A quicker answer to Ellen Rony and whoever gives a rip: Taxes pay for those thing from which you cannot opt out, while fees pay for those things that you deliberately select. On taxes, you have a right to (help) determine what level of services (roads, schools, police, fire protection, etc.) that you are willing to pay for, hence you DO get to vote, i.e., have "representation." On fees, you make the same choice with your feet: either you walk the walk and pay the price, or you don't -- it's up to you. This is not to say that you can't have some voice in setting those fees, and you also have the right to have Congress or whoever oversee what the bureaucrats are doing, but there'll be no vote among IFWP devotees on whether ICANN gets to charge whatever. Bill Lovell
