<div dir="ltr"><p style="margin:0in;font-family:Calibri;font-size:11pt">We strongly oppose
the Renewal of the .NET Registry Agreement.</p><p style="margin:0in;font-family:Calibri;font-size:11pt"> </p><p style="margin:0in;font-family:Calibri;font-size:11pt">When ICANN was first
created, one of its most important goals was to break up the Verisign/Network
Solutions monopoly. We believe it has failed to do this as both .com and .net
are still controlled by that same monopoly.</p><p style="margin:0in;font-family:Calibri;font-size:11pt"> </p><p style="margin:0in;font-family:Calibri;font-size:11pt">ICANN created the
registrar system, but no competition at the registry level. While registrar
prices have dropped dramatically and stayed low, registry prices have
consistently increased for no reason even as registry costs have declined.</p><p style="margin:0in;font-family:Calibri;font-size:11pt"> </p><p style="margin:0in;font-family:Calibri;font-size:11pt">Having a separate
contracted entity for each TLD, in this case .NET/Verisign, serves no purpose
other than to hand a monopoly to that entity - with no competition - so they
can collect an ever increasing annuity (due to decreasing costs and guaranteed
price increases in the contract with ICANN) for no actual work since ICANN's
multi-stake-holder model creates all the policies. This separate registry
entity serves no purpose and is not adding any value to the domain ecosystem or
registrants. Outsourced registry services by large registry providers can be
had for less than $2 per domain per year.</p><p style="margin:0in;font-family:Calibri;font-size:11pt"> </p><p style="margin:0in;font-family:Calibri;font-size:11pt">It is our belief
that ICANN should take back all GTLDs (.com, .net, new GTLDs, etc.) and
outsource the registry function to the many available registry providers at a
significantly reduced cost. It can routinely bid out contracts for registry
services and even balance load across multiple providers thereby increasing
operational resiliency of the TLD. This would significantly simplify the ICANN
operating model, would decrease ICANN's footprint, increase the GTLD's
stability and resiliency, and would bring competition in pricing for GTLD
registry services.</p><p style="margin:0in;font-family:Calibri;font-size:11pt"> </p><p style="margin:0in;font-family:Calibri;font-size:11pt">Please focus on
domain registrants first.</p><p style="margin:0in;font-family:Calibri;font-size:11pt"> </p><p style="margin:0in;font-family:Calibri;font-size:11pt">In addition to the
registry pricing and competition issue, ICANN has done nothing on whois privacy
for registrants. Instead, it has launched several initiates to force domains
offline for inaccurate/outdated contact information even while this pubic information
remains greatly abused by spammers and phishers. Some registrars offer their
own whois privacy proxy services whereby they list themselves as the public
owner of the domain. We believe privacy and audited access should be built into
whois and not by the individual registrars that may have different policies and
access control. We insist every employee at ICANN be required to own a domain
name without registrar whois privacy (since ICANN requires the actual owner to
be listed) and across several registrars. Once every ICANN employee feels the
pain of having their personal / home contact details published publicly and the
rampant abuse of it, they will not need multi-year expensive studies to measure
this abuse. Please fix the massive abuse of the whois system and lack of
privacy.</p><p style="margin:0in;font-family:Calibri;font-size:11pt"> </p><p style="margin:0in;font-family:Calibri;font-size:11pt">To bring it back to
the main point of this message, ICANN must not renew the Verisign .NET registry
contract as it is not in the best interests of domain registrants or the public
good. ICANN must introduce competition at the registry level. A suggestion for
this has been offered above.</p><p style="margin:0in;font-family:Calibri;font-size:11pt"> </p><p style="margin:0in;font-family:Calibri;font-size:11pt">Sincerely,</p><p style="margin:0in;font-family:Calibri;font-size:11pt">A concerned
anonymous registrar on behalf of its registrants</p><p style="margin:0in;font-family:Calibri;font-size:11pt"> </p><p style="margin:0in;font-family:Calibri;font-size:11pt">
</p><p style="margin:0in;font-family:Calibri;font-size:11pt">Posted anonymously
to avoid potential business ramifications as a result of current registry
monopolies.</p><p style="margin:0in;font-family:Calibri;font-size:11pt"><br></p></div>