<i>Someone is in VRSN pocket</i><p>This has been under-discussed in this thread. But looking to &quot;government&quot; (nee ICANN, nee Dept of Commerce) for help is not the answer, rather it&#x27;s more the problem.<p>A while ago we had this headline about a no-bid contract awarded to Verisign. I don&#x27;t know about recent developments, but a while ago this was an ongoing thing.[1]<p><pre><code>   Appeals Court Reverses &amp; Allows Suit
   Against Verisign To Go To Trial:
   This Is A BIG Deal
</code></pre>
You can bet there are people getting rich off of this. E.g.:[2]<p><pre><code>   Under the current contract, which expires Friday,
   VeriSign was guaranteed four price increases
   of up to 7 percent each on domain name registrations
</code></pre>
There&#x27;s chutzpah for you. Verisign was demanding more price increases to run infrastructure that has historically had crazy price deflation associated with it.<p>[1] <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.thedomains.com&#x2F;2009&#x2F;06&#x2F;05&#x2F;appeals-court-reverses-allows-suit-against-verisign-to-go-to-trial&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.thedomains.com&#x2F;2009&#x2F;06&#x2F;05&#x2F;appeals-court-reverses-...</a>
[2] <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.nwherald.com&#x2F;mobile&#x2F;article.xml&#x2F;articles&#x2F;2012&#x2F;11&#x2F;30&#x2F;r_kfsc3e5dt9mw8jzl8d3g&#x2F;index.xml" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.nwherald.com&#x2F;mobile&#x2F;article.xml&#x2F;articles&#x2F;2012&#x2F;11&#x2F;...</a>