IDOA.info® The Internet Domain Owners Association Protects Domain Owners and Registrants Rights Globally and Represents Domain Owners and Registrants at ICANN.

IDOA.info®

Internet Domain Owners Association®

Protecting Domain Owners Rights Globally. Representing Domain Name Owners and Domain Registrants Worldwide.

IDOA.info
P.O. Box 330267
San Francisco, California 94133-0267
Info@IDOA.info

What Is IDOA.info?

IDOA the Internet Domain Owners Association, is being organized as a California not for profit organization. Our purpose is to unite domain name owners, as there is strength in numbers, to preserve our rights, which ICANN and all of the registries are trying to erode. We demand that the domain registrant be recognized as the legal owner of the domain, that the prices we register our domains at will never be raised, since we are argeeing to pay that price for as long as we wish to own a particular domain; and we demand an end to unscrupulous practices by registrars who delete our domains too soon and too easily, who refuse to let us transfer our domains to other registrars, who try to charge us extortionary "redemption" fees if we are a few days or weeks late with a renewal payment, and who try to raise prices after we purchase our domain. We demand that ICANN recognize formally what the courts in the USA have been already deciding, that a domain registrant has ownership rights in their domains, and that it should be almost impossible for a domain registrant to lose their domain. We demand that ICANN and all of the registries and registrars recognize that when we register, renew or transfer our domain, we are agreeing to pay the price that we pay when registering, renewing or transferring our domain, each year, in perpetuity, for as long as we wish to own that domain. Neither ICANN nor any registrar or registry has any right to increase their renewal price to us ever. We demand that this right be formally recognized by ICANN and that it be incorporated into every registry and registrar agreement signed by ICANN.

ICANN, Registrars and Registries Please Read: We have the right, once we register, renew or transfer a domain to keep that domain in perpetuity as long as we pay the same amount each year. This is both a right by contract and a right guaranteed us by the long history of English and American common law, as well as a constitutionally given right, and if you try to force us to accept higher prices now or at any point in the future, you would be committing fraud and would be engaging in unfair business practices, and we will take you, the Registry, and ICANN to court to protect our rights. No-one ever buys something without knowing what price they will pay to keep it in the future. Consumer laws in California and in the United States protect against this type of consumer fraud that you are trying to perpetrate. People in general in the United States of America, and domain registrants in particular, buy a domain for a set price that they agree to pay every year to keep that domain. No domain registrant has ever agreed to pay a specific price this year for their domain and a price as yet undetermined (and what is worse - determined by the seller, the Registry and the Registrar) in the future! That is absurd, and both California and U.S. common law, statute and consumer protection laws prohibit this kind of exploitation, which is known as fraud and is an unfair business practice. ICANN should lose its right to govern and administer the Internet, the Registries and the DNS (Domain Name System) if it continues to make fraudulent agreements with Registries and Registrars, exploiting and committing fraud against the common people - the domain owners and registrants; and we are complaining to the U.S. Department of Commerce about you ICANN for your failure to protect consumer rights, for your engaging in monopolistic and anti-competitive practices and unfair business practices with the Registries and the Registrars, and for your wasting public and non-profit money spending your time and running up huge legal bills for engaging in, and for even considering, such illegal, exploitative, fraudulent, monopolistic, unfair business practices, which hurt the people and the consumer everywhere. Additionally you should note that by trying to increase domain prices, you are trying to kill your businesses, as the fast growth in the domain name business (and associated services like hosting companies, web design, programming, server hardware and software companies, internet advertising companies, search companies, etc...) has come about because domain prices are low ($7 - $8) therefore they can now be considered a commodity and many people today will buy a domain because the price is low enough for them to afford. If you allow the ICANN price increases to come into effect, in 30 years domain prices might be as high as $80 a year (at the lowest pricing) and there would be far far fewer domains registered, and your business volume would go down dramatically. In addition, since the courts will hold that you have no right to increase prices for doamins already registered, you would be forced to set up a multi-tier costing/pricing system whereby each domain's renewal price is set at the last renewal price paid or the registration price paid, and only domains which are newly registered would be allowed to be priced at newer, higher prices, so you would be creating a vastly more complicated system in which each domain would have to have associated with it its pricing/costing data in all records, also. This would create vast confusion with the general population, and as a result, the total number of domain sales and renewals would drop dramatically, and you would lose business. ICANN would lose a great deal of its funding from the Registries and Registrars, since their business would be greatly decreased.

How Does IDOA Work?

IDOA works by the strength in numbers principle. The individual and corporate domain owner (the registrant) is the backbone of the Internet. Everything revolves around domains, the entire Internet is built upon domains, and therefore we, the domain owners, demand that domain rights be clearly stated, enforced and be irrevocable and inalienable.

The Benefits Of Joining IDOA

Some of the benefits of joining or becoming a member of or contributing to IDOA are:

Keep Domain Registration and Renewal Prices from Increasing
Prevent Registrars from Deleting your Domain
Prevent Registrars from Denying your Domain Transfer
Prevent Registrars from Automatically Locking your Domain
Prevent Registrars from Automatically Setting your Domain to Auto-Renew
Demand ICANN and Worldwide Recognition of your Ownership Rights of your Domain
Lower the cost of using the Dispute Resolution Procedure
Outlaw Registrars "Redemption" Fees
Be Represented Collectively at ICANN
Prevent your Domain Brand from Becoming Diluted by the Addition of Similar gTLD's
Obtain Assistance if your Domain is Hijacked, Deleted, Stolen or Sued
Receive Quarterly Domain Owner News and ICANN Meeting Updates

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Which Domain Rights Are Threatened?

ICANN and the registries are trying to negotiate new agreements with one another that allow the registries a 7% price increase per year for all domain registrations, renewals and transfers. This would effectively double current prices in about 9 years, triple them in 15 years, quadruple them in 20 years, and increase them more than 8 times by year 31! The Registries historically charged the registrars $6.00 per domain-year from the 1990's until October 2007, when all registries who were authorizecd to do so raised their wholesale domain pricing (the price they charge the registrars) to $6.42, the full 7% increase over $6.00. The Registries pay NOTHING for each domain-year themselves! Additionally ICANN is now illegally taxing all domain name owners $0.22 (22 cents) per year - and they have instituted this tax without recognizing the property rights of domain name owners, and without the approval of domain name owners.

New Registry and Registrar Pricing was illegally approved by ICANN over the last 2 years, and new prices have taken effect this October 2007!

If the Registries are allowed to keep the 7% annual price increases ICANN has given them, here is what your domain prices will look like in the future if the registries are given the 7% annual price increase and they take it each year (4 out of 7 years), including the 7% for "security" each year they can (3 out of 7 years); (figures for the registrar/retail prices assume they also increase prices 7% per year and pass along to the domain owner/registrant the registry's price increase):

A.) If you are currently paying $35 per year, then in each numbered year from now your payment could be:

$37.45
$40.07
$42.87
$45.87
$49.08
$52.52
$56.20
$60.13
$64.34
$68.84
$73.66
$78.82
$84.34
$90.24
$95.56
$102.25
$109.41
$117.07
$125.26
$134.03
$143.41
$153.45
$164.19
$175.68
$187.98
$201.14
$215.22
$230.29
$246.41
$263.66
$282.12

B.) If you are currently paying $20 per year, then in each numbered year from now your payment could be:

$21.40
$22.90
$24.50
$26.22
$28.06
$30.02
$32.12
$34.37
$36.78
$39.35
$42.10
$45.05
$48.20
$51.57
$55.18
$59.04
$63.17
$67.59
$72.32
$77.38
$82.80
$88.60
$94.80
$101.44
$108.54
$116.14
$124.27
$132.97
$142.28
$152.24
$162.90

C.) If you are currently paying $10 per year, then in each numbered year from now your payment could be:

$10.70
$11.45
$12.25
$13.11
$14.03
$15.01
$16.06
$17.18
$18.38
$19.67
$21.05
$22.52
$24.10
$25.79
$27.60
$29.53
$31.60
$33.81
$36.18
$38.71
$41.42
$44.32
$47.42
$50.74
$54.29
$58.09
$62.12
$66.51
$71.17
$76.15
$81.48

D.) The Registries currently charge each registrar $6 per domain-year - the wholesale price that ICANN allows:

$6.42
$6.87
$7.35
$7.86
$8.41
$9.00
$9.63
$10.31
$11.02
$11.79
$12.62
$13.50
$14.45
$15.46
$16.54
$17.70
$18.94
$20.27
$21.69
$23.21
$24.83
$26.57
$28.43
$30.42
$32.55
$34.83
$37.27
$39.88
$42.67
$45.66
$48.86

Don't forget to keep yourself informed about the pending changes in the various registry agreements with ICANN, the Internet's governing body:

The Revised Verisign [.com Registry] Registry Agreement

The .BIZ, .INFO and .ORG Proposed Agreements Posted for Public Comment

Look at the New Sponsored TLD's that will DILUTE your current domain Brand

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Terms of Reference

ICANN is the California not for profit organization based in Marina Del Rey, California, which has the current authorization by the U.S. Department of Commerce to manage the 13 global DNS root servers that allow the Internet to function as we know it. ICANN also makes agreements with Registries, like Verisign [.COM] or NeuLevel [.BIZ], who manage the database for a specific gTLD (global top level domain, like .com, .net, .org, .info, .biz) or ccTLD (country code top level domain, like .fr for france, .cn for China, and .us for the USA). The Registries, who maintain their respective gTLD or ccTLD databases, are the wholesalers who sell domain-years (the registration or extension of the registration of a domain for 1 or more years in 1 year increments) to Registrars, like Network Solutions. There are also resellers of Registrars, and that is often where the best domain-year pricing can be found, like the $6.95 - $7.95 domain-year pricing found at LowestPriceDomain.com. The Registrars and their resellers are the retail services on the net that individuals and corporate entities go to to register or renew a domain. Both the Registries and the Registrars have to sign agreements with ICANN.

What Can You Do?

Please join us at no cost, or become a lifetime member for only $20, or any other optional contribution that you can make, and send us your contact information (name, email address and number of domains you own) to Info@IDOA.info.

Thanks for visiting! Please mail checks made out to "IDOA.info" to IDOA.info, Attn Matt Hooker, P.O. Box 330267, San Francisco, CA 94133-0267

Matt Hooker
Chairman
Internet Domain Owners Association

Here's a copy of our letter to the Internet Governance Forum (IGF), which is holding its first meeting in Athens from October 30, 2006 through November 2, 2006:

October 30, 2006

Greetings to everyone at the first meeting of the Internet Governance Forum, Athens 2006.

To the Officers and Board Members of the IGF:

Could you please post this message on one of the IGF, Athens Posting areas, and would the Board of the IGF please present this information and address it before the Forum is over. We cannot be there in person to present this important information ourselves, so we ask that we be allowed to participate remotely, and have some official or Board Member of the IGF address and present this issue to the Internet community at the Athens 2006 IGF.

We, the Internet Domain Owners Association, wish to participate remotely in the Forum, and we wish to bring to the attention of the participating members and nations, and indeed people everywhere, an alarming situation that currently exists wherin ICANN and the principal .com, .net, .biz, .info and .org Registries are fraudulently colluding to force all current domain owners to accept never-ending and very substantial price increases to renew their domains.

We are forming a California not-for-profit corporation for the express purpose of fighting these price increases, which would increase the cost to the consumer or owner of a domain from a current low cost average of USD $10 a domain-year to more than USD $80 a domain-year in 30 years! [and then to more than $640 per year 30 years after that!]

We have formed to uphold the rights of domain owners everywhere, and the primary right is to be treated lawfully and fairly, and not be extorted as the current ICANN - Registry agreements propose to do. The agreements currently being negotioted by ICANN and the Registries are indeed extortionary as they pay no attention to the rights of the domain owners. The agreements are also completely monopolistic and anti-competitive (in violation of ICANN's charter) in that they grant in effect a perpetually renewable monopoly to the current Registries.

When a person or a business or a group purchases a domain, and pays USD $7.95 - $35.00 for a 1 year registration, that domain owner has the right to pay that same amount every year indefinitely into the future in order to continue owning that domain. Many domain owners put substantial resources, including time, money and energy, into designing, building, marketing and hosting a web site or web based business. If we allow ICANN and the Registries to force price increases, then only the rich will eventually be able to afford to own domains, and ICANN and the Registries will be committing fraud, breach of contract, extortion, and engaging in unfair business practises against all current domain owners.

We call your attention to this MOST IMPORTANT matter which threatens to change the very nature of the Internet, and request that you inform yourself of this pressing and crucial problem at our web site www.IDOA.info. We hope that you will join us or help us fight these unlawful price increases. We believe that it is important to keep the annual price of a domain in the USD $10 and under range, as many people around the world can afford to pay this amount to own a domain; whereas if the cost increases to $100 a year, much of the global population will not even try to own a domain and participate directly in the Internet, as it would have become too expensive for them. We would then have fewer voices, fewer new ideas, fewer opinions, less diversity, less real communication and points of view expressed; indeed, a poorer Internet, if domains become too expensive for the average person to own and maintain.

The only reason why the Registries are trying to obtain price increases approved by ICANN is because they want to make an even greater profit than they already are, and the only reason why ICANN is colluding with the Registries in these monopolistic and anti-competitive agreements is because ICANN, also, wants more money and ICANN is funded largely by the Registries. There is already a great deal of profit in the business model of being a Registry and ICANN has more than enough money for the limited task it has been given, and even if you are one who wishes ICANN to expand, the expansion must not come unlawfully, by breaching agreements made with domain owners.

The individaul internet user, domain owner, and small business will be hurt most if the forced price increases are approved by ICANN. Additonally the Registrars volume of business will drop dramatically if price increases are allowed to take place, and the Registrars are very competitive, surviving on thin profit margins, and many of them will be put out of business, causing further harm to the individual domain owner or small business.

I am funding this association out of my own pocket, and I am not rich. I seek others with similar concerns to be Directors and help direct and manage the association. I would like to have personally presented this to the IGF, Geneva 2006, however I cannot afford to. I believe that this group I have founded needs to be expanded gloablly and therefore I ask all of you at the IGF to consider forming an international group to protect the rights of the domain owners - the little people - against the might of the large corporate interests which are short-sighted and only concerned with short-term profit. The Internet is too important to allow it to be controlled by corporate interests; as the future of the Internet promises virtually free communications, information, education and all kinds of public and private services to all people everywhere. This great common, beneficial future will only come about if we keep the Internet as free and low cost, as widespread and as diverse, as possible. If any of you would like to take this idea and this group to the international level, please contact me. I can use your help.

Please educate yourself about this issue and help us keep the Internet fair for the individual and small group or business.

Thank you for your time.

Best Regards,

Matt Hooker
Chairman
IDOA.info
Internet Domain Owners Association
P.O. Box 330267
San Francisco, CA 94133 USA
Info@IDOA.info

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IDOA.info

Internet Domain Owners Association

Protecting Domain Owners Rights Globally. Representing Domain Name Owners and Domain Registrants Worldwide.

IDOA.info
Attn. Matt Hooker, Chairman
P.O. Box 330267
San Francisco, California 94133-0267
Info@IDOA.info