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ICANN Bucharest Meeting Comes to a Close
ICANN has been meeting in Bucharest this week; as this story goes live (assuming I handled the time zones correctly) they'll be starting their last day of meetings. Highlights of the day will almost certainly include the ICANN Board voting to eliminate the public participation that they were charged with implementing and have fought against for the last several years, and ICANN implementing a domain name tax to fund their operations. ICANN dismisses cynics who complain about taxation without representation. You can view the webcast online, assuming that the volunteers doing it manage to keep it up. If you prefer text, you may like Roessler's weblog or the ICANN blog (highly recommended), which also has many links to news stories, not that the reporters generally understand the issues very well.
The audio in the realaudio stream is getting really flakey, switching between stereo and mono, but much worse - it occasionally just stops with a loud *pop*, which is actually painful when you have headphones on, not to mention the microphone feedback. Download the show afterward if you have headphones.
Ack - my ears!
:^)
Ryan Fenton
The proposal has the potential to be a massive money-earner for both Verisign and Snapnames, at the expense of consumers.
Under the proposal, people will be able to "subscribe" to a waiting list a bit like Snapname's current service (www.snapnames.com). Unfortunately, under the scheme, subscriptions are likely to cost US$40-70 *PER YEAR*. Yes, that means if a domain name doesn't expire for 10 years, you'll be paying, say, US$50 every year just for the chance of owning it. This contrasts with other expiring-name services like www.namewinner.com that only charge you in the event that you get the name. One aim of the proposal is to address the massive speculation that occurs for expiring domain names. However, a WLS would just create speculation in WLS subscriptions!
you have some good points but there is one big differance between the taxation without representation of say, England and early America and this. One is a forced tax which you have to pay to live and not goto jail, while the other is more of a service charge then a tax(but still a tax!). This tax can't get _really_ out of hand because people won't let it. If they tried to charge an extra $500.00 for a domainname it wouldn't take long before their root servers are not used and everyone turns to another, better(?)[OpenNIC], set of rootservers. They're are other servers out there that you can use.
Taxation without representation doesn't really apply here because you are repesented as the customer. It would be like calling the price of a bigmac a tax and then demanding a vote to set the price on it. If BurgerKing up'd the price of the bigmac to $500.00 people would just goto TacoBell or another fast food place and BurgerKing would be doomed. The only thing that changes in the world of icann/rootservers is that you don't see the alternatives placed right next to ICANN with bright signs saying "EAT HERE". And unless your a network admin you shouldn't care. After all, thats who gives you the name servers you use. (Note: yes, i know, you can change the nameservers you use blah blah blah resolv.conf blah blah. Just keep in mine the gerneral public doesn't really know or, to a degree, care to change their settings.)
In short ICANN is a service and you pay service tax. Should we get a say in the tax's price? Sure and we do, everytime we buy a domainname from them.
RESOLVE HERE
I'm all for talking to my representatives. However, I'm at a loss as to any alternatives. My usual mode of argument is to point out the flaws of ______, and propose a savior system _____ with its own, less dangerous flaws. Any ideas?
Michael C. Hollinger