
Tell HN: Hours left to protest ICANN's plan to uncap prices of legacy TLDs - wolfgang42
Starting with .org, .info, and .biz, ICANN is planning to eliminate
the 10% annual cap on increases of prices that TLD registry operators
can charge for domains, both new and renewals. These TLD registries
have a monopoly on the entire TLD (they&#x27;re who <i>your</i> registrar buys
the domain from when you order it), so you can&#x27;t just switch to a
cheaper company without throwing out your entire domain and starting
over from scratch on a new one. Large companies may be able to
withstand large jumps in prices, but small businesses and individuals
will bear the brunt of any increases that occur, increasing the
already considerable centralization of the Internet. PIR (who runs
.org) already makes $90 million annually from registrations, in
exchange for maintaining a database and running some DNS servers.<p>ICANN is currently holding a public comment period, which closes today
at 23:59 UTC for .info and .org, and May 14 for .biz. Read the
proposals and submit comments here:<p>.info: https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.icann.org&#x2F;public-comments&#x2F;info-renewal-2019-03-18-en
(comments-info-renewal-18mar19@icann.org)<p>.org: https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.icann.org&#x2F;public-comments&#x2F;org-renewal-2019-03-18-en
(comments-org-renewal-18mar19@icann.org)<p>.biz: https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.icann.org&#x2F;public-comments&#x2F;biz-renewal-2019-04-03-en
(comments-biz-renewal-03apr19@icann.org)<p>Help keep the Internet open to all!
======
wolfgang42
More discussions and posts about this proposal:

[https://www.namecheap.com/blog/keep-domain-prices-in-
check/](https://www.namecheap.com/blog/keep-domain-prices-in-check/)

[http://www.circleid.com/posts/20190423_spurious_justificatio...](http://www.circleid.com/posts/20190423_spurious_justifications_for_eliminating_caps_on_legacy_domains/)
(discussion:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19767977](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19767977)
)

[https://tech.slashdot.org/story/19/04/23/2330210/icann-
propo...](https://tech.slashdot.org/story/19/04/23/2330210/icann-proposes-
allowing-unlimited-fee-increases-for-org-domain-names)

My own comment, discussing concerns about centralization and ICANN's original
mission statement: [https://mm.icann.org/pipermail/comments-info-
renewal-18mar19...](https://mm.icann.org/pipermail/comments-info-
renewal-18mar19/2019q2/000168.html)

~~~
ohashi
Nat Cohen (who wrote the circleid article) is an amazing proponent of
registrant's rights. Disclosure, I've had the pleasure of working with him a
lot and calling him a friend.

------
skullum
I can't understand their reasoning. Why would they need an unlimited price cap
on gTLDs? I can't imagine their expenses are that high and they're a non-
profit so whats the incentive to increase gTLD pricing?

~~~
marcinzm
Probably the usual, the people running the non-profit have financial ties
(direct or indirect) to the people who'd make money from increasing the price
cap.

~~~
ohashi
I did some quick analysis...

7/20 ICANN board members have ties to Internet Society (which manages PIR -
the .ORG registry), to PIR directly or NeuStar (managing .biz registry). That
was just from reading their bios on ICANN.

4/8 PIR members were connected to ICANN previously or are still active in some
capacity (including former board member and former liaison to the board).

------
cVwEq
I was completely unaware of this proposed change, and can see big problems for
individuals/small businesses if they end up implementing this. I've submitted
a comment via email.

------
fxfan
I never thought I'd oppose he decision of transferring ICANN control to
outside of USA- it seemed increasingly and inevitably for the greater good.
now I'm no longer so sure why it was done.

~~~
ohashi
So they could rob everyone blind and not be accountable to anyone.

