[Comments-org-renewal-18mar19] Proposed Renewal of .org Registry Agreement

[Cassie Mothership]

I have read about the proposal to limit restrictions registries can charge
for the .org TLD in order to match the contracts associated with the new
TLDs. The cost on new TLDs is over double the cost of the original open
access TLDs .com, .net, and .org. By removing the restrictions on .org,
which still enjoys the recognition granted to it by its history, it creates
an opportunity for price gouging in a market where many individuals and
small businesses will not have the opportunity to make changes since
changing a domain name is a HUGE deal. It means changing e-mail addresses
that have been given to business contacts many years ago, losing all SEO
history, making all old marketing materials obsolete, etc.

When people use a new TLD, they are aware of the risks of price gouging,
and the sheer number of options available serves to suppress the price,
although they are already higher because so many of them are operated by
Donuts who does enjoy a virtual monopoly their price is limited by their
newness and the fact that they are not immediately recognizable as a domain
name in the same way that .com, .net, .org, .edu, and .gov are.

There is no reason to allow Public Interest Registry free reign on pricing
on a product that was given its value by the public. This is fundamentally
different from the new TLDs, whose value has had to be created by Donuts or
other registrars, who risked their own money when they applied for them. If
anything, the contracts for the new gTLDs should be adjusted to reflect the
restrictions on price increases in the original TLDs.
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