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Government needs to drive this change. Someone is in VRSN pocket. The action is to find someone important who is not and start driving change from there.

by gesman 11y ago

gist 11y ago
I am curious is this a big problem for you personally, the charge for domains? How many domains do you own?
- PhantomGremlin 11y ago
  is this a big problem for you personally Perhaps he's just abhorred by typical rent-seeking[1] behavior for such an important part of the global Internet? [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rent_seeking https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rent_seeking
  - gist 11y ago
    From that I see this: "The classic example of rent-seeking, according to Robert Shiller, is that of a feudal lord who installs a chain across a river that flows through his land and then hires a collector to charge passing boats a fee (or rent of the section of the river for a few minutes) to lower the chain. There is nothing productive about the chain or the collector. The lord has made no improvements to the river and is helping nobody in any way, directly or indirectly, except himself. All he is doing is finding a way to make money from something that used to be free." I am not seeing in any way the comparison between a company that maintains infrastructure and employs people and machinery to accomplish issuing and enabling domains and keeping them functioning on the Internet and "a feudal lord who installs a chain across a river....there is nothing productive about the chain or the collector".
    - PhantomGremlin 11y ago
      From that I see this: Wow. It's like we are reading two different articles. If Verisign isn't doing typical rent-seeking, then we might as well delete the Wiki entry, because the concept doesn't exist. Just from paragraph 1: seeking to increase one's share of existing wealth without creating new wealth. Exactly what Verisign is doing. They are supplying infrastructure to the Internet. They're not creating anything, they're simply charging everyone an excessive fee for using the existing Internet. They're inserting themselves into every single .com and .net domain purchase or renewal. From paragraph 2: capture of regulatory agencies to gain a coercive monopoly can result in advantages for the rent seeker in the market Regulatory capture. This is exactly what happened when ICANN awarded no-bid contracts to Verisign, under the pretense that no other firm would have the capacity to do it.[1] [1] http://timothyblee.com/2010/01/22/verisign-angling-for-no-bid-contract-renewal/ http://timothyblee.com/2010/01/22/verisign-angling-for-no-bi...
      - jklein11 11y ago
        Verisign isn't hitching the proverbial chain across the river, because they are a necessary part of the domain registration of domain names. They are providing a necessary service and raising the barrier to entry with their patents. If their role were unnecessary, then it would be rent seeking behavior.
PhantomGremlin 11y ago
Someone is in VRSN pocket This has been under-discussed in this thread. But looking to "government" (nee ICANN, nee Dept of Commerce) for help is not the answer, rather it's more the problem. A while ago we had this headline about a no-bid contract awarded to Verisign. I don't know about recent developments, but a while ago this was an ongoing thing.[1] Appeals Court Reverses & Allows Suit Against Verisign To Go To Trial: This Is A BIG Deal You can bet there are people getting rich off of this. E.g.:[2] Under the current contract, which expires Friday, VeriSign was guaranteed four price increases of up to 7 percent each on domain name registrations There's chutzpah for you. Verisign was demanding more price increases to run infrastructure that has historically had crazy price deflation associated with it. [1] http://www.thedomains.com/2009/06/05/appeals-court-reverses-allows-suit-against-verisign-to-go-to-trial/ http://www.thedomains.com/2009/06/05/appeals-court-reverses-... [2] http://www.nwherald.com/mobile/article.xml/articles/2012/11/30/r_kfsc3e5dt9mw8jzl8d3g/index.xml http://www.nwherald.com/mobile/article.xml/articles/2012/11/...

Government needs to drive this change. Someone is in VRSN pocket. The action is to find someone important who is not and start driving change from there.

by gesman 11y ago

Government needs to drive this change. Someone is in VRSN pocket. The action is to find someone important who is not and start driving change from there.

gist 11y ago

I am curious is this a big problem for you personally, the charge for domains? How many domains do you own?

PhantomGremlin 11y ago
is this a big problem for you personally Perhaps he's just abhorred by typical rent-seeking[1] behavior for such an important part of the global Internet? [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rent_seeking https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rent_seeking
- gist 11y ago
  From that I see this: "The classic example of rent-seeking, according to Robert Shiller, is that of a feudal lord who installs a chain across a river that flows through his land and then hires a collector to charge passing boats a fee (or rent of the section of the river for a few minutes) to lower the chain. There is nothing productive about the chain or the collector. The lord has made no improvements to the river and is helping nobody in any way, directly or indirectly, except himself. All he is doing is finding a way to make money from something that used to be free." I am not seeing in any way the comparison between a company that maintains infrastructure and employs people and machinery to accomplish issuing and enabling domains and keeping them functioning on the Internet and "a feudal lord who installs a chain across a river....there is nothing productive about the chain or the collector".
  - PhantomGremlin 11y ago
    From that I see this: Wow. It's like we are reading two different articles. If Verisign isn't doing typical rent-seeking, then we might as well delete the Wiki entry, because the concept doesn't exist. Just from paragraph 1: seeking to increase one's share of existing wealth without creating new wealth. Exactly what Verisign is doing. They are supplying infrastructure to the Internet. They're not creating anything, they're simply charging everyone an excessive fee for using the existing Internet. They're inserting themselves into every single .com and .net domain purchase or renewal. From paragraph 2: capture of regulatory agencies to gain a coercive monopoly can result in advantages for the rent seeker in the market Regulatory capture. This is exactly what happened when ICANN awarded no-bid contracts to Verisign, under the pretense that no other firm would have the capacity to do it.[1] [1] http://timothyblee.com/2010/01/22/verisign-angling-for-no-bid-contract-renewal/ http://timothyblee.com/2010/01/22/verisign-angling-for-no-bi...
    - jklein11 11y ago
      Verisign isn't hitching the proverbial chain across the river, because they are a necessary part of the domain registration of domain names. They are providing a necessary service and raising the barrier to entry with their patents. If their role were unnecessary, then it would be rent seeking behavior.

PhantomGremlin 11y ago

Someone is in VRSN pocket This has been under-discussed in this thread. But looking to "government" (nee ICANN, nee Dept of Commerce) for help is not the answer, rather it's more the problem. A while ago we had this headline about a no-bid contract awarded to Verisign. I don't know about recent developments, but a while ago this was an ongoing thing.[1] Appeals Court Reverses & Allows Suit Against Verisign To Go To Trial: This Is A BIG Deal You can bet there are people getting rich off of this. E.g.:[2] Under the current contract, which expires Friday, VeriSign was guaranteed four price increases of up to 7 percent each on domain name registrations There's chutzpah for you. Verisign was demanding more price increases to run infrastructure that has historically had crazy price deflation associated with it. [1] http://www.thedomains.com/2009/06/05/appeals-court-reverses-allows-suit-against-verisign-to-go-to-trial/ http://www.thedomains.com/2009/06/05/appeals-court-reverses-... [2] http://www.nwherald.com/mobile/article.xml/articles/2012/11/30/r_kfsc3e5dt9mw8jzl8d3g/index.xml http://www.nwherald.com/mobile/article.xml/articles/2012/11/...