To my friends,
I have been seriously disturbed from day one about that $50,000 fee.
To begin with, why didn't ICANN charge per name submitted, rather than
by submitter.
If I was the submitter, I would have done what
Name-space did - why not?
Why not indeed! Why didn't
Afilias submit more of the prospective names? Why didn't they ask for .shop?
Why didn't they ask for .kids? Why didn't they ask for .pro? And so on.
Afilias has 19 major players to dispense these names from. Why
on earth did they restrict themselves to .web, which they wanted to steal; .info,
which they expect to receive; and .site, which they through in so that people wouldn't
realize that the fix was in for .web and .info.
I say
the fix is in, because they could have gone for .shop to, but if they did, then it
would look like they were trying to steal two names. Its hard enough to justify
the theft of .web, let alone .shop too.
Why didn't
Afilias ask for .banc? After all, NSI recommended in publicly and NSI is part
of Afilias.
Is it possible that NSI wants .banc for
itself, so they didn't ask for it with Afilias. Is it possible that they KNEW
that .banc wouldn't be taken this round, but next? Is it possible that NSI
didn't want their 18 partners to get a taste of .banc?
Is it possible that ICANN requested $50,000 per pop, knowing in advance who would
be rejected. That would be called a "scam" if it could be proven, couldn't
it? "You are looking very pretty today; give me $50,000."
If ICANN charged $50,000 per name, it would have received less money
from the little guys and more money from Afilias. Now that wouldn't be fair,
would it?
No, judging from names which Afilias
and Neustar (who copied Afilias and added 3 shill names) entered, it seems to me
that Afilias and Neustar have information which no other hopeful registrant would
have been privvy to.
Will it work? I hope
not. If what I see is true, they were too clever for their own good.
If they take .web from IOD, every knowledgeable eye in the world will be on ICANN.
This could mean more problems for ICANN than they would desire - a lot more.
Do they want to risk it? Maybe. They haven't
seemed overly appreciative of the spot they are in yet, so why would they change?
Am I wrong?
Do I owe
ICANN, Afilias, and Neustar an apology.
What
do you think Ken Stubbs? If you think I owe any apologies, post it here.
I shall bow to your wisdom and write an immediate apology for my brazenness.
Regards to all, Eliahu