Re: ALERT: ICANN TO 'TAX' DOMAIN NAMES! @*Please Help Stop This Before it's Too Late!!*@

[rb1000@ix.netcom.com (Ron Bennett)]

In article <slrn7mt1mv.1im.djb.consumers@v2000.scream.org>, 
djb.consumers@scream.org says...
>
>Ron Bennett <rb1000@ix.netcom.com> wrote:
>> Right now domain names ending in .COM, .NET, & .ORG are administered 
>> by Network Solutions Inc (NSI). Currently NSI charges $70 for two 
>> years and $35 each year thereafter.
>> 
>> ICANN intends to add a TAX (they call it a fee) of $1.00 on top of the 
>> registration fees people pay now. 
>
>Is ICANN a governmental organization?  No.  Can it therefore be a tax?
>No.  Thanks for playing.

Which makes ICANN's so-called fee wrong since it's more akin to a tax! Right!

>ICANN intends to charge a $1.00 fee per domain for the purpose of 
>funding ICANN.  This will be on top of the domain registration charges,
>but those charges are going to drop as soon as ICANN is able to go
>through with its mission of introducing competition to the market.

Umm, what value will the average consumer see from paying this extra $1.00 on 
top of what they pay now??  Domain names seem to work fine now...

>NSI (a corporation with strong ties to the government, and a significant
>number of executives who formerly worked for government security agencies
>like the NSA) currently has a monopoly - a monopoly that was granted by
>government contract, and is expiring.

Contrary to popular belief monopolies aren't always bad. I'd rather have one 
experienced company maintaining the gTLD registries (namely .COM, .NET, .ORG) 
and processing domain registration requests. There's no benefit for competition 
for this task. NSI is akin to the Dept of Motor Vehicles (DMV) of the states. I 
bet even with lots of competition registration, rates ($70 first 2 years/$35 
each year thereafter) won't change much and even worse will probably be HIGHER 
when all the surcharges are added on.

>NSI is fighting, tooth and claw, to maintain their monopoly.  Surely
>you've noticed how internic.net (the domain they ran things in under
>the government contract) now points to their corporate site instead?
>Surely you've noticed that they're now claiming "copyright" over the
>information that domain registrants provide them?

While I agree what NSI did with the Internic site was wrong, domain 
registrations themselves are still done the same way and cost the same. 
Admittely their actions have caused some inconvenience for people used to 
visiting the Internic site for reference materials...but has others have 
pointed out much of the materials can be found on the NSI site.

>NSI is trying to make you think that you'll be paying $36 a year instead
>of $35, when in actuality you'll probably be paying $20 or $25 or $19 -
>including the $1.00 fee.

So consumers will be getting the raw end of the deal because I and others doubt 
rates will drop and worse ICANN's $1.00 'tax' (fee) will probably increase 
offsetting any savings. ICANN was supposed to result in savings...but now the 
true beast begins to show its head!

>The first "competing" registry (which still uses NSI's database, and
>still charges the same price for now as NSI, but at least *isn't* NSI)
>went live at register.com just this month - it was supposed to be months
>ago, but NSI's foot-dragging has delayed things.

Register.com is a terrible and unethical registrar. It's a perfect illustration 
why there's a damn good reason for registrations to be processed by one 
organization as opposed to dozens. In any event, Register.com has a very poor 
track record and are extremely unethical...much more than NSI. They've done 
'inside' registrations and giving registrants preference, sold domain lookup 
logs to domain speculators, and according to some sources and my own 
experience, Register.com have blacklisted some registrants that registered many 
domains but didn't purchase additional services from them.

On an aside, for people worrying what will happen when email templates stop 
working. Don't worry too much since they'll most likely continue working. NSI 
isn't stupid. They'll keep the template system going and call it their own. The 
folding of Internic into themselves now makes much sense. Actually if this is 
the reason for their actions a couple of months ago it's brilliant!! Virtually 
all major ISPs and webhosting providers throughout the world submit 
registrations via email templates to hostmaster@internic.net - a.k.a. NSI!!

Ron Bennett