[registrars] RE: ICANN Fees Continued

["Monte Cahn" <monte@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Who says it is a guarantee that the fees will be passed on to us by the
registries.  I feel that we have far greater leverage with the
registries than we do with ICANN - especially those that want to
increase their brand in a primarily .com world.  I may be wrong but
their seems to be far greater leverage between the registries and ICANN
than we have with ICANN.  We are not ICANN's voice or customer but we
are the registries customer.  There also seems to be more profit being
collected by the registries than the registrars on average.  

Please clarify that in fact the registries will be raising fees to us or
is everyone just assuming this?

Monte Cahn
Founder/CEO
 
Monte@xxxxxxxxxxx
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-----Original Message-----
From: Robert Andrews [mailto:randrews@xxxxxxx] 
Sent: Tuesday, October 14, 2003 4:03 PM
To: registrars@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Cc: registrars@xxxxxxxx
Subject: ICANN Fees Continued


There are many aspects to this ICANN fee proposal.  First, ICANN is
woefully understaffed and is in need of personnel.  The items below are
from the current year ICANN budget proposal. They say in their budget
that they will use the money to work on the shortcomings that we are all
aware of.  Second, the legal operating agreements say that ICANN and the
registries can raise fees by mutual agreement between ICANN's Board and
the Registry.

If we don't pay the fees as registrars, you can surmise that the fees
charged for registrations by the registries will rise as ICANN bills
them for the revenue they want/need. If we do pay as registrars, the
registration fees will not be under pressure to increase in the short
term.  In either scenario, registrars will be forced to pass this
increased expense onto their customers.  What the registrars will lose
if they do not pay the fees is their powerful voice as a constituency of
ICANN.

As for the howling about the site finder service, there are no clauses
in the contracts that prohibit these types of actions.  We, as the
registrars, were able to block this practice and force reforms using our
consituency with ICANN. I understand that the registrars are in a
difficult business climate, but it seems to me that ICANN needs to be
ramped up to deal with an ever growing slate of issues such as the Site
Finder debacle.  Reforms in this case means the use of lawyers to write
new stuff after the usual string of endless meetings.

And I would love to hear any ideas and proposals to make Site Finder a
revenue producer for everyone!

------
>From the ICANN Budget Proposal
This Preliminary FY04 Budget builds on the Adopted FY03 Budget primarily
by providing for the expansion of ICANN staff and other resources
required to meet the obligations required by the approved ICANN reforms
as embodied in the bylaws and in board resolutions.

An increase in both staffing and expenditures to accommodate the
additional programmatic requirements imposed by the new reforms and the
new bylaws, that is, the transition from ICANN 1.0 to ICANN 2.0.

The addition of a Deputy General Counsel to ease the considerable burden
that falls on the General Counsel. This in-house position will also
mitigate to some extent expenditures for outside counsel.
------


Robert B. Andrews
America Online, Inc.
Systems Programmer, Network Management
RobAndrews2@xxxxxxx, randrews@xxxxxxx
703/265-5958 x55958

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