logical practice.
<<<< Only once the decision
has been made on new TLD's (which should
have been done by membership vote as
well!!) >>>>
Pardon me, but the applicants themselves propose the TLD they want
to
operate.