ICANN removes .org price caps despite 98% public opposition

theregister.co.uk

32 points·ted0··4 comments

DNS/registrars/registries should be regulated as a utility. I just don't see any other way to reasonably do DNS. Its like having signs on the roads be privately owned and charge per view.

For all the talk about the internet being decentralized, that may be true on the IP layer, but once you get to DNS, its very centralized, with a single private entity essentially controlling your online identity.

I've actually stopped from switching to a hosted email with my own domain because of this. If they decide to 20x the price, I lose my email, and can't do much about it. If someone else registers it, they could suddenly read all emails sent to me...

They probably can't be regulated as a utility by any government in particular without fragmenting the namespace.

And that’s a problem why?

> If they decide to 20x the price, I lose my email, and can't do much about it.

Many of the main TLDs like .com or .net (currently run by Verisign) include a maximum rate increase in the contract. For instance the .com contract limits to 7% increases that can only occur once per year for the last 4 years of each 6 year term. Not really any different than physically renting/buying a place and worrying that in 20 years rent/taxes could have increased and you had to move.

That being said I don't recommend running your own email and I absolutely think it would be awesome/possible for DNS to be a community service rather than for profit business. I don't think regulation (outside of local businesses that run portions like Verisign) is realistically sustainable due to the number of governments involved.

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