ICANN Direct.

[Humdizzy]

I always wondered. Why doesn't ICANN sell domains directly to the public instead of having these companies sell with tons of profit. If ICANN is truely a non-profit organization whats the purpose of having big companies sell for them. And why does ICANN allow such a huge markup from I'm assuming the .25 cents per domain registered.

 

[Dave_Z]

From ICANN's site:

ICANN is responsible for coordinating the management of the technical elements of the DNS to ensure universal resolvability so that all users of the Internet can find all valid addresses. It does this by overseeing the distribution of unique technical identifiers used in the Internet's operations, and delegation of Top-Level Domain names (such as .com, .info, etc.).

Other issues of concern to Internet users, such as the rules for financial transactions, Internet content control, unsolicited commercial email (spam), and data protection are outside the range of ICANN's mission of technical coordination.

But the main reason is because of their agreements with the US Department
of Commerce.

It may be non-profit, but it still needs money to pay for usual expenses like
office space, overhead, employees, and what have you. :D