[At-Large] Verisign Got the .com renewal - until 2018

[John R. Levine]

>> ..but had to swallow a price freeze on domain names except under 'special
>> circumstances'.  What's a body to do when your Uncle Sam slaps you upside
>> the head!
>
> Interesting! Would you take this as an undue 'governmental
> interference'.... parminder

The latest .COM renewal is the 32nd modification to a contract with the US 
government that originally dates from the early 1990s, and predates 
ICANN's existence by many years.  The versions of the contract are all 
published on the US Department of Commerce web site.  This is not the 
first time the pricing rules have changed, nor the first time the prices 
have decreased.

As we say in the US, that horse left the barn a long time ago.  I'm kind 
of surprised that people who are intrested in Internet governance wouldn't 
be familiar with the contracts that control the largest TLD.

Regards,
John Levine, johnl at iecc.com, Primary Perpetrator of "The Internet for Dummies",
Please consider the environment before reading this e-mail. http://jl.ly