[Comments-org-renewal-18mar19] Comments re: Proposed Renewal of .org Registry Agreement

[Jeff Kirk]

I would like to voice my firm opposition to the part of the proposed
Registry Agreement changes that would remove price caps for .org domain
names.

I have worked in the internet sector almost my entire professional career
(nearly 25 years) and have firsthand experience with the extent to which it
has changed during that time. I also still remember when the only three
TLDs were .com, .net and .org, and that the latter's original purpose was
for use by nonprofit entities or others that generally serve the public
interest. While I'm aware that this restriction was lifted quite some time
ago, and plenty of business entities and people with zero intents in that
area can (and do) register .org names, it doesn't change the fact that .org
domain names are still widely used by nonprofit / public-interest
organizations around the world.

Even if ICANN is excluding legacy .org domain owners from the pricing
changes, this does not account for the suffix's certain use by future
nonprofits in coming decades. And while allowing price increases for .org
names is one thing (and in my view a reasonable one, assuming they're in
line with current domain-name price increases generally), eliminating
*all* price
caps is another story. I would urge ICANN to eliminate this portion of the
proposed changes, or at the very least allow for exceptions in instances
when purchasers of both new .org domains -- and acquisition of preexisting
ones -- can tangibly show (through any of myriad means) that their use of
the domains will serve the public good in some capacity.

Respectfully,
Jeff Kirk
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