What's Nominet going to do with the money?

[Whois-Search]

Anyone thats a TAG holder who didn't attend the EGM should watch the webcast at 01:17:30 on "informal discussions" where Lesley Cowley and Bob Gilbert reply to Peter Gradwell's question on what will Nominet do with the money either setup a Wellcome type trust The Wellcome Trust (giving back to the internet community) or lowing prices (not very popular by non-domainers).

EGM webcast

After all it's our membership fees, DRS fees, DAC fees, renewal fees, transfer fees and maybe now ENUM fees...... they are going to spend.

 

[weycresto]

I think Andrew and others have raised some very valid points at the EGM, though on that occassion I gave Nominet the benefit of the doubt and voted "yes." There was some "moral suasion" not to be seen holding Nominet back.

"There is also a rich seam of interest in the money that Nominet makes - as a not-for-profit company protected from the madness of the past decade by its restrictive rules"

The fact is the market price for UK domain is around £5-6 of which Nominet
swipes a fiver. So for the vast majority of Nominet resellers UK domain reselling is a loss leader subsidised by other activities such as selling hosting and other domains.

I think for Nominet to continue accumulating cash or to use to fund and acquisitions or other activities would be slightly immoral while this remains the case. The Trust sounds a good idea but would also hand Nominet a considerable PR opportunity paid for by the domain selling members.

On the other hand I'm not sure cutting domain prices is the solution.