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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-GB link="#0563C1" vlink="#954F72"><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal>Dear ICANN<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>I have heard that you have agreed with Verisign that there can be huge increases in prices for .com domains. I keep quite a few of them, mostly to protect copyrights (for instance both my late grandfathers, Richard Hughes and RJ Minney, were authors) but I have also built a small global consulting business that relies on a .com domain and I spent 2 years trying and succeeding to recapture the .com name (munkination.com) my son had developed as a teenager but allowed to lapse, and only now age 27 he is starting to build it as a global creative brand, inspired by his teenage vision.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Increasing the prices of .com domains would hurt me and my family and my business and damage our abilities to own our own brands and develop our lives and businesses, which is the requirement in the age where there are so many fewer formal sector jobs available. The price increase will be disproportionately and particularly badly felt in developing currencies where USD is already a big problem and the Internet is providing a great tool towards equality and self-advancement for millions of entrepreneurs.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>I urge you to peg price increases to a maximum that is in line with global inflation – treat the Internet like a utility such as water that we all need to survive. <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>I am also alarmed by the accountability of the alleged payment to ICANN and wonder what precedent that sets as we saw ICANN as the non-profit guardian of the netizens – that kind of development money can easily be raised elsewhere without affecting so many million people.<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Tom<o:p></o:p></p></div></body></html>