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ohashi | on: #41511941
This is the most obvious reason why Verisign is a monopolist and should be regulated like a utility. They make false claims about choice and not being locked in. You buy a domain, you use it, you're locked in forever. And they know it. That's why they fight tooth and nail to protect their monopoly.
hsbauauvhabzb | parent | next
It’s worse if you stop using the phrase ‘buy’ and instead use the term ‘rent’. A DNS provider could 10,000x your domain cost and there’s nothing you can do about it.
nl | root | parent | next
> A DNS provider could 10,000x your domain cost

DNS providers can't do this.

It's domain registries that can.

robert_tweed | root | parent | next
This actually happened to me, but fortunately I never actually used the domain. I registered tweed.dev intending to use robert.tweed.dev as a personal blog. It wasn't classed as a "premium" domain and the first year was £5 or something IIRC, which was half price compared to the normal renewal fee.

The next year they decided it was premium after all, and wanted to charge £492,000 for renewal. I still have a screenshot of that, although needless to say I don't own the domain anymore.

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Tepix | root | parent | next
No kidding. I had a one letter .tm domain name back in the 90s and they (Turkmenistan) increased the fee to $1000/year.
darby_nine | root | parent
Tbh this seems like a win—you want to incentivize making as much use of those short domains as possible.
snypher | root | parent
Is this like forcing a tenant out of a property because you wish to raise the rent?
darby_nine | root | parent | next
Yea, but in this case the property is very special. I don't think anyone has a right to own a "name" for perpetuity, especially such a short one—that's just extending property rights to a nonsensical place.

Granted, I also have zero respect for people who think that trademarks, patents, and copyright are still working to promote rather than stifle the arts and sciences, so I can understand why my above sentiment might rankle.

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samatman | root | parent | next
Countries owning their ccTLDs seems basically correct to me. If you rent a `.tm` domain, you're doing business with the nation of Turkmenistan: might want to think about whether a TLD pun is worth taking on that relationship.
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seniorivn | root | parent
its the opposite, its an increase of rent, because you want to increase rent
j-bos | root | parent | next
Can they? I thought ICANN prevented such steep increases?
ryan29 | root | parent | next
There are a bunch of different domain types all commingled together; non-premium gTLD domains, ccTLD domains, 3rd level domains, registry premium gTLD domains and, as added complexity, aftermarket domains which could be any of the previous listed types.

ICANN provides some protection for standard gTLD domains, but it's minimal. You're guaranteed identical pricing to all other standard domain registrants on the gTLD, so they can only raise your price by raising the price of everyone else at the same time. That hasn't stopped some registries from 10x price increases though. The only thing it does is ensure they can't single you out and massively hike your renewal fee.

However, that does not apply to registry premium gTLD domains. When you register a registry premium domain you waive those protections and the registries can technically do anything they want.

If you register a ccTLD domain, you're at the mercy of that country's registry. If you register a 3rd level domain you're at the mercy of the 2nd level domain owner and they're regulated by either ICANN or a country based registry.

It's actually somewhat complex when you get into it.

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joecool1029 | root | parent
Only for a few TLD's, stuff like ccTLD's there's no limit on how much a registry can charge.
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adr1an | root | parent | next
We can prevent this by paying the domain registrar ahead of time for N years. It's not a real solution, but it works (as good as any patch)
parineum | root | parent
And if you're domain is really worth that much, you can sell it before it expires.
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