[NA-Discuss] Budget provisions relating to Domain Tasting

[Michael Maranda]

Some have argued the increase was trivial, given people's intuition of
adjustments for inflation, etc., and also with a sense that prices were
stable for a period (after the initial decline).  As you would gather from
my prior post, its pretty much nonsense (computing and teleconnectivity
costs should be going down, down down).

The material on price increases well in advance of the actual increase
taking effect is disgusting and disturbing.  They appear to be taking a page
from the Oil cartels.

Again, referencing the gentleman from Tucows...  exclusive contracts were
won in part by expectations of price decreases.

At-Large should have some strong words on this matter for the Board of
Directors, however, there is a sense that we are supposed to build up our
credibility through "productivity" first.

Could we send a statement to the board reporting these increases to the
Internet Community, as Danny indicates, well in advance of the official
date... and echoing the sentiment that good stewardship demands better?

On 7/8/07, Danny Younger <dannyyounger at yahoo.com> wrote:
>
> Re:  The small increase may seem trivial, but the
> principle is more important.
>
> The price increase (which won't go into effect until
> October 15) is not trivial -- registrars are already
> raising their prices in anticipation of the price
> increase:
>
> "AIT Domains says that under the promotion all domain
> names will cost $6.49 until July 6. However, due to
> recently announced price increases from ICANN, AIT
> Domains says it's being forced to raise its prices.
> Rates are currently scheduled to go up to $8.49 per
> registration year on July 9."
>
>
> http://www.thewhir.com/marketwatch/070307_AIT_Holds_Fourth_of_July_Special.cfm
>
> What's more important than all of this is the issue of
> bad decision-making on the part of the unaccountable
> ICANN Board.  The Internet community has no way of
> "throwing the bums out" because ICANN remains
> accountable to no one.
>
> Until this problem is solved it really doesn't much
> matter what the community consensus is on the AGP or
> anything else... ICANN remains free to ignore the
> voice of the people.
>
> Presently, ICANN profits from the consequences of
> domain tasting... the more names that are tasted, the
> more names that will eventually be registered as some
> of these names can successfully be monetized.  Profits
> for the registries, profits for the registrars,
> profits for ICANN... there were about 16 million new
> registrations last year (a good chunk of them the
> direct result of tasting activities).
>
> Don't expect to prevail on this issue without putting
> up a spectacular fight and screaming for action at
> every opportunity -- convincing a corporation to kill
> a lucrative cash cow can only be an uphill battle.
>
>
>
>
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-- 
---------------------------------------------------------------
Executive Director, CTCNet Chicago Chapter
Co-Founder, Chicago Digital Access Alliance
Co-Chair, Illinois Community Technology Coalition
President, Association For Community Networking

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