ICANN allowed the Public Interest Registry, which is responsible for the .org domain zone, to independently regulate prices for domains. We discuss the opinions of registrars, IT companies and non-profit organizations that have been expressed recently.
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Why did the terms change?
According to the , they removed the price cap on .org for "administrative purposes". The new rules will put the domain zone for organizations on a par with commercial ones.
Prices for the latest registrars are free to set their own.
They say that in this way the domain market will become more homogeneous, and their prices will be self-regulated due to the competition of registrars. ICANN is confident that the decision will help raise additional funding (the organization regularly collects fees from registrars).
On The Register, there are more than 10 million domains in the .org zone, and even a slight increase in the base rate will bring a significant increase in revenue.
There are those who advocate
Representatives of PIR and several other registrars supported the decision. For example, in support former VP of Verisign (the registrar in charge of .com). According to her, healthy competition will allow .org to expand its audience and increase the share of the domain zone in the market, which today barely exceeds 5%.
Also that price increases in the .org zone will put an end to the practice when people buy cheaply a lot of domains that are directly or indirectly related to a particular trademark, and then resell them to the owners of the rights (to TM) for disproportionate money.
But the majority is against
Most IT companies disagree with the decision and call it ill-conceived and irresponsible. Analysts polled thousands ( ΠΈ ) non-profit organizations, registrars and Internet users - more than 98% of them opposed ICANN.
β one of the largest registrars in the world β sent to ICANN asking them to reconsider their decision. Representatives of the registrar say that the removal of price thresholds will negatively affect the work of public organizations - it will be difficult for them to predict service costs. As a result, the registrars themselves will suffer - customers will simply refuse to renew domains.
ICANN responded to criticism by saying that the new rules and competition, on the contrary, will better regulate prices in the domain name market. However, the organization did not provide economic justifications to support its claim. Moreover, how The Register, among the four hundred employees of the organization there is not a single economist at all.
Experts that the idea of ββcompetition could work if companies were constantly changing domains, and such a practice was in the order of things. But this process is often costly and time consuming. Not to mention that a domain name is part of a company's brand, the loss of which has far-reaching consequences. For example, when the ServiceMagic.com portal changed its domain name to HomeAdvisor.com, its traffic immediately .
Opposed to ICANN and non-profit organizations (EFF) and (ICA) that protect the rights of registrants. They say that ICANN should discuss such decisions with the IT community in advance.
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Negotiation issues arose even within ICANN. The Board of Directors has not taken a formal vote on this issue. How insiders, all decisions were made by the employees of the organization, and the management did not interfere with their activities. However, there is an opinion that in this way representatives of the organization are trying to shift responsibility from themselves.
Another unpopular ICANN decision
In addition to removing price caps from .org, ICANN plans () implement URS (Uniform Rapid Suspension System) mechanisms in this domain zone. They will allow companies to quickly deal with cybersquatters by sending a corresponding application to the registrar.
But against this decision already members of the Electronic Frontier Foundation. Non-profit organizations often use brand names in .org domains to draw public attention to related issues. However, the deadlines for consideration of claims in the URS are too short to thoroughly understand the situation. Thus, this mechanism runs the risk of becoming an instrument of peremptory control by large corporations.
If ICANN continues to make unpopular decisions, it is likely that it will face a string of lawsuits. Domain Name Wire Blog Author that such lawsuits are inevitable unless the organization changes course soon.
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Source: habr.com