Leosghost - 12:16 am on Jun 7, 2009 (gmt 0)

Bill when you were paying $35.00 per year we here were being told by ,our at that time monopoly telco ( France Telecom that the price was FR1200.00 per year at that time about $200.00 us and that we had to pay minimum 2 years up front ) they had a sweetheart deal with netsol/verisign they were the only allowed sales rep for France ..all approaches from here ( by mail or through the netsol site etc ) were referred by verisign to them ( France telecoms site)..same thing still applies to a lot of software for download from the US .we are referred to their "exclusive" French agents ..( any local aff who can speak rudimentary english and read help files to offer basic "support" in french ) at twice the price for an (paid by credit card) online download..( even if we want it in English ) 3d apps like maya are a case in point <but I digress>

I agree that prices are low ( although if the people at verisign can make money after all overheads at what $7.00 to $8.00 Us then that is actually what it' s worth ) ..to unlock domains for general use it's far more relevant to insist that Icaan stop "kiting" and "tasting" by "registrars" ..£50,000.00 downpayment to become a "registrar" ..to verisign and providing you "churn" n "drop" n "pick up" n "churn" again them within 3 working days means you never have to actually pay anything ( and if you are a "registrar" you can keep on doing this with the same names for ever ) but you can reap the adsense from parking ..

That is googles fault ..and as long as vince cern is at google and also effectively running the ICAAN ..then that kind of corrupt practice is going to continue to lock many dot coms away from those who could put them to constructive use .

I'd pay more per dot com ..but not if verisign are involved in fixing the price ..and I'd like the ICAAN cleansed of all those like Mr Cern whose interests are those of his employers not of the internet in general