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ICANN to double budget, raise fees

Travel costs, litigation and other expenses drive the decision, which is upsetting domain registrars that will face higher fees.

Headshot of Declan McCullagh
Headshot of Declan McCullagh
Declan McCullagh Former Senior Writer
Declan McCullagh is the chief political correspondent for CNET. You can e-mail him or follow him on Twitter as declanm. Declan previously was a reporter for Time and the Washington bureau chief for Wired and wrote the Taking Liberties section and Other People's Money column for CBS News' Web site.
Declan McCullagh
The nonprofit body that oversees Internet domain names and addresses anticipates a near-doubling of its budget for the next year, with spending leaping from $8.3 million to $15.8 million. In its released this week, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) said the huge increase was necessary because of international travel and "political, governmental and environmental factors such as litigation." That would include a lawsuit filed by VeriSign being heard in federal court in Los Angeles.

ICANN's spending plans drew mixed reviews from domain name registrars, which represent the bulk of the nonprofit's income and would face far higher fees next year. Registries for top-level domains such as .com, .net, and .info represent a smaller revenue source. "ICANN must focus on its core mission and cut its budget," Register.com CEO Peter Forman said. "Registrars can not continue to support over 80 percent of the budget." But GoDaddy CEO Bob Parsons said ICANN needs the money and it could be used for more enforcement: "We're strongly in favor of the budget."