On 09-Feb-99 Michael Sondow wrote:
> The preface to the recently published ICANN registry accreditation
> guidelines includes the following about money:
>
> "NSI will be required to provide equal access to registry services through
> the shared registration system to all accredited registrars (including
> itself) at prices to be agreed upon by the U.S. Government and NSI under the
> terms of the cooperative agreement."
>
> "ICANN is seeking public comment on... a proposed fee structure based on an
> initial accreditation fee and ongoing charges on registration volume."
>
> Since all these fees and costs will be payed for by the users, an Internet
> user and domain name holder who does not use the Internet for profit would
> like to ask: Just how expensive are domain names going to become?
Well, that will depend on the registries, and whether they charge the $35/yr
that NSI charges, or whether they pass it along at cost, and do collateral
marketing of other services.
I don't see this as a question that ICANN answer, or indeed has any place being
involved in.
They only need to address what the whole sale cost of domain names should be to
the registrars, and what volume discount table should be applied to the
registrars.
What do you think is fair?
Here is a suggestion from me, that leaves a lot of leeway for competing
registries to charge less than NSI :
1 to 100 names in a calendar year- $25/yr (this volume is trivial, and should
not get a significant benefit).
101 to 500 names in a calendar year - $20/yr
501 to 2500 names in a calendar year - $17/yr
2501 + names in a calendar year - $15/yr
However, I don't think these are the important issues.
There are many questions that need to addressed regarding the registrar
contracts.
What happens to a registrar's customers should the registrar lose
their status, or go out of business?
Do those customers revert to NSI, or are their allowed to select another
registrar?
Do they have to pay an additional fee at that time, or will the fee they paid
to the prior registrar be honored?
Who will arbitrate in the even of a dispute between the registrant, the
registrar, and NSI in the event of this type of a dispute, or similar one?
Will users of these registrars be blocked from being their own "registrar" by
using Internic forms themselves, as Worldnic currently blocks their customers
from doing, thus locking them into that registrar's service?
Who will set the policies and terms? Will the registrars be bound by NSI's
flawed Dispute Policy? (that violates the spirit of RFC1591 BTW :)
Will registrars be permitted to register names and collect for single years
upfront(and pay NSI for only one year upfront), or will they be required to
continue NSI's practice of billing two years in advance for all new names?
Is ICANN seeking input on these types of questions?
----------------------------------
E-Mail: William X. Walsh <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Date: 08-Feb-99
Time: 21:55:24
----------------------------------
"We may well be on our way to a society overrun by hordes
of lawyers, hungry as locusts."
- Chief Justice Warren Burger, US Supreme Court, 1977
