BadForBusiness.org Online Petition Opposing the Proposed .biz/.info/.org Registry Agreements

     We, the undersigned, strongly oppose the current proposed .biz, .info and .org registry agreements. We are extremely concerned that these contracts are anti-competitive and open to abuse by for-profit companies that hold monopoly powers. Approval of these contracts is likely to cause serious harm to many small businesses on the Internet and severely limit the choices available to online consumers, resulting in higher prices. Even worse, approval of these contracts sets a dangerous precedent for the larger .com and .net registry operators to demand similar terms in their own contracts. The three primary causes for concern are:

Presumptive Renewal of Contracts without Competitive Bidding
Unrestricted Pricing Power in a Single Supplier Market
Unrestricted Use of Traffic Data

     These three provisions if approved could cause significant damage to the Internet by disrupting electronic commerce and impairing the free flow of information and opinion. Specifically, we believe that:

presumptive renewal of contracts without competitive bidding by other qualified suppliers is anti-competitive and poses a serious threat to the stability and security of the Internet. It removes all incentives for registry operators to offer competitive pricing and give their best efforts at network security. This encourages complacency, as they are virtually assured of perpetual contracts regardless of actual performance.
unrestricted pricing power in a single supplier market is open to abuse and allows the registry operators to exploit businesses, non-profit organizations and individuals. This provision is the equivalent of the energy commission granting regional monopolistic utilities indiscriminate rights to exploit consumers by raising the price of oil, gas and electricity. A strong possibility exists of variable pricing for different domains and could be viewed as extortion. Heavily trafficked sites such as Congress.org or RedCross.org could be forced to pay exorbitant sums or risk losing their well-known domain names. Another possibility is substantial uniform price increases that cannot be justified by any cost measures or price index. During past litigation, the Internet Corporation For Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) has argued that in a single supplier market, price caps are, if anything, procompetitive. The current proposals clearly contradict ICANNs earlier court testimony.
unrestricted use of traffic data may compromise individual privacy. The compiling, sharing, selling or other use of personal identifiable data may have additional negative consequences that are currently unforeseen. In conjunction with unrestricted pricing power, this provision can also be used to exploit businesses, non-profit organizations and individuals by setting different registration or renewal fees according to traffic data.

     Despite a near unanimous public opposition to the proposed registry agreements (.biz comments | .info comments | .org comments), the user community does not have a constituency within ICANN, a non-profit organization established by the U.S. Department of Commerce to oversee the Internet domain name system (DNS), with the goal of providing stability, competition, bottom-up coordination and representation. Market leading registrars including GoDaddy and Network Solutions are also vocal opponents of the proposed registry agreements.


     We, the undersigned, hereby petition members of Congress, to intervene in the proposed .biz, .info and .org registry contract negotiations in order to protect American public interest and welfare. We request that a coordinated effort with the U.S. Department of Commerce and U.S. Department of Justice be made to block the approval of these contracts and prohibit any future attempts of such anti-competitive behavior. All new proposed registry contracts should require broad dissemination and transparent negotiation processes to reflect the interests of a user constituency, which ICANN is obligated to protect.



Please help protect small businesses and online consumers by asking other people to sign the petition at BadForBusiness.org