[governance] ICANN taxes/fees

[Milton Mueller]

Veni:
>what happens when the registry goes out 
>of business, or the person who is running it 
>decides to move in another city, or country, 
>or stops working on computers? 

The answer to these questions are simple. When a registry goes out of
business, either someone takes over its administration, or not. In the
latter case, the domain ceases to work. 

In other words, when a registry goes out of business, the same thing
happens as when an ISP goes out of business, or a web site with which
you have an account, or a hosting service goes out of business.

A more interesting question is what policy conclusions one draws from
this simple fact. 

Veni seems to imply that if only he and other ICANN board members were
allowed to act as market gatekeepers, that no one approved to enter the
business will ever go out of business. Pretty interesting assumption,
given that large as well as small businesses often go out of business,
and that business such as MCI and KPNQwest that are both large and hold
numerous government licenses and approvals, have in fact gone out of
business. 

So some followup questions for my favorite soon-to-be-former ICANN board
member and soon-to-be remaining on the ICANN payroll for his loyal
service guy: 

* Should ICANN or some other central global authority decide who can and
cannot enter the ISP and web site hosting business? 

* Speaking from your inside knowledge of the Board, just exactly when
did ICANN staff or Board develop special clairvoyant powers to predict
the future regarding which businesses will survive and which will waste
money, or operate inefficiently, or borrow too much, or misjudge their
pricing and consequently die? Have you thought about setting up shop on
Temple Street in Hong Kong to compete with the other fortune tellers? 


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