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

[Joe Abbate]

On what basis are the proposed price increases to be allowed?  Do the 
.COM domains incur higher administrative costs?  Will Verisign provide 
better service to domain registrars?  Based on recent consumer price 
inflation of about 2% per year, a 7% yearly increase in wholesale domain 
prices can only be seen as a means to extract more revenue from the 
ultimate domain consumers, i.e., the website owners, without adding 
*any* value for registrars or domain owners, but simply to add 7% per 
year to Verisign's bottom line.

I understand that, under the proposal, the new  contract between ICANN 
and Verisign will entail the former will receive an extra $20 million 
over five years from the latter.  This sounds as scandalous as a utility 
regulator receving a bribe from a utility company in order to induce the 
regulator to approve a rate increase.

I oppose the proposed amendment.  I also wonder why is Verisign allowed 
to act as a .COM wholesale domain provider, while still acting as a 
domain registrar.  It is analogous to the FCC granting special 
privileges to some company to act as wholesale radio-TV or other 
spectrum "provider", while still being allowed to compete with the other 
companies not granted that privilege, i.e., on an unequal basis.

Sincerely,


Joe Abbate
FreedomCircle.com webmaster