Registrar's complaints ring hollow

["Aaron L. St. John" <aaron@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

This board seems filled with Registrars and people the registrars have scared 
into posting with stories of huge financial costs.

If we peek behind the curtain, Registrars are complaining for 2 reasons:

1. They want to see the contract re-bid because they think it will lower their 
fixed costs; they even suggest that they would lower prices to their customers.

2. They want to scuttle the settlement because they lose control over ICANN?s 
purse-strings.

Lowing costs to the user community would be nice, but past actions suggest that 
may be a hollow promise. If you look back over the history of the .net bid, it 
doesn?t appear registrars passed that cost reduction on to their customers.  So 
if users don't get the money, and the registrars don't pour it back into the 
Internet infrastructure, then this is just an opportunity to lower costs and 
line pockets.

The registrars currently have veto power over issues at ICANN by dint of the 
checkbook.  The 20 million in the settlement would lessen that control.

Moreover, complaints from Registrars commenting on Verisign's business 
practices seem like the pot calling the kettle black.  I own a few domain 
names, but I don't make money on them or resell them. So I am not an industry 
insider, but a member of the user community.  What I know is I get letters in 
the mail advising me "my registered names are expiring, sign here to re-up".  
Problem is, the Registrar sending me that letter or email isn't the Registrar 
who has my domain name!  This incredibly unscrupulous behaviour seems to be a 
normal business practice for the registrars, who spam to get customers.

I'm also not an insider on the ICANN goings on, but I do know that the core 
.com and .net root servers have been pretty stable.  I know that Verisign seems 
to be willing to spend money to keep them up, and to pour money into the 
infrastructure of the TLD system.  And Verisign has to if they want to meet the 
terms of renewal.

I know that I've seen grimy, money-grubbing practices from the Registrars 
during the same time that VeriSign has been quietly running .com and .net, and 
not a single price increase for eight years.

I know that the settlement will give ICANN significant funds with no strings 
attached.  Money that should help them stay independent from Registrars, 
Verisign and the US government.

So maybe it?s time to regard the hollow, self-serving complaints of the 
Registrars for what they are, and finish what the board started.

Sign the settlement and get back to ICANN?s core mission ? keeping the Internet 
running.

Sincerely,

Aaron St. John