Waiting for Santa Claus? Privatize TLD's but *CHARGE* for it ! Ben/01

[Benjamin Azevedo <benjamin@nome.com>]

We all know that today we have people wanting to pay expressive amounts to get some 
"convenient" domain names, specially those very short, or that correspond to generic 
business activities as well as others that are commonly used within the names of several 
companies, like TV, CD, DVD, BOOKS, NEWS, TIMES, SHOP, USA, NY, and so on.

How can we imagine to give away to somebody not ONE name like these, but all of them, a 
whole set, equivalent to the .COM ?
That is like making beneficent donations to who doesn't need or deserve it.
Let's speculate on how would be registered those special names in a new tld ?
If we don't trust in registrars we can imagine that they will take these names, or 
designate them to *friends* or even sell them to other interested parties.  None of this 
seems reasonable.
If we trust in registrars we can imagine that these names will be given strictly by a 
first come first serve basis. In this case, somebody will win a lottery and pay just a 
nominal fee for a name that anybody else wants and certainly this lucky guy will end by 
selling the name.
What kind of justice and fair use of the valuable addressing space would we be doing?

Let me talk about a recent privatization experience that shows how things should be done.
This month brazilian government made 2,6 billion dollars by privatizing a cellular 
telephone license.
That amount was paid by a consortium formed among others by Bell South, Safra Bank, just 
by the license to operate in Sao Paulo city, together with a state owned company. No 
premises involved. Just bandwidth !
And everybody know those guys don't use to make wrong calculations.

The same applies to privatizing a TLD. There is no sense in giving it away to anybody. 
Except if the candidate shows a very impressive background of valuable contribution to 
Internet that is to recognized this way.
Otherwise it would be like having Internet playing the role of *Santa Claus* giving away 
a *gift*. Charging US$ 10.000 for this millionaire gift also doesn't make any difference.
Ask any corporation if they want to invest just $ 10.000 for a set of *all* names ?
Guess if somebody doesn't want this deal.

The solution?   Privatize, but *charge conveniently* for it.
Let's analyze the main objectives, besides open more addressing space:
	- Have the lower registration price *for the common user*
	- Have a way to properly designate those special valuable names
	- Make the better use of resources generated by the process

My suggestion is to use the classical models that use to be applied to privatize roads 
and telcos.
The winner is the one that makes either the lower price for the final user or teh one 
that pays the largest amount for the concession, or a predefined combination of both.

Part of the *value* will come from choice names, that registrars will be allowed to sell.
We should permit that, after winning the service, registrar makes a special 
pre-registration for any name, as an auction, for a certain period of time when those 
wanting a specific name should  post their bids. 
After this, system should be run by the first comes, first serve basis, at fixed and 
*low* rates.
Maintenance should be *low* for any name.
I suggest to compare fees with those charged by credit card companies to cardholders.

How much money should we expect to make with such scheme? Certainly a lot of money.    So 
what?
	In this case the best use for it is to invest in Internet diffusion and 
development.
	I suggest to take those million *maybe billion* dollars, and use for:
		- Providing Internet access for those without it. Like a United Nations 
fund to install it in schools and public access sites. And training. We should warrant 
the worldwide availability of this fundamental tool.
		- Stimulate Internet development by creating special periodical prizes 
for  outstanding contributions to Internet progress.

Please note that the same applies to COM/NET/ORG domains after current contract expires.
And in this case Internic should also return the fees charged in advance, beyond contract 
term.
In this case (COM, NET and ORG), no need for initial name auction. These are running 
domains.
New contract value is to be defined based on *revised* annual revenues.

                                                  © 1997 Benjamin Azevedo

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