[ga] Group forms to challenge VeriSign on .com

[Danny Younger <dannyyounger@xxxxxxxxx>]

"Momentous.ca Corp, a Canadian domain registration
firm, has formed a lobby group in the US to challenge
VeriSign Inc over proposals that would let it more
easily introduce new services that would challenge
Momentous's business.

The new Coalition For ICANN Transparency, CFIT, has
already scored an early success by persuading
Representative Donald Manzullo, chairman of the
Congressional Committee on Small Business, to publicly
express concern.

VeriSign recently promised to settle its lawsuit
against ICANN in exchange for a renewal of the
contract that lets it run the .com domain. The
proposed contract extends its term from 2007 to 2012,
and lets it raise prices by 7% a year.

More concerning to Momentous are the parts of the
contract that would enable VeriSign to more easily
introduce new domain registry services, some of which
could compete with Momentous's own services.

CFIT, launched under the guise of a body seeking more
transparency in ICANN's processes, says that the
proposed .com contract, which was negotiated in
private, "reinforces four forces detrimental to the
internet".

These are: "A lack of transparency; A continued
erosion of checks-and-balances; Imposition of
unilateral price increases that run counter to market
logic; Unchecked expansion of the .com registry's
natural monopoly into competitive areas."

The organization managed to persuade Manzullo, a
Republican from Illinois, to write to Michael
Gallagher, assistant secretary at the US Department of
Commerce, which oversees ICANN, to express concern
over "reducing competition".

"If this settlement is allowed to go forward, hundreds
of other much smaller companies performing the role of
domain registrars will see their markets diminished
because ICANN has given VeriSign permission to expand
its dominant market position into what are now
competitive markets," he wrote.

While much of the public opposition to the .com deal
is over the potential for pricing increases which
could, if VeriSign exploits them fully, see the price
of a .com double between 2007 and 2012.

CFIT spokesperson John Berard, of the Zeno Group,
Momentous's PR agency, said it is estimated that if
the price increases are fully implemented and the .com
namespace grows at its current rate, it would add
$1.5bn to the cost of doing business online.

But Momentous is more concerned with the provisions of
the deal that would enable VeriSign to more quickly
and easily launch new registry-level services that
could in theory result in the company monopolizing
certain markets.

Berard said that VeriSign would be able to introduce
new registry services that would allow it to capture
the secondary market for domain name sales -- such as
auctions of valuable names and expiring name
registrations.

VeriSign attempted to introduce such a service, the
Waiting List Service, a few years ago, which prompted
Pool.com, one of Momentous's subsidiaries, to sue
ICANN to prevent WLS being launched.

Secondary market players fear that, because VeriSign
controls the registry, it will be able to introduce
competitive services at the wholesale level,
essentially killing certain retail-level business
models. Critics said WLS would do precisely that.

Currently, CFIT has no members other than Momentous,
but it plans to recruit at ICANN"s annual meeting in
Vancouver. Berard said the organization already has
broad support in principle, if not in writing.

The organization has also managed to secure
Platinum-level sponsorship for ICANN's Vancouver
meeting, despite ICANN's position of reserving the
right to reject sponsorship cash if the sponsor's
views conflict with ICANN policies.

CFIT's application for sponsorship, if not CFIT
itself, was endorsed by Go Daddy Software Inc and
Network Solutions Inc, the two largest registrars,
which made it difficult for ICANN to ignore, Berard
said."

http://www.datamonitor.com/~d63f283030f24146a8c66be9f1f71552~/industries/news/article/?pid=1082EF06-54F6-4C4C-9E99-7CE0A8E41419&type=NewsWire



		
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