Re: [ga] ICANN Board can intervene to stop domain tasting for 1 year

[Karl Auerbach <karl@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Roberto Gaetano wrote:
> Dominik Filipp wrote:
>
>     I fully agree. $0.20 re-registration fee is an insufficient
>     solution.
>
> Agree.
One chunk of information that is very much needed to intelligently 
discuss these matters is a believable list of the cost elements at the 
registry level of a domain name registration cycle.
By my estimate it is on the order of a few units of $0.01(US), others 
have estimated it a bit higher, ICANN pegs it at around $7.00(US).
If the cost elements are very low (my estimates) than rapid 
registration/de-registration may not offload costs onto the community 
and may be covered by the cost-of-money value of the amount on deposit 
by registrars at registries.
But if the cost elements are high (as implied by the amount of ICANN's 
registry fees) than those who do this kind of rapid transaction stuff 
are imposing the costs of their behaviour onto the rest of us.
And, if the cost elements are low, then on what grounds is ICANN 
imposing a registry fee that is inconsistent with the costs?
ICANN has long needed to perform an independent, highly detailed, and 
believable audit of the *actual* costs of registry services, clearly 
separating out the various cost elements and in particular separating 
out the front-office (name registration) costs from the back-office 
(name server) costs.  (It would also be useful to know the details of 
the costs of complying with ICANN's regulatory system.)
It would also be useful to have a similar cost breakdown for registrars, 
although I suspect that there is much more variance due to different 
approaches.
                        --karl--