[Comments-com-amendment-3-03jan20] There is no justification for .COM price increases.

[Brad Mugford]

I am strongly opposed to the proposed price increase to .COM domains.

The following entry is from ICANN's website-

"ICANN is a not-for-profit public-benefit corporation with participants
from all over the world dedicated to keeping the Internet secure, stable
and interoperable."

ICANN is supposed to operate for the public benefit. I don't believe this
policy would fall under "public benefit".

There is no financial justification to raise the price. It is simply
because they can.

Advancements in technology are driving the cost of operating a registry
down, yet domain prices keep going up for registrants.

Verisign is merely the manager, not the owner, of the .COM Registry.  It
is allowed to operate the extension by contract and should have no role in
setting the price.

There is no "public benefit" justification to these changes.  It is simply
a handout to a company with a de facto monopoly at the expense of
registrants.

This is on the heels of the .ORG contract debacle where ICANN ignored the
overwhelming public sentiment against it, and moved forward in removing
price caps.

Now we also have the pending .ORG sale to a private equity company which
involves several former ICANN leaders and connected parties.  This deal is
currently being investigated by the California Attorney General.

ICANN is facing a crisis in credibility.  Is ICANN working in the public
interest or not?

Brad Mugford
DataCube.com