[Comments-com-amendment-3-03jan20] ICANN's Backroom Deals with Verisign are Unacceptable.

[Schofield, David]

Dear ICANN,
First, I am writing on my own behalf, and not on behalf of my employer, even though it impacts all of us.

As I read and considered the implications of the sad news that you are considering accepting (or have accepted, really) what's essentially a back-room, private benefit deal with VeriSign for ~$20,000,000 USD, my heart sank.
VeriSign and its owners, has deeply profited over the years from a unique position within the Internet. And it is an organization who-if not for such a unique position-would have long ago collapsed under the weight of its own hubris, poor service, high costs, and inefficiency.
ICANN claims to be a "...not-for-profit public-benefit corporation..." and this move is anything but a public benefit. I have worked with non-profits before, and understand that money for organizations like ICANN is scarce, scrapping for resources and territory is rampant, and the deal with VeriSign is very... tempting.
ICANN claims that "the idea is that Internet governance should mimic the structure of the Internet itself- borderless and open to all"-but especially without greater transparency and essential (and very public) protections and boundaries in place in deals like this-especially .COM TLD price increase limitations... creates an environment that is NOT open to all. And this deal was NOT in the open, its details clearly NOT open to all, so this is a violation of the trust which we have given to-and our public charter with-ICANN.

I, for one, have had enough.
Administration of the .COM TLD is already a license to print money, and that cost is already far too great!
But VeriSign's (and apparently, ICANN's) greed is insatiable!

I'm "small potatoes" (as we say in the USA,) with only 10 or so .COM URLs, and over time, the .COM cost is already far too great-even though I utilize a low-cost registrar!
However, should this continue, I will be forced to move my remaining TLD's to non-.COM TLD's, and the business impact be damned!
The value of .COM is already slipping, and over the next few years, if this continues, it will simply fade in importance even faster.

I sincerely hope you will change your mind.
Kind Regards,
David Schofield

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