The settlement between ICANN and Verisign, approved by ICANN just this week, will mean higher prices on .com domains. How can you fight this settlement?
Now that ICANN has approved the deal, the arrangement must be approved by the Department of Commerce. You can help apply pressure to the Department of Commerce by contacting your representatives in Congress. Here’s where to find your representatives’ contact information:
Bob Parson’s has an example letter you can send on his blog. It’s a good letter, but you should customize it for maximum impact. You might want to include that the price of .net registrations (also handled by Verisign) actually decreased after a competitive bidding process. The deal with Verisign will allow prices to increase 31% over the next four years!
Mike says
Dear _________:
I am outraged about the recently approved .COM registry agreement and settlement between ICANN and VeriSign. This agreement is anti-competitive and bad for consumers and the Internet community as a whole.
The agreement provides VeriSign with the ability to increase prices by 7% annually in four of the next six years without cost justification. Furthermore, under the agreement, VeriSign’s monopoly would run in perpetuity as the agreement would automatically renew without the opportunity for competitive bidding. VeriSign and ICANN should not be allowed to establish a perpetual monopoly without Congressional oversight and the opportunity for input from the Internet community.
As your constituent, I want to make you aware that the ICANN Board has approved this anti-competitive agreement on February 28th, 2006. The next step is for the NTIA to approve the deal. I urge you to bring our concerns to the attention of the NTIA.
Sincerely,
Mike says
Send this letter to your representatives.