Hello, For those who didn't have time to listen to the Names Council conference call and vote recorded at:
http://www.dnso.org/dnso/mp3/20020724.NCteleconf.mp3 it was interesting (the actual vote on WLS took place at 1 hour and 17 minutes into the MP3, for those who want to fast forward). The final report of the Transfers Task Force, see: http://www.dnso.org/clubpublic/nc-transfer/Arc00/msg00406.html which, on a CONSENSUS basis rejected WLS, was approved in full by the Names Council Board, with only the gTLD Constituency voting against it. Thus, the Names Council vote itself was a CONSENSUS majority against WLS. I believe that the ICANN board would be unwise to allow implementation of WLS, ignoring that vote of the Names Council and its constituencies, and also given the ability of negatively affected registrars to issue a challenge based on my comments at: http://www.dnso.org/clubpublic/nc-transfer/Arc00/msg00303.html and also in the courts. I found it interesting to note the attempts by some Names Council members to exclude the ccTLD constituency voting on the WLS (which could have made it a non-consensus vote), saying that "WLS didn't affect them", among other arguments. I was appalled that they'd stoop to those levels, to disenfranchise a constituency once they were discovered to be anti-WLS (previously, I had thought the ccTLDs were pro-WLS, and I was pleasantly surprised that they did their homework and talked to their members, and reviewed all the arguments and came out against WLS). I echo the sentiments of another Names Council member who stated that if someone had a concern about a constituency's involvement in the Task Force, it should have been made ex-ante, not ex-post after their final position was made. Kudos to the Business Council members on the Board. If the GA disappears, I think that's the "team" I'd want to be on (they seemed to have the most logical and articulate members). I think Marilyn Cade deserves great thanks (from those both for AND against WLS) for doing a fantastic job taking input from all sides, especially given the time constraints involved. My predictions: 1) WLS is denied by the ICANN Board by this time next week. 2) SnapNames downsizes, and reduces its price for SnapBacks back to $49. I don't think they'll go bankrupt, as they have a great service, although it should not be a monopoly service in my opinion (thus my opposition to WLS). The downsizing would mostly affect the "political" employees of SnapNames (i.e. those mostly doing non-technical lobbying activities), so I don't see this as a bad thing, because those employees aren't truly "productive" in an economic sense, producing valuable goods and services for consumers. I expect them to end up with 15 or so employees, a tight group. 3) SnapNames probably introduces an auction service for domain resellers/buyers to complement their SnapBacks (i.e. competing against GreatDomains and Afternic), and becomes the top auction marketplace. 4) Verisign renegotiates its R&D commitments of $200 million with ICANN, to save money (I think they can get it down to $100 million with not many people caring). 5) The expired names marketplace sees more and more competition and innovation, with benefits to registrars and consumers. 6) Verisign eventually gets bought out by IBM or Microsoft, for under $2 billion (2 or 3 year time frame). :) Sincerely, George Kirikos http://www.kirikos.com/ __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! Health - Feel better, live better http://health.yahoo.com
