To ICANN and the .ORG, .INFO and .BIZ registries (and to all other registries):
CEASE AND DESIST NOTICE
Any regulation, rule or law which allows anyone (including ICANN, and / or any registry) to raise the price of any domain above the initial price paid for the domain is fraudulent and should be understood as illegal. It is an uncompetitive business practice, and amounts to the operation of a monopoly, and US anti-trust laws and civil and criminal procedure should prohibit any such action.
Neither I, nor the company I founded, have ever agreed to any price increase over the original price paid to register a domain. The fact that a domain must be renewed does not imply our acceptance of the legality of an increased price, but rather is only a result of your fraudulent and unfair business practices and monopolistic practices. We have had to keep renewing our domains or lose them, so we have had no alternative but to renew them for higher price annually. We expect to be refunded every penny paid over the original purchase price once a competent, fair and just court understands and decides in this continuing matter.
No one goes into business in a competitive market unless they can understand their costs; To allow a registry to increase costs over the originally agreed-to price (which is an agreement to pay a specific price every year for the indefinite future) is already a very serious financial commitment. We business-people will not allow a for-profit (or any type of) registry to continue raising the annual price of such a business asset. That would be agreeing to fraudulent theft from one's own business - nothing any American or other nations' citizen should ever agree to. It is, in fact, shameful that this is happening at all, and ICANN has the shame for being "in bed" with the registries and registrars in this matter, rather than representing the real backbone of the Internet- the millions of domain name owners (that you still call Registrants) who have paid for domain names, web hosting services, website construction services and web app construction services, web advertising and web marketing, etc. These are the true drivers of the economy and the Internet, not the cash cow monopolistic registries and registrars that currently controll ICANN.
We expect a competent court to recognize a real ownership interest in a domain name by the registrant, as common law already has, and this means that the price paid to register a domain name is the price that must be paid annually for as long as the domain owner/registrant wishes to keep the domain name. It's as simple as that. In fact, we believe that once a domain name is registered and paid for, the owner of the domain should only be required to pay a small token fee (say USD $1) to renew the domain. Registries pay nothing (USD $0) for the domain, so they would still be making a hefty profit.
Please stop this theft, this fraud and these unfair and uncompetitive business practices in allowing registries to change prices for domains already registered, and start the massive refund process for every price increase over the $6 original fee for a year of domain name ownership. We think that the default base fee should only be USD $1 and that people everywhere should be able to register and own and maintain indefinately a domain name for a small fee.
Furthermore, to ICANN, stop taxing us $0.18 per year of domain name ownership. That is taxation without representation – something that is not allowed in the United States of America.
Sincerely,
Matt Hooker
Founder
IDOA.info - the Internet Domain Owners Association
