Re: The Price Of Admission. Unacceptable.

[Duane Little <aadn1@nwi.net>]

Dave Crocker / IMC wrote:
> 
> At 02:34 PM 9/8/97 +0100, Jim Dixon wrote:
> >In consequence there are over three hundred registrars for .uk, there
> >is brisk competition, and there is very little unrest in the UK domain
> >name business.
> 
>         If we were targeting a service for a community the size and relative
> homogeneity of the UK and lacking the rather remarkable pressures caused by
> the presence of NSI and geo-politicization, then reduced criteria would
> seem wholly appropriate.
> 
> Dave Crocker                                          dcrocker@imc.org
> Member, interim Policy Oversight Committee     http://www.gtld-mou.org

Right.  So we take a restrictive approach which artificially raises the
cost of names by hiking startup expenses; one which provides an
unattractive, restrictive and controlled market which squelches genuine
competition (and so raises prices still further).

We go further.  We set up a structure which engenders a corpulent,
hobbled bureaucracy which cannot make flexible decisions.  If the
half-million in startup investment isn't enough, this will serve to
discourage still more potential new registrars, which in turn further
reduces competition -- and raises prices.

Oh, and we take no position at all on NSI's usurpation of virtually all
of the existing namespace.  THAT sure helps.

What a brilliant strategy this is, which so effectively perpetuates the
"rather remarkable pressures caused by the presence of NSI" by virtually
guaranteeing NSI's future prosperity.

I gotta hand it to you, Dave.  This is really something.  Whether you
can call it "a service for a community" is something I might take to
task, however.  Unless of course you mean some community other than the
Net's users and the vast majority of owners and users of domain names.

(Is NSI paying you in cash under the table?  Do you have a stake in
their IPO?  Or is there some other explanation for this seeming conflict
of interest?)

Too, it's very smart of you to pass it all off as caused by politics. 
It's a clever redirection, but personally, I don't buy it.  Unless you
mean by "politics" such interests as WIPO, ITU, etc.

Duane
pres@domains.org
http://www.domains.org