RE: [ga] Tiered (Variable) Pricing

[Danny Younger <dannyyounger@xxxxxxxxx>]

Michael,

As you are the representative for .coop within the
Registry Constituency, I will respect your efforts to
advocate on behalf of the registries.

>From the registrant point of view, please bear in mind
that we have many good reasons to fear the imposition
of new pricing schemes.  Perhaps you recall these
comments by Stuart Lynn:

"We must move to a system where the root server
operators are compensated for their critical services.
Thus, for a fully effective ICANN, capable of
accomplishing its mission, we will ultimately need a
more definitive and binding set of arrangements with
the current and any future root name server operators,
and that will require significantly greater funding
than is presently available to ICANN."

Whenever ICANN needs money, it negotiates deals that
ultimately result in registrants bearing the brunt of
the financial burden.  

These contracts are just Stage 1 in a long term
strategic effort to suck the dollars out of our
community (that has no representation whatsoever
within ICANN) to pay for more and more projects.

This has never been about "flexibility" for the
registries; it has always been about ICANN fulfilling
the DOC goal "to stabilize and to secure the necessary
financial and personnel resources critical to
long-term sustainability of the organization".

This has led to ICANN negotiating with the registries
in a manner that enhances their mutual revenues while
digging even deeper into our pockets.  Is it any
wonder that the public comments on this issue are
laden with pure outrage?

As I see it, the primary problem is that ICANN has
kowtowed to the DOC on this issue and has produced a
budget that has burgeoned out of control that demands
more and more dollars every year; yet ICANN is no more
efficient now than it was in the days of Louis Touton
when the budget was one fourth of the current size.

Fix the budget problem, and perhaps registries
wouldn't have to pay higher fees to ICANN.

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