Re: [ga] VeriSign's Predatory Behavior

[Hugh Dierker <hdierker2204@xxxxxxxxx>]

Danny,
 
Snow chains in winter. Fans in summer. Guns for rebels. Escape for Jews, 
Cambodians and Darfur.
 
"if we do not oppose price hikes when it is merely our profit margin at stake, 
then what will we pay when it is our children's life in the balance"  ed
 


--- On Sun, 6/28/09, Danny Younger <dannyyounger@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:


From: Danny Younger <dannyyounger@xxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [ga] VeriSign's Predatory Behavior
To: ga@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Date: Sunday, June 28, 2009, 11:10 AM




http://www.icann.org/en/registries/rsep/verisign-reglock-request-25jun09.pdf


Those of us that watch domain name market activities have realized that theft 
of valuable domains has become an increasingly significant problem as of late 
(1).  We are also aware that the SSAC has been examining the attack vectors 
(2).  Into this state of affairs we now see the potential introduction of a 
Verisign registry Lock Service.

The service will introduce pricing tiers, such as:
-- 1 - 99 domain names and/or hosts: $100 per domain name per year
-- 100 - 499 domain names and/or hosts: $70 per domain name per/year
-- 500 - 2,499 domains and/or hosts: $50per domain name per year
-- >2,500 domains and/or hosts: fees to be negotiated by VeriSign and registrar.

I'll tell you what this service reminds me of by relating a story that happened 
more than a few years ago.  I was at a three-day concert at Watkins Glen, New 
York, listening to the Grateful Dead, the Band, and the Allman Brothers.  The 
weather was hot.  Very hot.  Merchants began to peddle bottles of water and 
juice for prices that could only be described as sickeningly predatory.  The 
crowd responded by "liberating" those bottles from the entrepeneur.  

Those of us that have witnessed predatory behaviors are left with a bad taste 
in our mouths whenever we see that unrestrained greed has once again reared its 
ugly head.  Clearly there is a security problem that must be dealt with... is 
the only solution to be found one that necessarily will gouge registrants?

regards to all,
Danny Younger


(1) see, for instance, the recent DomainWire article  "Three Letter Domain 
Thief Loses Another Domain Name" at 
http://domainnamewire.com/2009/06/22/three-letter-domain-thief-loses-another-domain-name/

(2) 
http://syd.icann.org/files/meetings/sydney2009/transcript-ssac-open-22jun09-en.txt