GeorgeK - 3:48 am on Nov 11, 2008 (gmt 0)

it will 'never' happen. Why would the registries hit the jackpot each year because someone bought or registered a good name? Why should they really own the name, and lease it to you at market prices as if it was theirs?

It's naive to say that they won't, if the contract allows it. Registry operators are beholden to their shareholders, and are profit-maximizing. VeriSign's latest contract for .com, for example, permits 7% annual price increases. In theory, they could have left prices alone, decreased them, or raised them by less than 7%. However, they have increased them by the maximum possible each year. Always.

PIR's contract for .org had 10% price increases allowed. Did they, the so-called "Public Interest Registry", keep prices constant, or decrease them, or raise them by less than 10%? In the first year, they went from $6.00 to $6.15. But, then they went from $6.15 to $6.75 in the most recent year, a 9.7% price increase, giving in to greed in a world of decreasing technology costs.

It has already happened in .tv. The only way to ensure it will not happen in .com or other important gTLDs is to ensure that the contracts don't permit it. The registries are counting on people to be complacent and apathetic, hoping to sneak in these favourable provisions which are irreversible. Don't fall into that trap, but instead add your own public comments to change these draft contracts so that the offending language is removed.