Protest against ICANN & Verisign

["Net Ground - Hans Buis" <hans@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

To Whom It May Concern:

I am writing in response to ICANN's proposed settlement with Verisign
regarding the .com registry.  

The .com registry is hands-down one of the most sought after registry
due to its sheer size and popularity.  It is unreasonable for Verisign
to have a virtual monopolostic hold to run the registry indefinitely
with the ability to raise registrar's costs by 7% each year without
justification.  The perpetual presumptive renewal clause gives Verisign
no incentives to improve the .com registry and locks competitors out of
providing the Internet community with more cost-effective and better
solutions.  We all know that innovation dies when there's no
competition.

As we have seen over the years, Verisign is a for-profit corporation
that is interested in increasing its revenues with little to no regard
for the
Internet community.  I believe the biggest blunder was when they began
redirecting all unregistered domain names to their PPC search engine.
This alone shows that Verisign does not care about the Internet, and
this settlement will only give them more power to do such things again
in the future with no fears.  This opens the door for them to have a
monopoly over other services, including back-order domains and expired
domain name redemption.

With the amount of .com domains registered and renewed each day, there
is no reason that Verisign will need to increase its prices by 7% each
year. While yes, we don't know that if they will increase their prices,
having that specific wording in the settlement will allow them to take
advantage of it.  And as previously mentioned, Verisign is interested in
making profit.  In our own country, we see the domain prices dropping
every few years, and it doens't take rocket science why this happens. 

Surely I realize that 7% of $6 is not very much.  Only a mere 42 cents.
However when domain registrars and resellers have to compete with each
other's prices, 42 cents adds up very quickly, especially when it can be
increased each year.

I believe ICANN should not settle with Verisign under the current
proposed
draft.

I hope you will take my comments into consideration and will revise this
proposed settlement to benefit the Internet community.

Thank you for your time.

kind regards, 

Net Ground B.V.
Hans Buis 

Running a webhostingcompany for 6 years and currently ranked as a Top 40
company in the Netherlands.

T : 070 - 3076110
F : 070 - 3076119
E : hans@xxxxxxxxxxxx <mailto:hans@xxxxxxxxxxxx> 
W : http://www.netground.nl <http://www.netground.nl/> 
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