ICANN proposing tiered pricing of domain names

seo-ireland

This is VERY IMPORTANT reading for ALL webmasters everywhere. Please make your voices heard.

ICANN proposing tiered pricing of domain names

The organization that manages domain names is proposing that only corporations and government organizations will own websites in the future.

ICANN the governing body that manages domain names is proposing to allow variable & teired pricing of domain names. That means that the price of your domain name can be changed on a whim by the organization that you bought it from.

Imagine for instance this site and all the work that the staff put into making it. If this proposal were approved the business that leased the name to the owners could simply say "Your site is popular now you have to pay more tis year". Will that charge be $20? $2000? $10000? you won't know they will be able to change it at their whim for any site they want.

What if you say something unpopular on your site ( say your prodrugs for instance or of a different religon ) and the company you lease your name from doesn't like that? Again they could charge you more for no reason. IN fact they could price you right out of the domain.. asking even a million dollars if they wish.

You don't even have the option to go to another business to lease your name from. There is only one for each type of name.

It seems the only deep pocketed organizations will be able to fight this form of opression of speech.
If you believe in free speech and fair business practices please share this.


Please let them know how you feel about it by sending an email to them here:

biz-tld-agreement@icann.org
info-tld-agreement@icann.org
org-tld-agreement@icann.org


Also please spread the word..
Contact any business organizations your a member of.
Contact any others you know that run websites.
Thanks.
For more information try here:
http://www.webmasterworld.com/domain_names/3059492.htm

Santa Claus

A tad of scaremongering there perhaps seo ?

I think the idea of tiered pricing means that the large corporations could be charged more than a standard home website.

Huggles

Santa Claus wrote:

A tad of scaremongering there perhaps seo ?

I think the idea of tiered pricing means that the large corporations could be charged more than a standard home website.

Exactly.

seo-ireland

Santa Claus wrote:

I think the idea of tiered pricing means that the large corporations could be charged more than a standard home website.

And you think that's ok do you? Wake up.

This is just as serious as the debate on net neutrality. I urge you to read the link provided above as this affects ALL webmasters.

Santa Claus

It's simply giving them the power to price certain domains out of business.
An example of this would be charging www.kiddieporn.com / www.howtomakebombs.com (not real sites, just examples) or similar undesirable sites $100 million a year to renew and drive them out of business.

I mean why should I pay the same amount as Google to register my own .com domain....they're a multi-billion dollar business so can afford to pay a bit extra !
Tuvalu already does this style of pricing with their .tv domains.

[EDIT] Having read the first few pages of the link, where exactly did the evidence to back up your post title "privately owned websites outlawed"??? (You don't happen to write headlines for the Sun in your spare time do you) [/EDIT]

seo-ireland

Santa Claus wrote:

It's simply giving them the power to price certain domains out of business.
An example of this would be charging www.kiddieporn.com / www.howtomakebombs.com (not real sites, just examples) or similar undesirable sites $100 million a year to renew and drive them out of business.

I mean why should I pay the same amount as Google to register my own .com domain....they're a multi-billion dollar business so can afford to pay a bit extra !
Tuvalu already does this style of pricing with their .tv domains.

At the risk of sounding rude here SC that is one of the most naive posts I have read in some time.

Let's say that you are fresh out of college and have a great idea for a website. You purchase an unregistered domain for the measly sum of $10, build your website and over time is starts to really takes off. Your innovative idea builds a successful, website with a powerful brand. Things are going great, you are being rewarded for coming up with a unique concept. The way it should be.

Now since you initially registered your domain for one year not anticipating the way your website was going to take off it is now time for you to re-register it. Except the registrar has done an evaluation of what your domain is now worth and the price for re-registration is $10,000. Are you seriously telling me that you believe it is ok to raise the price like this because you 'can afford to pay a bit extra'?

For an example consider Alex Tew and his Million Dollar Homepage site. Do you think it is ok to charge him $50,000 to re-register his domain just because he 'can afford to pay a bit extra'?

This affects all of us not just the big guys. It will stifle innovation to the point of destroying what made the Web so great in the first place.

seo-ireland

Santa Claus wrote:

Having read the first few pages of the link, where exactly did the evidence to back up your post title "privately owned websites outlawed"??? (You don't happen to write headlines for the Sun in your spare time do you)

Had you fully read the contents of the link you would know the answer to that one.

You don't happen to work for ICANN in your spare time do you?

Santa Claus

OK, this may be a shock but the bigger a website in terms of popularity the more it can make from advertising....and more shocking still, I've have heard of some websites that make "profits" :eek: !

But yes the OP is right, the internet is dead...it is time for us all to don our tin foil hats to combat the mind melting rays that the ICANN are secretly broadcasting from an alien spaceship under the polar icecap !!!

seo-ireland

SC, that is such a small minded attitude. Obviously you have no aspirations to create anything bigger than a MySpace page or you would understand the whole point of this topic.

I can't believe this thread is being shot down like this. Simply unbelievable. There must be some voices of reason on Boards?

misterq

Hi Seo

I think the title of the thread is a bit sensationalist.
Nobody is outlawing privately owned websites. By implication only publicly owned websites (governments) would be allowed. This simply isn't the case.

There are some reasons for concern about well, pretty much every new ICANN proposal, this one being no different.

seo-ireland

It is sensational I admit that misterg but if it gets people to read it then job done. I just wanted to make people aware of this.

// I've edited the title so that we can look past that point and start discussing

vito

Santa Claus wrote:

It's simply giving them the power to price certain domains out of business.
An example of this would be charging www.kiddieporn.com / www.howtomakebombs.com (not real sites, just examples) or similar undesirable sites $100 million a year to renew and drive them out of business.

The implications of this type of censorship are really quite scary - who will be the arbitor of these decisions?

Santa Claus wrote:

I mean why should I pay the same amount as Google to register my own .com domain....they're a multi-billion dollar business so can afford to pay a bit extra !
Tuvalu already does this style of pricing with their .tv domains.

And what happens if Google with all their billions decide to buy the registrar who provides your domain name and pushes you out of business?

The Internet has become the great leveling ground where the small can take on the large and win. One of the foundations of the Internet has been universal accessibility in terms of publishing content.

I would be very wary of tiered pricing for domain names - those with money (and by extension with power) will always work to use any system to their advantage and the disadvantage of their competitors. This is simple business strategy.