Filed under: Internet
It hasn’t received that much attention, but ICANN, the domain naming authority, is considering a proposal to lift price controls on .org, .info, and .biz domains. In essence, the registrars of these domains could charge what they think the market will bear. Ultimately, this could lead to a company that has spent years of effort and countless dollars developing a domain could be told they have to ante up a five or six figure sum to renew their domain name. Here’s some text from the summary announcement:
Lifting of Price Controls on Registry Services. Following extensive consideration and discussion, each of the proposed new .BIZ, .INFO and .ORG registry agreements provide for the lifting of price controls formerly imposed on the pricing of registry services. However, in order to protect incumbent domain name registrants and allow time for planning by those in the registry and registrar communities, the form of registry-registrar agreement proposed with each of the new registry agreements requires six months advance notice by the registry operator of any price increase in registry services. This is consistent with the notice period required under the registry-registrar agreement implemented with the 2005 .NET registry agreement, and the registry-registrar agreement included with the proposed new .COM registry agreement.
There’s a good discussion of the disruptive potential of these changes at WebmasterWorld: Domain Traffic Data Matters! started by domain guru Webwork - he highlights the collection of traffic data as an indicator of a possible basis for domain renewal pricing in the future.
The comment period expires TODAY, August 28, 2006 at 5:00 PM PDT/California. Drop by the ICANN site, read the proposals, and register your comments.
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