February 1, 2006 -- (WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) -- ICANN (icann.org) said this week that it had revised its agreement with VeriSign (verisign.com), which gave the company control over the .com registry until 2012.
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The agreement, originally reached in 2005, was met with strong opposition from the Internet community, including Web hosts such as 1&1 Internet. Critics, who called the agreement tantamount to a permanent monopoly, were likely a major factor in ICANN choosing to rework the deal.
The renegotiated deal would eliminate a transaction fee charged to companies for every sale of a .com domain, limit VeriSign's ability to raise prices, require VeriSign to pay ICANN a direct contribution and impose controls over VeriSign's ability to influence the .com business model.
The Coalition for ICANN Transparency, the group most vocal in opposing the original deal, announced this week that it is not satisfied with the changes. The non-profit organization says the changes were cosmetic and leaves the original deal mostly intact.
"These objections remain," says John Berard, spokesperson for CFIT (cfit.info). "The process dictated by the ICANN board to take public comment, renegotiate with VeriSign and come back to the community has led us in a circle to where we started."
ICANN will begin taking comment on the new deal on February 20, 2006.
