[Comments-com-amendment-3-03jan20] Comment on Proposed Amendment 3 to the .COM Registry Agreement

[Tasman Leach]

Hello,

I am a small developer who also runs a bunch of small websites like
www.radiantguild.com. I am studying software development and because of
this study, I can only just hold onto what I have now as I don't make
anything from my websites as it is all passion projects...

I am writing this email to express my concerns and how this will not just
negatively affect me, but also others like me, who don't have the money
that big companies would have. If this amendment came into effect, over
time the price for .COM domains can and will increase and people like
myself will find it harder to buy these domains and keep them because we
are running our small business or small passion projects using the bottom
of the barrel, leftover money that we have.

For me, I started the Radiant Guild as a site for a bunch of friends who I
care about, and while I am not the one paying for it, one of my friends is.
They are like me and have other more important things to pay for like
college fees. I also have a domain for myself, for my portfolio website
when I make it eventually... And by jacking up the price of the .COM
domain, it becomes more expensive for me to even have a portfolio.

It may not seem like a lot... 7%, sure... But when you add that 7% up, It
gets expensive over time. As someone else in their comment said, ~$8 turns
into ~$24 (195% increase by 2041) and the benefit we get from it is
nothing... There is nothing new being added to the .COM domain that gives
us a reason to justify paying more. It's just more money, in their pockets,
for nothing more than they are doing now... Now sure, it could be 1% or
0.5% increases... But let's be real, that's not what is going to happen,
this is a big company that holds the internet in their hands. If you give
them a way to make an extra ~$16 per domain, they will push that as far as
they can go, they won't increase to make an extra $1 per domain (~$100+
Million more per year) they will push it the whole way (~$16+ Billion more
per year) for no extra work. (If this happens, I am sure that .COM will
cost $40 a year in 2080)

I hope you consider not giving them the power to make this price increase
as it will hurt all the small people like me.
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