RE: [Membership] MAC reports and models-New URLs

[Karl Auerbach <karl@CaveBear.com>]

> The application of a small "levy" per DN registration has certainly been
> considered as a funding mechanism for ICANN. It has some obvious advantages.

I personally think the notion of a small fee is a good one:

 - It shouldn't be tied to domain name registrations, but to "membership".
   The reason for this is that there are lots of ways that people (and
   entities) would want to be members apart from DNS issues.  IP address
   assignment being the primary one.

 - What constitutes "small" is a tough question.  What is small for me,
   here in the relatively rich US, could be unbearably high in some other
   part of the world.

   (It has been suggested that such a fee be based on some sort of
   economic index.  This makes sense to me -- I don't mind the rich
   countries subsidising the poorer ones to help bring them into the
   internet. -- But I am concerned about it being perceived as yet another
   paternalistic or condescending gesture.  My approach to that is to
   mandate a very small universal base fee but encourage those who feel
   able to pay more to pay more, but not give any privilege as a result.)

   Pulling a number out of a hat: What do people say about $50(USD)/year?
   Too large?  Too small?  Wrong currency? ;-)

 - No matter how small the fee, any fee at all acts as a first moat to
   help fend off the onslought of electronically created people and
   entities and that class of humanity that all home owners dread: the
   "lookey loos" who just want to stop by and be a part of it all for
   lack of anything else to do.

 - With regard to ICANN funding -- ICANN should not forget that the
   primary source of its funding ought to come in via license agreements
   with TLD domain name registries/registrars and IP address authorities.

		--karl--