$2-a-year fee for domain name owners

Anyone interested in the business of domain names has probably been reading a report released this week about the future of .net. Prepared under contract to the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), the report essentially says that VeriSign will renew its lucrative monopoly as the registrar for .net domains.

What's almost as interesting, though, is a less-noticed announcement from ICANN. It says that all owners of future .jobs and .travel domains will have to pay ICANN a $2 annual fee.

The first big question, of course: Where will the money go? The .jobs and .travel documents don't say. But check out an article I wrote last December about a $.75 annual fee being levied on .net. One-third of the .net money will go to "developing country stakeholders," one-third will "facilitate the security and stability" of the Internet's naming system, while the remainder can be spent freely by ICANN without restriction.

The second big question: ICANN gets a chance to revisit .com fees when VeriSign's contract expires in November 2007. From then on, will all .com owners have to pay a $2 annual fee too? If so, we're talking about something like $100 million a year.

http://news.com.com/2061-10796_3-5645817.html

Notice godaddy charging a "Fee", sounds like the cost of doing business and is tan·ta·mount to deceiving to cover... the cost of doing business. Will there be a list of "Fees" on top of everyday low prices diving into our industry? Will we be seeing hosts begin to tack on "Cost of doing business" fees that are above and beyond the "price"?

REUTERS [30MAR2005] - - ICANNT (the Internet Corporation for Asinine Names and Numbers Taxes) appeared today before the International Court of Justice (colloquially know as the "world Court") in Den Haag, Netherlands, asking for an immediate injunction against ICANN (the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) for its attempt to usurp ICANNT’s authority to impose imbecilic charges for domains.

Attorneys for ICANNT stated not only do ICANN’s actions infringe on ICAANT’s current practice of collecting fees for .net domains, but also threaten pending assessments for the very important .theairyoubreathe domain vital to Internet users worldwide.

The Internet consumer group SHAFT (Sensible Humans Against Another Freakin’ Tax) has filed a “Friend of the Court” brief to ask why a non-profit, tax-exempt organization like ICANN should be allow to impose fees of this nature. A spokesperson for WTF (the World Telephony Federation) issued a very short statement - “WTF?”

the "fee" is the icann fee based on the new icann budget. Godaddy just chooses to show it seperately

Show? They choose to charge it seperately as well. Its the same tactic that BB providers do, BB for 29.95! (Universal Service Fund extra, local taxes extra, this extra, this extra, this extra..), that 29.95 ends up being a joke.

holycrap, if affilias gets it then they will pay $2.25 from their own pockets for every registrar to icann? they claimed they gonna offer $2 registrations if they get to operate .NET registry.

i doubt they will be able to force it, maybe on new TLDs/registries but not on the old ones!