ICANN and Verisign Announce Proposed Amendment to .COM Registry Agreement

Highlight:

Under the amended Cooperative Agreement, the Department of Commerce noted that the domain name marketplace had grown more dynamic and concluded that it was in the public interest that, among other things, Verisign and ICANN may agree to amend the .COM Registry Agreement to permit an increase to the price for .COM registry services, up to a maximum of 7 percent in each of the final four years of each six-year period (the first six-year period commenced on Oct. 26, 2018). The proposed agreement announced today updates the .COM RA to reflect those changes. ICANN is not a price regulator and defers to the Department of Commerce and the U.S. Department of Justice for the regulation of pricing for .COM registry services.

This is one of the more interesting trends seemingly caused by the current administration (both of the departments listed have come under new, Republican ruling under the current administration).

Not the first time that Verisign has made some actions that were hostile to the common good while the Department of Commerce was controlled by Republicans, but the first time they've gotten this blatant about it (and, notably, that ICANN has cooperated):

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Verisign#2003:_Site_Finder_leg...

Public comment opened January 3rd, and ends February 14th

https://www.icann.org/public-comments/com-amendment-3-2020-0...

The change is as follows:

>> Verisign and ICANN may agree to amend the .COM Registry Agreement to permit an increase to the price for .COM registry services, up to a maximum of 7 percent in each of the final four years of each six-year period (the first six-year period commenced on Oct. 26, 2018).

Wild idea: make verisign verify that all new .com registrations belong to a commercial business and issie a X509 cert. If they want to charge more, make them work more.