CRITICAL ANNOUNCEMENT: Entire Domain Community

[Carlton]

Dear NamePros Friends - An online petition was posted today to the internet that is very important to all of us. The petition is located at:

BadForBusiness.org

ICANN have proposed damaging contracts pertaining to .biz, .info, and .org domain names that will allow discriminatory pricing. This means that the renewal fees on your biz/info/org domain names may be jacked up in price many times over. Can you imagine paying $500 per year for each biz/info/org name in your portfolio?

It is critically important that you, your friends, the entire internet community fight these unacceptable contract terms that will open the door to many abuses and that may damage online commerce for years to come. Your signature on this petition will deliver a clear message to members of Congress that you will not allow your business endeavors on the internet to be crippled by predatory pricing as a result of poorly written contracts blessed by ICANN.

Please read and sign the petition at your earliest convenience. It will be a very worthwhile investment on your part in preserving years of hard work, investment, and financial risk.

Many thanks!

 

[Fundraiser]

I support this petition which was published earlier today. Read the petition and research the issue if you haven't heard of it. The current list of signatures includes some major domain industry players and I encourage everyone to add their own signature to the petition.

 

[labrocca]

Signed..only 22 so far.

 

[camille7_7]

I just signed......and at that point and time there were only 30 sigs.......
even though I am not really to active in the .biz, .info, and .org names.....I see it as a precedent that does not need to be set for the future for any domain extension.

-Thank you for your time.
-Aaron

 

[briman1970]

I will definitely sign it, but right now I can't get the page to load. :td:

 

[Carlton]

I just signed......and at that point and time there were only 30 sigs.......
even though I am not really to active in the .biz, .info, and .org names.....I see it as a precedent that does not need to be set for the future for any domain extension.

-Thank you for your time.
-Aaron

Aaron - Exactly. Verisign are supporting the removal of price caps and they want a precedent to be set. Just as you say. The .com contract will be renewed in coming years and Verisign would love to use these biz/info/org contracts as the precedent for instituting discriminatory price increases on .com. This issue is of paramount importance. ICANN were hoping to slip this by undetected by the larger internet community. Fortunately a domainer, George Kirikos of Canada, discovered this travesty before the contracts were approved.

I will definitely sign it, but right now I can't get the page to load. :td:

briman - Thank you for trying, and please do try again. Seems to be loading OK at the moment.

 

[zielak]

Signed, 39 so far.

 

[Camron]

Signed, 45 so far.

 

[arejayell]

42 now was 41 before I signed

 

[cyberoptik]

Signed. 43 now

 

[Eric]

Signed, 44.

 

[Lasher]

Myself and my wife both signed it, up to 48 now. Need to try to get this site more exposure..

 

[-OutlawBiker-]

Signature #4 Also, this petition and issue is so important to the domainer members of this forum, that I'd suggest this thread be made a sticky for a while, or at least put the BadforBusiness petition link up somewhere soon.

 

[angisson]

Signed, 60. does this really do any good? even if you do get thousands of sigs, don't you have to validate all of them?

 

[klavixs]

64 Signatures Total

i'm done.
64 Signatures Total
btw
there is something similar but potentionally worse going on the congress is about to pass a bill allowing the internet company (comcast,charter,cox,aol etc) to be able to give special bandwidth for select companies(paying companies) and lowing (give less) bandwidth for every one else is got an opposing force to called net nuetrality one site is
www.savetheinternet.com which gives the full story.
also someone should blog this and maybe put it on digg to

 

[Carlton]

More information from the author (Ted Chan) of the petition ("Bad For Business")

If you own any domain, this could affect YOU!

This affects anyone who owns a .com / .net / .org / .info / .biz and potentially anyone with a country code or sponsored top-level domain name.

1) An online petition opposing the proposed .biz/.info/.org registry agreements can be viewed at BadForBusiness.org
The petition is not limited to Americans. If you live outside of the U.S., you should still sign the petition and mention that you are doing business in the U.S.

Please sign the petition and get the word out to as many people as possible.

2) We have also started a Soapbox at Congress.org If you are a US resident, please contact your local members of Congress and let them know your opposition to the proposed contracts. This is very important and carries a great deal of weight. If you are a small
business owner, please remember to tell them.

Congress.org Soapbox

3) Keep in mind that the proposed contracts can affect many people outside the domainer circle. Encourage family and friends to sign the petition. Among the concerns are the protection of small business, competition, fewer choices to shop online, worries about higher prices and the potential to restrict free speech. With a combined effort from everyone, we can make a difference.

Thank you all for your support.

 

[rokoroko]

my number is 82 !

can anybody make this thread sticky?

 

[Damion]

Signed!

Aparently people find it easier to sign a petition then to help get the story on Digg.com.
Luckily the story made it to the frontpage anyways

 

[InsideDN]

I'm 90, keep this going everyone!

 

[chicker]

Signed, number 106

 

[lpxxfaintxx]

Signed, 120--something.

 

[kemjika11]

i just signed it and it said it was now 116.

 

[domainersarah]

ICANN meeting moved up a week

ICANN has moved the date of its special board meeting to consider the new contract proposals for .org., .info and .biz registries up from Sept. 13 to Thursday, Sept. 7.

http://www.icann.org/minutes/

 

[Lasher]

Nice, move the date up, get it through quick before this petition makes mainstream press. So corrupt. This may be the final straw for ICANN before the rest of the world decides that a .US appointed organization should not be in control of the global internet.

 

[namethreads.com]

I suggest leaving comments on the following forums:

http://forum.icann.org/lists/biz-tld-agreement/
http://forum.icann.org/lists/info-tld-agreement/
http://forum.icann.org/lists/org-tld-agreement/