Do you think we have covered all the issues within this review period?  If not, what do you think have we missed?

Yes.


Yes, but it seems the government has demonstrated significant bad faith by putting forward over-broad provisions to regulate Nominet and other UK-based registries in the Digital Economy bill anyway. These are unnecessary, and potentially very damaging to the UK Internet industry. Please resist the over-regulation proposals in this bill, and work with other registries and the broader UK Internet industry in doing so.


Yes: I don't understand why DfBIS wants to change something that is already working, and working well.


I beleive so.


Yes.


Trademark protection is something which seems to be a very grey area - I would like to see it on the agenda.


As far as I can see, the above is a reasonable description of how Nominet works currently from a user's point of view, and as a user I think it works very well so don't want to see any significant changes.  I understand that there is a minority of registrars who see Nominet as ripe for exploitation and I am keen to make sure they go elsewhere to feed their insatiable greed!


As a member of only 8 months, I have always had a fantastic service from the support staff. I find the technical systems are elegant and advanced. Having dealt with many other registrars such as .de .ie. it .fr It is clear that the regulations set in place by them (specifically .ie) is damaging those economies more than it is supposedly helping protect them. Continuing with .ie as an example, they insist on registrants proving claim over the domain they wish to register, this manual process while well-intentioned has the completely opposite effect from its intention (i.e. to safeguard the name space against 'rogue' registrations be they for cyber squatting, or parked domains etc.) The fact is their are only 130K or so domains currently in registration in .ie (in total), and the policy is holding back many legitimate companies from being able to registrar domains for purposes other than the aforesaid mentioned. I have many clients who just ignore the .ie business or approach the problem in another way (rank a dot com instead) etc. Over regulation as above is clearly damaging the economy in ireland no matter how well intentioned. I have a client who has to register a business name for every .ie domain that he has to registrar, that's an added cost of I think 20 euros per domain along with a lot on unnecessary paperwork. Yet he has no intention of cyber squatting nor parking domains.    I have seen some banter between some members regarding the secondary market. For some it's a thorn, for others a business. I use it as a business, but I do not partake in parking domains, nor cybersquatting,  nor advertising. My business model is one which helps UK and other companies succeed in the Google rankings, it is not SEO per say but in the same area and I use second hand domains to this end. The end result of which is many companies based in the UK and elsewhere creating considerable value and income for the general economy and this is achieved precisely because the .uk registry is so well managed. It would not be possible with the .com model, nor with many of the others.    what can I say, a job well done? 


Yes.


Nominet is doing a good job. The .uk domain space is most definitely not broke and not in need of mending.


As a set of grand outlines, I think you've covered a lot; certainly more things that I would have thought to cover, and I applaud the work hitherto.  But the past three years have done a lot to erode my faith that the board desires a "member-led" nominet; hopefully, the next three years will restore my faith (and nominet-steer).   

As stated above, those changes are good and I think that Nominet so far has done a good job - even without those system/constitutional changes being put "in written" or implemented 1:1. While I appreciate the new model, I do not like the fact that the Board gets more power (as it should!) without being very specific on who can hold the Board accountable - in simple words I do not like the idea of a Board that is accountable to all Stakeholders, as the past has shown that a management accountable to all Stakeholders in reality is not accountable. What we need is a clear focus on doing what is right for Nominet and that is focusing on what is the right thing to do for the .UK-domains; I think that the members should be the ones that can hold the Board accountable, as only the members have the necessary industry-knowledge. This being said, the Government should have veto-powers for pricing-questions.   


Yes and I fully support the board of Nominet on these issues.


Yes, I believe Nominet have covered all issues and vote for Nominet to continue to run the .uk, WITHOUT Government involvement.


Yes.


Whilst I agree with this in principle, I am cautious of the charitable donations that Nominet make from profits.


In 15 years of Internet use, I think the holding page at http://www.nominet.co.uk/ is one of the most condescending things I have come across on the internet. You could automatically redirect users from nominet.co.uk to nominet.org.uk, but instead you would rather inconvenience users with a petty message reminding them that they haven’t typed your preferred domain name correctly. Nominet are the only organisation I have come across that don’t implement automatic redirects in such a situation.


All my concerns have been covered


It's worth noting what a good job Nominet has done all the years past and for that reason, I have no doubt that the staff and board will continue to support it's members and the .uk community.


Yes


Yes.


I can't think of anything missed out.


I believe these questions are very vague and do not go deep enough or cover what is at the heart of the government planned intervention, I would like full disclosure and in your face questions on everything in the report so that government can see that members can be responsive. I don't want to wake up to headlines over the next two years that the UK domain name space is to see wholesale changes because we weren't honest now about how we can ensure our own business interests survive whilst still serving the general public and business at large.


Yes, I think that everything that is important to me and my business is covered in these issues.


I believe that you have covered the issues well


You cannot claim to serve the members while at the same time trying instruct said members on how to do business. There have been issues with the way you do business since day one, you could at the very least sort these before telling members how 'they' should do business. 


Put simply, everything this government gets involved with turns to [censored*] , the service from Nominet has been excellent over the years and I see no reason for change. Tell them to keep their dirty, tax-imposing hands off!! (* censored by respondent)

Take as an example a simple issue such as selling domain names to spammers. Nominet needs to protect the .uk name space from miss-use, .uk needs to be safe and trusted, it isn't. I think this is where government is coming from. All the statements are netral none are positive.


yes, first class consultation, as i found when you did the birmingham event


Having been a Nominet member and having been regstering domains with them for many, many years there is no better TLD registrar. We have to deal with others for .coms etc all over the world, and nobody else comes close to their service, honesty and systems.  We have always wished Nominet looked after all the other TLDs as well. It would be a crime if it was forced to change now.


Yes, I think it's been a well-considered and thorough review.


I think that there is a need for an Industry Association for Registrars. I believe that Nominet could prime the pump and support the establishment of one. I think this would raise standards within the industry and give registrars a place to talk about issues other than in Nominet fora or the Nominet Board room.


Yes


Yes, and we hope we can continue to see Nominet self-regulating the .uk registry as well as they have done for years so far.


Yes.  As always, if there are issues, I have always found Nominet 'open' to discuss them.  I am sure there will be something missing and I am sure that will be dealt with as appropriate.


Yes.  Issues covered.


i think Article 19A, shouldn't be removed. The members should be able to vote on this issue and decide whats the best outcome which is equal for all parties no matter how big they are .The Government shouldn't interfere with Nominet as its being successfully compared to other government run IT projects such as the NHS and MOD which are being run by the Select few companies such as EDS thus small businesses having no chance to offer their services to the public sector.


Yes.  I'd prefer to see a non-regulated UK domain registrar versus a bureaucratic approach.  It permits the branding of UK domains worldwide and draws higher attention to the profile that UK entities have on the Internet and governmental influence will simply stifle that level of dialogue and penetration.  The current Nominet scheme simply just works.


If Government regulation becomes inevitable, or member control becomes erroded, there seem to be few plans to obtain instruction from the membership to enable the board to act quickly and decisively.  Is Nominet not obligated by statute (not articles of association) to re-evaluate what is best for its members in preference to other stakeholders?  Specifically, in so far as the articles of association permit, the NFP sale of the primary asset(s) (or 'cashing out' of members investments) before such asset(s) are sequestered or regulated by Government?  The membership may, by way of theoretical example, prefer such assets to be transfered to an organisation outside the control of the UK Government if they felt this was in their interest (irrespective of the views of other stakeholders).

Yes, I do believe Nominet have covered everything in this review. I can confirm that I believe that Nominet 'does work' and too many changes in regulation may have a detrimental effect on how the .uk industry runs in the future.


To give stability to internet companies, I would like to see the opportunity to register domains for a longer time period. The domain name in many instances has become the company name. A forever registration would be nice, but in practical terms if a registration of 25 or even 50 years were to be offered, I feel this would be of great benefit to many companies.


I think Nominet should get on with it!


Yes


Nominet is a proven institution that is providing an excellent service to  .uk and should be respected as such. While its constition may be considered for revision, there is little doubt of its capability and expertise to continue as a independent body.


Yes. It works - and works well. Don't fix what ain't broken.


Yes


No I think there is little in this review regarding Nominet's involvement in providing good feedback on changes to legislation that affect the internet and putting forward the views of stakeholders on these changes. Also there is nothing on how Nominet should be supporting law enforcement in the eradication of internet crime.


Yes. Nominet provides a good service and works well. The government is unlikely to improve matters by meddling and should leave it well alone.  It 'aint broke so don't fix it.


I would like to ensure that the salaries Nominet directors and employess remain within reasonable measure.  Directors should be responsible for paying into an independant pension scheme.  Directors who are removed or step down should receive a maximum of 3 months salary. Nominet should not create pension liabilities within the organisation, but employee pensions should be handled by outside resources (eg. % of salaries being paid into a commercial pension fund, which employess can take with them if they move elsewhere).


Do individual members of Nominet really understand the importance and everyday use of the internet, and how it impacts business and personal use? Simply feedback.


From an international marketing point of view, I find a DOT COM suffix makes much more international impact.  I guess it always will. It might be nice to encourage domestic American local businesses, etc. to have a DOT US or DOT CO US suffix, instead of DOT COM for the most local of things (eg. BrooklynDryCleaning.com could become BrooklynDryCleaning.co.us);  but even though Sir Tim Berners-Lee invented the internet, the Americans seem to have made DOT COM their own internal province. I think there should also be a Suffix for England, in recognition of the significance of England.  If the Scots and Welsh want a suffix each as well, that's up to them, but at least they have their own parliament / assembly. We should commercialise internet speeds.  Internet speeds should be given much more significance in the minds of the providers, by the simple expedient of having a "internet speed tachometer report" on every computer.  Both for inward and outward messages.  Then you only pay according to the REAL service you experience;  I live in the countryside and am only able to send at about 40 / second.  So if this was my average, I might find my Outward Transmission Service fell into a cheaper OUTWARD price band.  Equally, if my Inward Transmission Service was slow (as actually achieved by my computer reports), I would fall into a cheaper INWARD price band.  This would win the immediate and direct financial attention of providers, and give them an opportunity to invest, increase achieved speeds, and be rewarded accordingly. From a business point of view, it would be a small extra price well worth paying, if it unlocked the potential of 90% of the UK land area which is at present “countryside? and an Internet Desert.  There are so many businesses which would be more creative if located in the countryside.  This would reduce city congestion, and increase the sum of human happiness. I would also like to end the cynical and objectionable practice of quoting "speeds up to...";  I'd love to quote a design fee "not less than £1,000" where the contract allowed me to charge £4,000 because I could not achieve the productivity I had in mind when "hoping" I could do the work in so few number of hours.  I have to stick to £1,000, once I have quoted.  For the internet, it would be more honest to quote "speeds AT LEAST 50 / sec for a minimum of 90% of the time". Incidentally, on a moral level, the Internet was not Sir Tim’s Intellectual Property to share and give away to the world for free.  The UK taxpayer gave Sir Tim a handsome (and clearly highly effective) University Education in the days before student loans; if Sir Tim did not wish to gain a penny, then at least the British Taxpayer could be assigned the rights.  If Sir Tim DOES want to gain from this (eg. £0.01 per user per month), then he would earn many billions, and contribute several billions to the UK exchequer (just as Bill Gates does for the American tax collectors).   

Yes - issues have been covered.


YES I BELIEVE THE MAIN ISSUES HAVE BEEN COVERED WITHIN THE REVIEW


I think that these principles point to a fair, equitable and transparent organisation that will serve everyone with an interest in the .uk namespace with the highest ethical standards.


I think people should consider whether Nominet – a company making multi-million pound annual profits – is an appropriate entity to manage what is now a vital monopoly supply for the UK economy.  That review should not be answerable to those with a vested interest in the outcome, but rather be done totally at arm’s length. However, in the absence of such a review, I believe that adding domains to other IP rolling it into the UK Intellectual Property Office would be preferable to the status quo.