Proposed VeriSign Settlement and New .COM Agreement

["Mark McGavin" <markmcgavin@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

With regards to the Proposed VeriSign Settlement and New .COM Agreement

ICANN does not appear to realise that those  of us who have built our internet 
names in .com have no realistic opportunity to move out of .com. without the 
loss of our trading identities.

The proposed settlement of a 7% annual price rise is thus anti competitive and  
unfair. We simply cannot absorb price rises year after year to keep our 
customers. The proposed annual price rise is without justification and is 
wholly arbitrary.

ICANN proposes to protect users of the .com TLD through a 10 year lock-in. 

What a wonderful way to raise enormous  amounts of revenue in a hurry. Talk 
about a monopoly abusing its power. Six years on the Internet and I have never 
seen such an abuse. 

Details of how such a system would work should now be specified to show how 
abuse on the part of unscrupulous registrars can be avoided  or  the 
requirement for users to lock themselves into a particular registrar for a 10 
years can be nullified.

I live and work in the UK. Business practises such as this by large monopolies 
if they were to be based in the UK would more than likely be referred to the 
Office Of Fair Trading with the possibility of Government intervention.

The proposals are a disgrace. The ethics behind illegal ponzi schemes are more 
honest than this.


Mark McGavin

IP Action Internet Services
Barry, UK.