A dispute over the cost of Internet domain names has spilled over onto Capitol Hill, where allegations of monopolization and unreasonable price hikes surfaced in a congressional hearing on Wednesday.
The dispute arises out of a lawsuit settlement reached on March 1 in which the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) gave VeriSign the right to raise fees on .com domains by 7 percent annually.
The settlement, approved by ICANN鈥檚 board by a 9-5 vote, ended a legal spat that started with VeriSign鈥檚 controversial move to take control of all unassigned .com and .net domain names in 2003.
Those guaranteed price hikes struck some members of the House of Representatives鈥?Small Business Committee as unreasonable. 鈥淲hen you鈥檙e talking about increased prices and you鈥檙e allowed to do that at VeriSign, I don鈥檛 know that鈥檚 going to produce any better safety or security from anyone who鈥檚 paying that additional cost,鈥?said Rep. Sue Kelly, a New York Republican. 鈥淎nd I haven鈥檛 heard anything today that tells me that would be the case.鈥?br />
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The dispute arises out of a lawsuit settlement reached on March 1 in which the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) gave VeriSign the right to raise fees on .com domains by 7 percent annually.
The settlement, approved by ICANN鈥檚 board by a 9-5 vote, ended a legal spat that started with VeriSign鈥檚 controversial move to take control of all unassigned .com and .net domain names in 2003.
Those guaranteed price hikes struck some members of the House of Representatives鈥?Small Business Committee as unreasonable. 鈥淲hen you鈥檙e talking about increased prices and you鈥檙e allowed to do that at VeriSign, I don鈥檛 know that鈥檚 going to produce any better safety or security from anyone who鈥檚 paying that additional cost,鈥?said Rep. Sue Kelly, a New York Republican. 鈥淎nd I haven鈥檛 heard anything today that tells me that would be the case.鈥?br />
More Info & Source: News.com (<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://news.com.com/2100-1030_3-6081336.html">http://news.com.com/2100-1030_3-6081336.html</a><!-- m -->)