[Comments-org-renewal-18mar19] Pricing changes in Proposed Renewal of .org Registry Agreement

[Ben Tasker]

I am a domain name registrant, including names within .org


> Pricing for Domain Name Registrations and Registry Services (Section 2.10
of the .org renewal agreement):


While the stated aim of removing price caps appears to be to treat the
Registry Operator "equitably with registry operators of new gTLDs" the
reality is that the two are not the same.


The Registry Operator of .org (and, for that matter .com etc) have the
advantage of having an extremely large existing, captive audience, along
with a well-known and memorable TLD.


Legacy TLDs are fundamentally different to the new gTLDs. With gTLDs the
approach of both ICANN and the Registry's has changed dramatically, but
registrants of legacy TLDs expect (and I would argue are entitled to)
stability in both price and approach.


Although it seems an incredibly limited attempt has been made in regard to
existing registrants, a quick reading of the terms suggests that existing
registrants can still expect to see potentially large increases come
renewal time.


In many cases, those existing registrants are a captive audience, who've
been using (and marketing) the same name for many, many years (in some
cases, decades). ICAAN must recognise (and I'm sure PIR do) that those
registrants are going to struggle to migrate to another TLD in response to
price hikes.


Recently registered Legacy TLDs were presumably registered on the basis of
this ongoing stability.


It's worth noting, too, that .org has a high number of non-profit entities
within it's registered base, in part because it was originally reserved for
them, so the user-base which is going to hit by unrestrained (by ICANNs
contract) price increases includes quite a number of charities, amongst
others.


It's also noteworthy that the relaxation in pricing when the new gTLDs
launched didn't actually end particularly well for users of those gTLDs.
Many were tempted in with low introductory prices and then come renewal
time saw significant increases in price.



ICAAN's position in the internet means that it should be concerned with
protecting registrants from harm and pricing abuse. I'm not sure that
that's always the case, and this proposal does look very much like putting
the commercial desires of a Registry first, at the severe detriment of the
users of that TLD.


The alternative is that, over time, .org will likely become as unpalatable
and registrant hostile as some of the gTLDs already are. It's also likely
that some of the sites currently sat within .org will simply be lost as
registrants decide not to swallow the increased cost of keeping a
historical curiosity online.


.org has operated well enough with it's current structure until now, and I
see no suggestion that PIR are in anyway not finding it a valuable
commercial venture. Registrants should be protected and the pricing caps on
.org retained.


Thanks

Ben







-- 
Ben Tasker
https://www.bentasker.co.uk
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