Gomes, Chuck wrote:
Where do you think funding of the application process costs should
come
from if not from the applicant?
I suspect that most of us would say that the applicant ought to
cover the expenses of processing the application.
However many (perhaps most outside of the IP community) would say
that the current expenses are orders of magnitude too high because
the inquiry that is being made by ICANN is not appropriately
focused.
Imagine if you went to your state's department of motor vehicles to
get a driver's license. And instead of determining whether you are
of legal age and able to drive, they insist on doing, and you
paying for, an investigation of your lifestyle, your finances,
whether you attended all sessions of all your classes in college
(only college graduates need apply), and require you to present a
lifetime set of dental x-rays and a letter of recommendation from
the minister of your church (agnostics need not apply.)
ICANN's only proper inquiry is whether the applicant will abide by
written, broadly accepted technical standards. That's something
that is as simple as a short checklist - see for example the rather
short and concise IANA list of items for proper technical operation
of a TLD.
The cost of that simple evaluation ought to be only a few dollars -
roughly 1/1000th of what ICANN is charging now.
--karl--