Re: [ga] Tiered (Variable) Pricing

[Karl Auerbach <karl@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Gomes, Chuck wrote:
> You are totally missing the point Karl.  Nobody is suggesting that ICANN
> guarantee business success or prop of registries but a registry's hands
> should not be tied so they cannot drum up busiess themselves.  Right
> now, they must rely on registrars to do that for them and if registrars
> elect not to do it, they are stuck. 

I actually think you and I are on the same page - I don't see any reason 
why a registry, big or small, ought to be prevented from setting up 
whatever distribution channels it wants to set up.

I don't see much sense if requiring any registry to operate via a set of 
defined registrars.

Now, that is subtle shift in the notion that registries were to be some 
sort of pristine, selfless operator of a shared database.  I see that as 
possible only at the root zone layer (which is pretty much what ICANN 
becomes under the new IANA contract) and if a particular registry 
voluntarily wants to operate that way.

What I was reacting to is the confinement that is imposed on everybody 
by ICANN's tight regulation of business practices.  Those practices seem 
to be a strange brew of trademark protection and utopian "Stranger in a 
Strange Land" (Heinlein) thinking.

I divide the registration world into two parts - The fist part is those 
of use who never had a chance to shop for names in a competitive 
environment in which real name product differentiation exists.  The 
second part being those who did have the opportunity.  Since we do not 
yet have a competitive environment, every domain name owner so far is in 
the first category.

I believe we need regulation (from ICANN or wherever) to protect those 
in the first category.  We need no regulation, beyond the normal laws of 
fraud, misrepresentation, and anti-trust to protect those in the second 
category.

To my mind the faster we get new TLDs - not only the ones that have 
passed ICANN's beauty processes but also ones that can try imaginative 
and even risky (business risk, not technical risk) approaches - then the 
faster we can get away from the regulatory system we have now.

		--karl--