[ncdnhc-discuss] Re: Mission creep and consumer protection

[Dave Crocker]

At 05:16 PM 2/14/2002 -0500, Milton Mueller wrote:
>One of the things that is truly bizarre about this whole conversation
>is that in the broad scheme of Internet use - which requires
>a computer, Internet access, site hosting, etc. - registry prices are an
>utterly trivial part of the picture. $6/year is 50 cents a month. Cut that in
>half and you've saved a quarter a month. Big deal.

For organizations in rich countries and doing web services, you are 
right.  It is cheap.

However the range of uses for a domain name are rather larger than that 
and, for much of the world, the low end of financial conditions is 
dramatically worse than that.

So, in fact, for much of the world yes, $6/year very much IS a big 
deal.  And, by the way, that is the wholesale price.  Real users pay more.


>For poor people or undeveloped countries, the real obstacle
>to Internet access is bandwidth (connectivity), not domain names.
>Not to mention the $1000 or so ($100/month) for the computer
>itself, and the labor required to post and host content.  Bandwidth is
>horrendously expensive in many developing and undeveloped countries,
>and many people don't have telephone lines at all.

You have constructed a single, narrow situation.  It applies to some users 
of domain names, yes.  However it does not apply to others.  Note, for 
example, that I do not have my own Web server.  My domain name is serviced 
by a third-party service.

You should visit some of the cyberbafe/ISP shops around the world that 
charge pennies per hour of use and have similarly low fees for domain name 
hosting.  In those parts of the world, economics AND usage scenarios are 
quite different from what you seem to be seeing.


>As consumer protection issues go, registry prices are pretty far
>down the list at this point.

Gee.  And next you will be saying that there are no free speech issues, too.

My but your positions have changed, Milton.

d/

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Dave Crocker  <mailto:dcrocker at brandenburg.com>
Brandenburg InternetWorking  <http://www.brandenburg.com>
tel +1.408.246.8253;  fax +1.408.273.6464