[Comments-com-amendment-3-03jan20] Concerns about Amendment 3 for .COM Registry Agreement

[Erin]

Dear ICANN,

The new proposal agreement with Verisign that allows for annual price increases to the prolific domain extension .COM is very worrisome. The .COM extension makes up 40% of all domains, making it the singular most common and familiar domain extension across the globe.

One thing that makes the world wide web the wonderful place of wisdom, growth, and community is its accessibility. Any individual, any entrepreneur or start-up, or school program, etc, can add their voice to the internet simply by creating a place to house their knowledge. In recent years, it has become more difficult to afford hosting for this little piece of internet. With more-or-less mandatory SSL certificates for even barebone websites, paid WhoIS protection, and other such hurdles, it's getting increasingly harder for the "little guy" to enter this world.

So much of a website's success and identity comes from a memorable domain name, and the .COM extension is clearly the easiest extension to remember. I personally own a handful of domains, all .COM extensions. I am a web developer working for a small design firm. When our clients ask for assistance with choosing domains, we exclusive suggest .COM extensions.

I am skeptical on who this price increase would benefit and how it will effect the internet community. If the money isn't going back into the community, I feel this deal between ICANN and Verisign is pure bribery. I believe ICANN should more heavily consult the public and other experts, before settling on a deal that could be very harmful to the internet at large.

Best,

Erin Witzel







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