TLD Registrar Wants To Charge $300 For .Pro Names

dipfan writes: "The commercialization of the net continues: RegistryPro, the ICANN-approved registrar of the new TLD name, wants to charge up to $300 for .Pro addresses - or about 10 times the price of a .com address. The company says it will restrict .Pro to doctors, lawyers or accountants: 'qualified professionals in good standing ... .pro will be a premium brand, enabling effective, secure communication between professionals and users for the first time in the history of the Internet.' The Washington Post quotes RegistryPro's chief executive: 'The goal of RegistryPro is to build out a gated community for professionals on the Internet.' Is this what happens when you give one company a license to print money?"

Comments

Re:Let the market decide

[yivi]

Why would a professional in a third world country want an uncommon TLD that is just part of an *English* word?

Spanish: Profesional
French: Professionnel
Italian: Professionista
Portuguese: Profissional

Re:Let the market decide

[denzo]

No-one seems to be complaining about the folks in Moldova who got .MD, you'd think doctors would be lining up for that one. And the folks in Tonga just sold off the rights to .TO to some corporation. Tuvalu went for the big bucks with .TV, what did they do to deserve a good name for free? That sort of thing seems far more unfair than some desparate internet company trying to cash in on a new TLD by charging higher rates.

Let's see how well off these countries in the first place and weigh that with their TLD "fortune" (based off of figures from the CIA World Factbook):

• Moldova has just over 4 million people, has no significant natural mineral or hydrocarbon resources (it has to import 100% of its oil, natural gas, and coal) and their only significant export is agricultural, but much of their lands are contaminated by chemicals and pesticides while they were under Soviet rule. They import $761 million and export $500 million.
• Tonga has only around 100,000 people. They export mainly agriculture and fish, which accounts for 30% of their GDP, but their primary source of income is tourism. They export $8 million and import $69 million. They rely on external aid from Tongan communities overseas to make up for their trade deficit. Their inflation (7%) is higher than their GDP growth rate (5%). 100% of the electricity is generated from fossil fuels, which they probably import all of.
• Tuvalu: 11,000 people strong. Inflation higher than GDP growth. Import $4.4 million and export $165,000. Merchandise exports are falling.

For these countries, their TLD behaves much like a new natural resource that they can export. In the case of Tuvalu, their revenue is enhanced greatly by their exploits with the .tv domain and telephone fees from their "900" are code.

In contrast, other countries are blessed with lucrative resources such as oil, gold and diamonds. Are all these fortunes unfair while other countries suffer with lack of their own resources they can export? Sure. But I fail to see how one can complain against Tuvalu for their .tv domain because of unfairness, when we see countries like Saudi Arabia using its wealth acquired from oil by spoiling their royal family members and leaving the rest of its citizens in poverty. Or countries like the various African countries blessed with some of the biggest diamond deposits in the world, yet their own citizens don't get to see any of the wealth, and are in fact killed by their own governments, all for the benefit of the diamond industry corporations. You can't say that the .tv or .to domains have resulted in the slaughter of children and women.

Good for Tuvalu, Moldova, and Tonga! I say. Let them take advantage of their tech resource to help them live better. They were smart enough to exploit it without harming anyone.