Jim Dixon wrote:
> On Sun, 22 Feb 1998, Javier SOLA wrote:
> > These might be extreme cases, but in general, companies who have developed
> > a high visibility in the Internet would be forced to pay ANYTHING they were
> > asked in order to keep their domains.
> > This means that we are in a very clear "lock-in" position if the company
> > that distributes TLDs can do it for-profit and set its own rules.
> > COMPETITION BETWEEN TLDS CANNOT EFFECTIVELY EXIST.
>
> Yes, and BUMBLEBEES CAN'T FLY.
>
> Like most ISPs, we register domain names as an incidental part of our
> business. We operate mostly in the UK.
>
> A couple of years ago, before Nominet was set up, those wishing to
> register in .UK went through a ridiculous process whereby all names had to
> be approved by "the Naming Committee". The members of this small and
> widely disliked group frequently delayed and blocked registrations for
> petty and personal reasons. At that time most of our customers
> registered in .COM/NET/ORG.
>
> When Nominet took over and began charging for registratrations in
> .UK, our customers immediately shifted to registering with Nominet.
> At this time nearly all of our registrations are in .UK.
>
> Why? The Naming Committee's policies were silly. Nominet's policies
> were much better, and in fact are better than those at the
> InterNIC/Network Solutions.
>
> Competition between TLDs is alive and very well. There is weak
> competition between the nTLDs, and reasonably strong competition
> between the individual nTLDs and .COM/NET/ORG. This competition is
> good for all concerned.
I've been in exactly the same position regarding the capricious naming
policies for ".es" until I moved here to Guadeloupe. I don't know if
the ES-NIC has changed its policies, but back then (18 months ago),
getting a name registered under ".es" was VERY painful (one domain
per company -they defined what was a company-, only exact match of
domain to company name -they decided what your name would be, with
very little options-, no 'generics' -which meant just about any word
in the dictionary plus all geographic terms-, no domains for non
legal entities -ie individuals-, etc... and of course the rules were
conveniently bent when the occasion demanded it).
As was the case for people in the UK, companies in Spain were
registering
in COM/NET/ORG just to be able to get a running domain, as sending the
papers forwards and backwards, waiting for replies (at times the queue
was
six weeks long, and then you get a rejection, and have to resend things
-albeit with a slight queue-jumping mechanism-).
Where they happy in having a ".com"? Not really, as what they wanted was
to
show they were in Spain (I'm a museum, but I find it impossible to get
into ".museum", so I'll get "(MUSEUM-NAME).something-else" and just try
to
publicize it as best I can, which is a mess to say the least).
Jim calls this competition. I just see it as a registry that makes it so
hopelessly impossible to get a name registered, that people are
literally
FORCED to go elsewhere. The same (from what you were saying), was
happening
in ".uk". Competition means you have a choice, in the above two cases
there
was NO choice.
Of course, you're conveniently forgetting/ignoring another detail, the
above
ONLY works at the time you solicit your domain. Once you HAVE your
domain,
there's basically no competition whatsoever (you've invested peanuts in
the
registration, but you've invested a lot in: stationary with your domain
name;
getting your customers to know your domain name; advertising your domain
name; submitting to search engines; etc...). Where's the competition
THERE
between registries? Unless the cost of keeping your domain with your
current
registry is more than redoing the investments, there's no way that you
would
change your domain name. Should NSI tomorrow charge $1000 per renewal of
".com",
I don't think tha many companies would actually change domain names. The
outcry
and outrage would be incredible, but what's adverse publicity to a
company if
it means multiplying the revenue by 100?
People want a domain name under their chosen TLD. If they *can't* have
it (ie
it's incredibly costly, or just impossible), they'll be glum and go
elsewhere.
that's not really what I call competition. If you're managing a
registry, it's
basically saying something along the lines of "make it as expensive and
poorly
serviced as you can get away with, because making it cheaper and better
than
the competition is not going to get you that many more customers" (of
course,
if you DO make it cheap 'n easy, then you'll get all those who are
blocked from
going elsewhere).
Yours, John.
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