> 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.
-- Jim Dixon VBCnet GB Ltd http://www.vbc.net tel +44 117 929 1316 fax +44 117 927 2015