Any companies considering becoming one of the registrars for the seven new top-level domain names proposed by the Internet Ad-Hoc Committee (IAHC) can now see a draft of the registration form on the IAHC’s site and the criteria they will need to fulfill. It will cost $10,000 to become a registrar and the company must have proof that at least five employees work at the company and it has $300,000 in liquid capital. Network Solutions Inc (NSI) currently has the exclusive contract to register the .com, .org and .net names, but its contract with the federal National Science Foundation expires next spring. The proposal centers around a generic Top-Level Domain Memorandum of Understanding (gTLD-MoU) backing the seven new names and registration process that has been signed by 123 companies so far, with a few big shots like MCI Corp joining in. Applications and checks must be in by August 1. But the IAHC’s proposal does have a lot of detractors in the internet community who feel that it has been forced through with no discussion. Many are also questioning the cost of becoming a registrar. The real test will come when people start to vote with their name registrations: do they go to one of the seven new names, or with some of the alternative name registries? Incidentally, the IAHC has been disbanded and replaced by the interim Policy Oversight Committee (iPOC) but is still referred to in the proposal.
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