[ga] ICANN, Verisign, and Competition

["Richard Henderson" <richardhenderson@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I thought one of the remits of ICANN, under the terms of its MoU with the DoC, was to promote competition:

"The President directed the Secretary of Commerce to privatize the management of the domain name system (DNS) in a manner that increases competition" This was to promote what the MoU also called: "the development of robust competition in the management of Internet names and addresses." The MoU continues: "This competition will lower costs, promote innovation, and enhance user choice and satisfaction."

How does it promote competition if you grant a permanent monopoly of a TLD to a single entity, and additionally allow it to unilaterally raise the cost of its product year-on-year by more than the rate of inflation? How does that "lower costs"?

Was the decision to grant these extraordinary rights based on strenuous encouragement of competition to see which bidders would offer the lowest and most competitive prices to the consumer? What was the case for not encouraging multiple parties to "bid" for the Registry rights, in order to bring prices down?

Was the decision based on full and "bottom up" discussion with all ICANN constituencies, to achieve 'consensus' and acceptance of the ICANN community as a whole that this process and decision were the right ones, the ones which would best open up the market, the ones which would best achieve competition and lower costs for consumers and other businesses? Were all parties and constituencies involved in the bottom up generation of this "deal" or was the deal a "top-down" fait accomplis, foisted upon people? Why are so many parties protesting? Where is the "consensus"? Is "bottom up" just a meaningless facade?

The MoU says ICANN "shall not apply standards, policies, procedures or practices inequitably or single out any particular party for disparate treatment unless justified by substantial and reasonable cause and will ensure sufficient appeal procedures for adversely affected members of the Internet community." Are all TLDs to be administered on the same basis of perpetual rights being given to each Registry? Was Verisign in any way "singled out" for special treatment, as part of a deal to avoid legal conflict, or for any other reason?

In what sense is this "deal" obviously and openly 'competitive'?

In what sense is this deal endorsed by the various ICANN constituencies that are supposed to play a full part in a "bottom up" development of policy? Quote from the ICANN fact sheet at: http://www.icann.org/general/fact-sheet.html 

"ICANN does not create or make Internet policy. Rather, policy is created through a bottom-up, transparent process involving all necessary constituencies and stakeholders in the Internet Community."

In what sense is this deal reasonable and acceptable and in the best interests of all parties, rather than just the best interests of Verisign?

Yrs,

Richard Henderson