[registrars] Hagen Hultzsch's Fifty Million Dollar Plan

["John Berryhill" <john@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Marcus brought up an interesting point during yesterday's teleconference,
which is worth sharing for those who were not on the call.  Figuring the
math from the proposed settlement, ICANN stands to collect revenue far in
excess of any current public budget, and in excess of any stated expenses in
any public strategic plan.

There is some ambiguity in the response to Bhavin's question to the effect
of "how long has the settlement discussion been going on."  Of course,
discussions go on between parties from the moment a lawsuit is filed.  That
is a trivial point.

One clue as to when the possibility of ICANN cutting to the chase on
collecting more money from registrars through the registry may have been
considered, and of when ICANN insiders may have known there was a new
goldmine to be found, was not apparent at the time, but does seem relevant
now in hindsight.  During a lunch held for registry representatives in
Luxembourg, it seemed that board member Hagen Hultzsch was just kidding
around when he stood up and gleefully announced "I believe ICANN's budget
should have a FIVE in front of it."  Now, it might have been five or it
might have been seven.  But it seemed funny at the time that Mr. Hultzsch
seemed to have a notion in mind that at least an additional 30 million in
revenue was somewhere to be found.  Walking back to the RC meeting, I
wondered where the new whole in domain registrant's pockets - the ultimate
source of all registrar and registry revenue - would be found.

A specific reference was made in yesterday's phone call as to "contingency
plans" which ICANN has in the event that tens of millions of dollars appear.
These contingency plans for Mr. Hultzsch's 50 million dollar budget do not
seem to be posted at icann.org, but their existence seems to have been
admitted.

John B. Berryhill, Ph.d. esq.
4 West Front St.
Media, PA 19063
(610) 565-5601 voice
(267) 386-8115 voicemail/fax
john@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx