[registrars] ICANN is out of control

[Jim Archer]

ICANN is like a governmental agency in many ways. It constantly seeks to 
expand it's power and influence.  It constantly demands more of everyone 
else's money to fund this expansion.  It feels it know's what best for 
everyone else and seeks to impose it's will upon them.  It constantly tries 
to avoid oversite and wants to be answerable only to itself.

It seems to me that unlike actual government agencies - at least here in 
the US and not in a country like, say North Korea, ICANN does has virtually 
no oversite.  Their board members elect themselves.  They claim they are 
not subject to the administrative procedures act.  They seek to 
unilaterally modify contracts.  Much of their operations have been 
conducted in secret to the point where even one of it's own board members 
was denied access to it's financial records.

ICANN now claims that they need $20,000.00 annually to assist and police my 
company operations.  Since we have been accredited, we have heard from 
ICANN about 5 times.  Three of those were automated emails when people 
complained about whois data.  Two of those were to get our response to the 
mandated RRP to EPP transition.  Other then looking for more ways to 
squander my company's resources (both time and money) by doing things like 
making us switch from a perfectly working protocol to one that is full of 
holes, what is it about my company that costs ICANN any money at all?

If ICANN really is spending $20,000+ per registrar, then they are doing 
way, way too much of whatever it is that they are doing.

Regarding the provision in their budget proposal where they can forgive 
part of this money, where are the objective standards that will be used for 
this evaluation?  Or is it a completely subjective process whereby they can 
reward registrars they like and punish those they do not?


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James W. Archer
CEO
http://www.RegistrationTek.com