Contributed by Staff December 17, 2004 11:45 AM

So, according to an article publshed by news.com ICANN is going to jack up domain fees for .net top-level domains (TLD).

A first reaction might be to utter something like "here we go again" until it's learned that the price-hike is only 75¢ a year. Certainly, this won't break the proverbial bank and that seems to be the consensus among those posting to discussions about the topic. Even by those owning .net domains.

The trouble is the precedent this action sets. It's impossible to argue that an organization should not adjust prices to keep up with economic factors, but the reasoning cited for this increase by ICANN was miserable at best. The essense of the raise is that ICANN can't keep its books and so it taking it out on domain owners. Something seems odd about raising prices because a budget can't be kept. Why can't it be kept? What new costs has the organization incurred?

True, that this rate boost is not too significant, but any price increase should always cause one to ponder. It may be an indication of something more and though it may be small at first, may just pave the way for more later.

The story can also be found at Ars Technica.


© 2004 Kaomso