[Ecommerce] ICANN, Verisign, Commerce, coalition and the Waiting List Service

[Jeff Williams]

Manon and all,

  As you may know, our members via myself as spokesman warned
ICANN of the problem they were about to create back in '99,
yet those warnings went ignored or considered not strong enough
to reconsider.  The ICANN BOD voted with one BoD member
voping against, in favor of taking the action they did.  Now we
are all paying the price.

  The utter ignorance and arrogance of the ICANN BoD and staff
never ceases to amaze me as well as many other stakeholders/users.

Manon Ress wrote:

> ICANN, Verisign, registrars, domain names, anti-competitive and anti
> consumers decisions ...a deja vu all over again?
>
> Do you remember when back in 1999, ICANN required Verisign to finally
> allow competitors to enter the market for registering domain names? The
> average domain name price for consumers fell from around $50 to just $9
> per year.
>
> Well, here's a new episode. There' is a kind of "new market" for domain
> names that expire or are deleted by their owners. Each domain name
> expires after its registration period, typically one to ten years.
> Domain names that are deleted or are allowed to expire are up for grab
> again after 35 days. In this expired domain name market, many expired
> domain names are re-registered by others who compete to purchase them.
> Again there's a "fight" between various businesses to grab the names
> with the most re-sale value. Today, dozens of companies compete in this
> market. As they say =93competition is fierce and has led most companies t=
o
> charge a fee only when they have successfully obtained an expired domain
> name for a customer=94. Well, it looks as if Verisign is about to get a
> much better deal.
>
> The Wait Listing Service (WLS) proposed by the ICANN-selected registry
> VeriSign, Inc (the proposal has been discussed many, many times but it's
> finally coming to a decision) is an exclusive dealing arrangement. Under
> the WLS, existing competitors would be excluded from the expired domain
> name market. Consumers will be required to pay at least $24 per year per
> domain name with absolutely no guarantee that the domain name will
> actually expire at some point.
>
> As Central Connecticut State University Professor Michael Gendron stated
> in his message to the Board, the WLS "corrupts the supply and value
> chains for domain names" even as it "drives up transaction costs and
> negatively affects consumers."
>
> Next episode: approval by Commerce is required due to VeriSign's role as
> the registry that commands the database of all .com and .net domain
> names. This episode is made more interesting (?) because a week ago
> Verisign sued ICANN claiming, among other things, that the governing
> body has no jurisdiction over the introduction of the WLS. An ad-hoc
> group of registrars also sued ICANN -- and Verisign -- on the eve of the
> meeting to block WLS approval.
> Will commerce approve the deal or step in?
>
> Of course, everyone in this fight is doing all of this for the
> consumers=85.what do you think?
>
> In any case this is not over.
>
> If you want to hear the story from the coalition made up of Pool.com and
> its partners fighting the WLS you should call Ari Q. Fitzgerald
> (202-637-5423) or e-mail QFitzgerald@HHLAW.com
> <mailto:QFitzgerald@HHLAW.com>.
>
> --
> Manon Anne Ress
> Consumer Project on Technology
> www.cptech.org
> PO Box 19367, Washington, DC 20036
> manon.ress@cptech.org, voice: 1.202.387.8030, fax: 1.202.234.5176
>
> --
> Manon Anne Ress
> Consumer Project on Technology
> www.cptech.org
> PO Box 19367, Washington, DC 20036
> manon.ress@cptech.org, voice: 1.202.387.8030, fax: 1.202.234.5176
>
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> http://lists.essential.org/mailman/listinfo/ecommerce

Regards,
--
Jeffrey A. Williams
Spokesman for INEGroup LLA. - (Over 134k members/stakeholders strong!)
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