[governance] ICANN taxes/fees

[Avri Doria]

<writing as an icann nomcom appointed gnso council member who is trying,
rather unsuccessfully,
to support civil society interests within the icann system>

On 4 feb 2007, at 12.36, Mawaki Chango wrote:

> As it turned out, the
> concurrent applicants think it is not up to them to subsidize their
> competitors, and that makes sense, isn't it?


not to me.

i was advocating a process by which the costs for the applications by  
those in less developed areas who could not afford the sometimes very  
steep icann fees would be 'subsidized' from the fees paid by richer  
applicants.  the suggestion was for aggregation of all projected cost  
in the new gtld process and the administration of a fee reduction  
program for a certain number those in need of fee reduction.  this  
program could be adjusted to optimality as experience was gained from  
previous years (i.e. how much does it really cost to process an  
application, how many applicants can't afford to pay the fee, ...).   
the suggestion was to try and balance the requirement that the gtld  
application process be self supporting and the need to make the  
threshold for entry easier for those from less developed economies.

while the council partially accepted the idea that there should be  
help for those less able to pay, the feeling of most if not all of  
the council was for those grants to come from other, preferably  
external, sources.

one of the prominent arguments against any subsidy program was (to  
put it simply, more simply perhaps then it is): if you can't afford  
(or raise funds for) the fee for a registry then you probably can't  
afford to run the registry.  i disagreed, but not very successfully.   
i also disagree with the notion that the richer applicants should not  
support the poorer applicants.

a.
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