TLD neutrality must be preserved
If anyone still has any doubts that the new gTLD proposal contains Trojan horse pricing provisions, I would suggest that they read the comments submitted by Neustar carefully : http://forum.icann.org/lists/gtld-guide/msg00139.html More specifically: (PDF attachment, page 8/9):"It is interesting to note that in the current form of the new TLD Agreement, and as was confirmed by ICANN in the new gTLD call on December 8, 2008, ICANN does not and will not require new TLDs to be price capped. Therefore, if the conclusions of the CRAI Report are adopted by ICANN, ICANN will likely take steps towards relaxing vertical separation and equal access requirements for all new TLDs. In the event that price caps are not included for the new gTLDs, NeuStar believes that price caps must be removed from the .biz registry agreement. NeuStar asserts that the only reason .biz is under a price cap is because it is one of the existing gTLDs. There was never any market analysis done to determine whether .biz should be under a price cap. If in fact a market analysis were done today, such analysis could not justify the application of a price cap to a gTLD that currently has less than two percent of the total market for gTLDs. Price caps may be appropriate for larger TLDs that have a much higher percentage of the market (namely .com and .net), but are not appropriate for gTLDs that do not have any real market power." I urge ICANN not to destroy the Internet and uphold TLD neutrality. Sincerely, Katherine Pilna _____________________________________ Special Design Services, Inc. 1912 Capitol Avenue Cheyenne, WY 82001 |