From: Kent Crispin <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >Subject: Re: [IFWP] Re: S. 705 > >On Sun, Jun 20, 1999 at 11:54:34PM -0400, Jay Fenello wrote: > >> Blah, blah, blah . . . > >Indeed. > >> The point is that ICANN is setting up an >> arbitrary tax, while it is excluding those >> paying the tax from any say within ICANN. >> >> Can you say "Taxation without Representation?" > >Let me see. I have to pay $35 to NSI to register a domain, and I >have no representation on the NSI board. Taxation without >representation, that's what it is, all right. > Actually you are right. This "service fee" is not a fee in the normal sense. For renewals all a registry has to do send a bill, nothing more. The $35 is collectible from captive customers, who collectively make up the registry's only real asset, it's database. Moreover, this registry has been granted a monopoly over the most important TLD's, so the locked-in "taxpayer" has no more options to avoid this tax than a US citizen has to escape from the IRS. Cost of normal tax gathering is higher than the "cost" for a registry to collect its "fee". A a government employee, you also must be aware that Uncle Sam again happily takes its share from this 99% profit on the "fee", so all this upset about the 1$ ICANN "tax" is actually quite misplaced. The real tax is much higher. >> Further, ICANN is undertaking a huge expansion in >> the costs of "technical administrative functions," >> as is its supposed function. Remember, the IANA's >> budget was only around $500,000, a full order of >> magnitude (i.e. 10 *times*) less than ICANN's >> proposed budget. > >Setting up representative structures is very expensive. In my long life I've always noticed that setting up (and maintaining!) unrepresentative structures is even more expensive... > >> Finally, where are the checks and balances? >> Who in their right mind would give the power >> to tax to the same organization who will be >> spending the money. > >ICANN doesn't have a power to tax. It has the power to charge a >fee, just like NSI does. > And like CORE wants to. --Joop Teernstra LL.M.-- , bootstrap of the Cyberspace Association, the constituency for Individual Domain Name Owners http://www.idno.org
