ICANN/GNSO GNSO Email List Archives

[registrars]


<<< Chronological Index >>>    <<< Thread Index >>>

[registrars] Letter from various Registrars

  • To: "'Vint Cerf'" <vint@xxxxxxxxxx>
  • Subject: [registrars] Letter from various Registrars
  • From: "Bhavin Turakhia" <bhavin.t@xxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Mon, 20 Feb 2006 19:28:11 +0530
  • Cc: <icann-board@xxxxxxxxx>, <registrars@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Sender: owner-registrars@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
  • Thread-index: AcY2JX+fl4Au895BSQanz9AHh6tOyQ==

Dear Vint and the ICANN Board,

Please find attached below a letter concerning the .com settlement signed by
a group of Registrars. The letter and the group of Registrars are listed
below for your perusal. The letter is identical to the one you have recvd
from another group of Registrars. The signatories are new. The purpose of
resending this to you is to demonstrate that all of the Registrar community
share the same sentiments about the new proposed .com settlement

PS: Also attached is a word doc format of the same

Thanks
Bhavin

----------------------- LETTER STARTS --------------------------


To,

Dr. Vinton G. Cerf 
Chairman of the Board
Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers
4676 Admiralty Way, Suite 330 
Marina del Rey, California 90292-6601

Dear Dr. Cerf:

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) Board is
poised to make a historic decision on a proposed agreement to settle pending
litigation with VeriSign and to extend VeriSign's contract as the registry
operator for the .com domain.  We are writing to voice our deep concern
about this proposal.  Even if this is, indeed, VeriSign's "last and best
offer," it must not be ICANN's.

ICANN's staff recently revised the proposed ICANN-VeriSign settlement and
.com registry agreements.  Unfortunately, the changes do not go to the heart
of the matter.  We focus here on the need to change the following, damaging
provisions: 

1.	Pricing:  The proposed revisions provide VeriSign with the
unprecedented capability to increase prices by 7 percent annually in four of
the next six years without cost-justification.  

2.	Perpetual management rights:  The proposed revisions would modify
the renewal clauses so that the contract is essentially non-cancellable and
ICANN's right to rebid is taken away.  

The proposed agreement still harms the Internet community by allowing
unjustified price increases in most future years at a time when fees for
.com should be decreasing, not rising.  Even VeriSign last year agreed to
drop fees by more than 40 percent for .net to win an extension of that
registry agreement.  

The revised proposal changes the "presumptive renewal" provision to deny any
competition when the contract ends in 2012, locking in VeriSign as the .com
registry operator, without the counterbalance of a competitive bid process.
This is particularly troubling because VeriSign, as the authorized registry
operator for the .net and .com domain names, controls 85 percent of the U.S.
market, as .com alone accounts for 75 percent of domain names registered by
U.S. registrants.  The guarantee of an unregulated monopoly runs counter to
the reasons behind why ICANN was created, the policies of the anti-trust
laws of the United States, and the competition policies of many nations
worldwide.

At the United Nations' World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) last
year, arguments were made that the hands-off, market-based approach to ICANN
administration is working.  The current ICANN management structure upheld at
WSIS must not be called into question in the future by ceding control of the
.com registry operation to one U.S. operator essentially forever, and
without competition or regulation.  

This letter highlights areas that deserve immediate attention.  Other key
concerns on which you will be hearing from us include a need for public
accountability and third party verification of the $200 million investments
in the .com infrastructure required of VeriSign under the current contract,
and a requirement that VeriSign follow ICANN's consensus policy for
introducing new registry services, such as selling traffic data relating to
.com domain names.

We urge you and your fellow Board members to sign a final agreement that
preserves competition and promotes market-based pricing.  What is before you
for consideration achieves neither result.  Thank you for your diligent
efforts on these critical issues.  


Respectfully,

Signatories to this letter
==========================
Name Intelligence
CORE
Directi
NameSecure
SRSPlus
Spot Domain llc
Name.net LLC
Name.com LLC
Domains Only
Vivid Domains
EPAG Domainservices GmbH
DomainIt
Domain The Net
GMO Internet
Active 24 ASA
Bid It Win It
8068 Registrar
That Darn Name
A.W.B. Trading
Get SLD
JJH Investments
Walela Brook
A Mountain Domains
Le Grand Nom
Emily Names Domains
Valley Apples
RJG Ventures
Colorado Names Domains
AO Domains
W.G.B. Registry

Attachment: Letter to ICANN Board.doc
Description: MS-Word document



<<< Chronological Index >>>    <<< Thread Index >>>