On Jun 26, 2008, at 7:58 PM, Ken Simpson wrote:
This gives an (unofficial) estimate :
<http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080626-confusion-icann-opens-up-pandoras-box-of-new-tlds.html
>
.confusion: ICANN opens up Pandora's Box of new TLDs
By Jacqui Cheng | Published: June 26, 2008 - 12:11PM CT
<snip>
Not every zany TLD will be immediately available to anyone who want
to register a domain, however. Businesses must apply to register
the TLD first, then go through a review process to ensure that it
isn't offensive and doesn't infringe on anyone's intellectual
property. If approved, registering the TLD will cost anywhere from
$100,000 to $500,000, ICANN says, and the business or organization
must prove that they are either capable of managing the TLD or can
reach a deal with a company that will. This is no small beans—
unless you're planning to fork over up to half a million dollars
and put in the labor to manage everything that appears under the
TLD, this task is probably best left to large organizations and
governmental entities. The organization registering the TLD will
also be responsible for determining whether it will be restricted
to certain types of sites or open to the public.
<snip>
Thanks for the info. Okay, well that kind of pricing will prevent
most of the fraudsters from obtaining TLDs. But of course it doesn't
prevent shady operators from setting up a TLD with lenient abuse
controls - such as .info or .to. Imagine 40 .infos spamming away...
What I wonder is what that amount is going to ? Is that a fee, or is it
an estimate of what it would take to set up a registrar ?
If it is the latter, GoDaddy or Network Solutions may start offering
TLDs for a lot less. I don't see much
of an intrinsic reason why it should be more than 1 hour of person
time to evaluate, thus a cost in the $ 100's
of USDs, plus ongoing registry costs. This
https://par.icann.org/files/paris/GNSO-gTLD-Update-Paris22jun08.pdf
makes it look like much of the process could be automated.
Regards
Marshall