Verisign keeps its dot-com cash cow until 2024 Verisign will retain control over the dot-com registry until 2024, providing it with a multi-billion-dollar cash cow for the next eight years. Verisign's contract to run the internet's most valuable naming structure is not due to end until 2018, but in a sign of the power politics at the top of the internet, the agreement will …
Is this a big deal? The people who need a dot-com are those with a reasonable fear that someone else might register the name and steal their customers through impersonation, so that's basically companies with international sales. They can afford 10 dollars.
For everyone else, the dot-ru (or their national equivalent) will do fine. Real people use search engines to discover addresses, not guesswork, and the whole dot-words scam is predicated on non-com addresses, once found, being perceived as perfectly OK.
The only flaw in this argument that I can see would be if some legal insanity (regarding disputed names) made it difficult to hold onto the dot-ru without also registering the corresponding dot-com. The dot-com registry would then morph into an inaccurate copy of all other registries, which would themselves be unable to register names that had been registered by another other registry, and the $7.85 would be a tax on being on the internet.
But that would require truly superhuman levels of legal insanity. We're not there yet, are we?
"Sorry no, if I see a .ru the alarm bells start going off."
You do know that the tld does not indicate the location nor nationality of the site, right? I'm nowhere near Russia and I use .ru for some sites. I also use .nl because they have a good price and a trustworthy registry. Since I'm in Canada I do use .ca for some local sites. Unfortunately those are relatively expensive. The good thing about the Canadian registry is they use their profits to provide significant grants to those who would promote the internet in Canada.
Cheaper domains, less money spent by scammers for their dodgy URLs. Domain name should be expensive, and require a lengthy process plus vetting to be assigned. Reselles who demonstrably sell them by the sackful to scammers should be booted off the Internet.
Just most of the money shouldn't go to a company like Verisign, but to a foundation obliged to spend them to improve the Internet infrastructure and security.
Ok, before the freetard commentards stone me... let me explain...
As others have pointed out... low cost domain registration makes it easier for fraud and botnet command and control easier. (Note: Credit card fraud is involved...)
The domain name is an asset as you build your brand, whether its an .com, .io or whatever domain you choose. So the price of the domain name is the cost of doing business. Having been on the internet since the mid 90's when a switched 56KB line was $400 a month, then T1's were $400 a month, it kept most off the internet.
But I digress.
Because its a 'cash cow', Verisign has a vested interest in doing a professional job and be responsive when the SHTF. Attacking the root domain servers can cripple the internet and it takes deep skills to stop or mute the effects. I trust them more than I would trust the EU or some other bureaucratic group being in charge.
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