Re: [ga] Tiered (Variable) Pricing

[Elisabeth Porteneuve <Elisabeth.Porteneuve@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

> Hello All:
> 
> In the interesting of continuing a very constructive dialog with regard
> to tiered pricing, I have published the following article on CircleID,
> see http://www.circleid.com/posts/tiered_variable_pricing_compromise/.
> Some of the initial comments such as George's continues to take an "all
> or nothing approach" to the current registry contracts.  The purpose of
> this article was to address what I saw as one loophole which could be
> closed to protect reasonable expectation interests of registrants while
> allowing registries the flexibility to use tiered(variable) pricing in
> their business operations.
> 
> Best regards,
> 
> Michael D. Palage
> 

Hello Mike, hello All,

I have been following with the great interest the debate.

I have two comments:

1. With regards to existing commerce of communication services 
   (whatever it is, phone, DSL, domain name, web hosting), is it 
   legally allowed that the seller does not provide a uniform price 
   (possibly split up into something related to the distance of 
   customer to the next communication hub)? What about your telephone 
   company, the day they realise you use your well known telephone 
   number for professional services, and ask you additional fees for 
   a number of received calls or whatever?

2. I assume that it would be possible the registries charge different 
   price to different customers, and relate it to, for example, the 
   notoriety of a company, asking Google for millions, and my 
   namenobodyisinterestedbutme.TLD for a minimal fee. 
   My question is how the registry will deal with liability? In other 
   words, today all registrars/registries selling names claim their 
   liability limited for nominal fees, exactly like Kodak's films in 
   old times - they provide a support for communication (name) regarless 
   of the content. If you accept the fees for domain names being related 
   to the economy behind a name, or just anything else, that changes a lot. 
   Do you think registries/registrars will have insurance far beyond the 
   technical service, which is all it should be about? Do you think
   ICANN will have to take care for liaibility for variable pricing?
   I know that years ago some ccTLD registries have been analysing their 
   own insurance, and as far as I recall, none decided their responsibility 
   is beyond technical service for domain names.
   A subsequent question with variable pricing: how can you avoid the
   seller of namenobodyisinterestedbutme.TLD does not blackmail me
   for a colour of my eyes, or a country I am coming from?

Kind regards,
Elisabeth Porteneuve