Re: [registrars] ICANN - Verisign - .org registry

["Ivan Vachovsky" <ivan@abac.com>]

Fellow Registrars,

1. ICANN started as a very progressive organization and they deserve credit
for breaking up the monopoly in the .com .net .org Registration process.
They did a lot of work to define and streamline the process, we now consider
for granted. ICANN deserves our appreciation for the excellent pioneer work
they have done.
If you remember, Network Solutions (NSI) was in a war with ICANN, they
refused to recognize them and it was a real war.

NSI (later VeriSign) became smart very soon thereafter and applied the old
Roman rule "if we can't conquer them let's join them". Since than ICANN is
playing to the tunes of VeriSign and big business.

2. Not only ICANN is reinforcing the presence of Verisign in the .com arena,
but they quietly awarded them interest in the new top level domains. In
different shapes and forms VeriSign will be participating as both Registry
and Registrar in the new top level domains.

3. We at Abacus applied for new TLD Registry and as part of our application
we did a detailed financial analysis of the cost of running a Registry. For
moderate volumes it is $2 per name per year.
All of us Registrars are paying $6, thus pouring 200% profits into VeriSign
coffers. I do not mind if they take the money and do cryptography research
or whatsoever. What they do though is take our money and go and buy
advertisement space to compete with us as a Registrar. This is wrong !

4. ICANN proved recently that they follow their pre-determined policy no
matter what. I personally do not believe that any public comments,
teleconferences, Melbourne discussions will change anything. ICANN is being
moved by the big capital, because domains are a big game. The role of the
smaller Registrars is to act as a decoration to the party. For this reason
I'm not going to Melbourne. Those who will go, please send a post card with
a view.

Best regards,
----------------------------------
Ivan Vachovsky,
President
ABACUS America Inc. d.b.a. A+Net
Ste 880, 4660 La Jolla Village Dr.
San Diego, CA, 92122
(858) 558-8522  x 103

www.aplus.net   Internet Services
www.websolo.com   Affordable web hosting
www.names4ever.com  Accredited Domain Registrar
www.paybutton.com   Billing for e-commerce
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www.rodopi.com   Billing software for IP services


----- Original Message -----
From: "Larry Erlich" <erlich@domainregistry.com>
To: "Registrars List" <registrars@dnso.org>
Sent: Tuesday, March 06, 2001 3:33 PM
Subject: [registrars] ICANN - Verisign - .org registry


> And the more that you read the
> wackier it gets.
>
> I hate to do this piecemeal,
> but here is something else taken
> from the letter from Sclavos of Verisign
> to Cerf of ICANN:
>
> -- ICANN has agreed that, at a minimum, existing
> -- registrants would be permitted to remain in the new .org
> -- registry for one renewal cycle under its new management.
> -- In addition, and as another part of the transition
> -- process, all ICANN-accredited registrars would continue
> -- to be permitted to register qualifying names in the .org
> -- TLD for three years after termination of our operation
> -- of the .org registry, during which period the new registry
> -- could develop whatever registration policies for the future
> -- it thought appropriate. Our objective is to provide
> -- a permanent and affordable home on the Internet for
> -- the non-profit sector and in so doing make a major effort
> -- to close the digital divide on a worldwide scale.
>
> One renewal cycle? Do any of you want to explain
> that to your customers?
>
> Qualifying names for three years???
> So you are out of the picture after that.
>
> Same paragraph says:
>
> "Our objective is to provide a permanent and affordable
> home on the Internet for the non-profit sector and in so
> doing make a major effort to close the digital divide
> on a worldwide scale"
>
> (Ridiculous)
>
> Larry Erlich
>
> http://www.DomainRegistry.com
>
> --
> -----------------------------------------------------------------
> Larry Erlich - DomainRegistry.com, Inc.
> 215-244-6700 - FAX:215-244-6605 - Reply: erlich@DomainRegistry.com
> -----------------------------------------------------------------