I don't know if I should be angry or scared....
Ok a little (overly simplified) background for the non-techies in the audience. Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers or ICANN is a group that for all intents and purposes has complete control over establishing and maintaining what are called Top Level Domains or TLDs. TLDs are the .com, .net, or .uk at the end of the names you punch into your browser. They then have deals with groups called registrars. In some cases a registrar is run by the country that the TLD represents, or in cases like .com, .net, .org they available for everyone to use. Enter VeriSign... This company basically runs the TLD servers for .com and .net (the servers that tell you how to get to google.com for example). A couple of years ago VeriSign ran a program called Site Finder. What this boiled down to is if you entered a domain that didn't exist it would forward you to VeriSign's site where they would try and sell you the site and other services (and some people claimed they tracked the traffic to this site and if warranted raise the price of that name). ICANN didn't like this and order them to stop, so VeriSign sued ICANN. ICANN is trying to settle and here is where the current problem begins:
As part of VeriSign's new contract with ICANN, VeriSign would have more control over the .com TLD including a "presumptive right of renewal," meaning if they want to keep control they can without any bidding for the contract (this contract would require renewal in 2012). VeriSign will also own ALL expired domain names, be able to raise the prices of registration by 7% a year for 4 of the next 6 years (with compound interest that's about a 31% increase in cost), and access to all traffic data on domains.
So if your domain name expires it becomes the property of VeriSign who can then sell it to whom they wish (not necessarily you)...
They get to raise prices while the cost of bandwidth, storage, and computing in general is decreasing...
And they get traffic data on ALL domain names (including unregisted domains), which is as bad as Site Finder in my opinion.
The Register Article
As part of VeriSign's new contract with ICANN, VeriSign would have more control over the .com TLD including a "presumptive right of renewal," meaning if they want to keep control they can without any bidding for the contract (this contract would require renewal in 2012). VeriSign will also own ALL expired domain names, be able to raise the prices of registration by 7% a year for 4 of the next 6 years (with compound interest that's about a 31% increase in cost), and access to all traffic data on domains.
So if your domain name expires it becomes the property of VeriSign who can then sell it to whom they wish (not necessarily you)...
They get to raise prices while the cost of bandwidth, storage, and computing in general is decreasing...
And they get traffic data on ALL domain names (including unregisted domains), which is as bad as Site Finder in my opinion.
The Register Article
posted by Unknown at 10:29 PM
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