Re: [ga] Tiered (Variable) Pricing

["Gomes, Chuck" <cgomes@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

With regard to tight regulation of business practices, don't you think there are quite a few people in the community who want the tight regulaton of business practices?  So it seems that what ICANN staff is guilty of is honoring the wishes of that segment of the community.  I personally think the staff have been trying to move away from that approach and that at least part of the concerns being communicated.  As I think you know, I personally lean toward your position on that issue.

Chuck


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 -----Original Message-----
From: 	Karl Auerbach [mailto:karl@xxxxxxxxxxxx]
Sent:	Friday, September 01, 2006 01:10 PM Eastern Standard Time
To:	Gomes, Chuck
Cc:	ga@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject:	Re: [ga] Tiered (Variable) Pricing

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--