[ga] Comparison
George Kirikos wrote; <<In the end it would seem to lead (at least in one path) to a real-estate type model, where registrars are more like Real Estate brokers and trustees, getting commissions on sales and thus enhancing the allocational efficiency. >> I do not see how any comparison can be made. First of all the sites are NOT owned by Verisign nor Icann, even tho they seem to think they have a monoply over them. RE brokers are contracted by individual property owners. There is a limited number of desirable sites as has been shown in the dot com market and, as in any market with limited numbers, sooner or later that market will be depleted. Personally, I think that registrars will eventually be out of business for this reason. Years ago, I suggested that the SEC and NYSE should be used as a model for setting up a legitimate market and control of the internet. << That would obviously be a radical change from what exists today. There's no empirical evidence that the amount of turnover in the secondary market could keep all the registrars in business, either, in that real-estate type model. Registrars depend on thr "on going" registration cash flow to stay alive; moving to a system where all the fees are mostly up front be quite a shock. It might also enhance the Verisign monopoly, or at least magnify monopolistic concerns at many levels, which is a bad thing.>> Network Solutions has had anti-trust charges against them before and it is probably just a matter of time before Verisign (which owns NSI) will face the same charges. In fact, it wouldn't surprise me if there isn't eventually an investigation on stock manipulation, insider trading and price fixing.
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