100-Year Domain Renewals?

Ryosen writes "I received an email this morning from Network Solutions. Seems they are offering their current customers the ability to renew their domain names for 100 years. Is this is a realistic investment considering most companies don't last 100 years? Given that the Internet is a recent phenomenom, is it realistic to expect it to be the same in 100 years? Will Verisign be around that long? Does this make sense?"

Um...no

[mercan01]

I can't imagine this is a worthwhile investment for the myriad of reasons the submitter. Stick with the 10 year renewl option.

Re:Um...no

[Anonymous Coward]

For large companies, I suppose the management problems of renewing domain names (even once every 10 years) outweighs the cost.

Case 1:
There is a special department to handle this matter. All right, now there's no such need.

Case 2:
There's no special department to deal with domain name renewal. Once every few years, when everybody has forgotten the matter and suddenly somebody realises the domain is going to expire tomorrow. So now the problem would cease to exist within your lifetime (that's good enough, is

Re:Um...no

[KamuSan]

Imagine the problems they will have after 100 years. Do you think anyone will remember to renew the domainname 99 years from now?

Time = Money

[mattlary]

For some companies it's worth the $1000 to register their domain for 100 years so they don't need to have someone worry about it. Granted, it takes 5 minutes to renew your domain, but if they save some money on top of that, it's totally worth it. (Not to mention $1000 is nothing to most companies)

Re:Time = Money

[stilwebm]

At $10/yr they aren't saving money... And if you consider the value of that $1,000 invested in other ways or used to pay down interest:

$14.99 per year invested at 5% compounded annually for 100 years is worth $41,080.49 in 100 years.
$1,000 invested up front at 5% compounded annually for 100 years is worth $131,501.26 in 100 years.

The $14.99 is the per year rate for 10 year renewals on Network Solutions. Since Network Solutions sends dozens of emails reminding you to renew, you have no reason to forget. Just make sure the contact address is not an individual but hostmaster@ or domainadmin@ since a 10 year tenure at a company is rare these days. I think time is unlikely to account for this difference in opportunity cost.

Re:Um...no

[KyleCordes]

Well, yes, companies do "forget" :-)

When you do work for large firms, you learn that getting them to actually write a check for services rendered can be quite tedious. It really doesn't surprise me that all that a bill for domain renewal just sits there. It won't get paid until a "champion" makes sure it gets paid.

(As an aside, I find that we can't help but provide better, more responsive service, going the extra mile, for clients that pay their bills promptly without extra work on our part.)

Re:Um...no

[budgenator]

actualy I'd guess most organisations have a guy in IT who pays on his personnal CC and submits for reimursement from the dept. A 100 yr registration is probably verisign's way of getting cash for services that'll be for longer than they exist.

Re:Um...no

[cshark]

I could see 30 year registration. That would make sense. But 100 years? Who says domain names will even exist 100 years from now?

Re:Um...no

[AKnightCowboy]

Who says domain names will even exist 100 years from now?

Good point. DNS will likely be replaced by a huge globally distributed Active Directory implementation by then.

Re:Um...no

[eryk]

that makes me think about "+1 Scary" modifier.

Re:Um...no

[tekunokurato]

Help me out -- what is an active directory implementation?

Re:Um...no

[Loconut1389]

This is something I've pondered often. I think the DNS model will only persist as long as the impression that a website must be a .com does. This is fading, but I remember a long time ago when people thought there was a mistake if there was no www. on the front or it wasn't a .com.. Granted, the tech public knew better, but the average joe had no idea. (im talking back when = 6), eventually it will just make more sense to have sort of a distant cousin to a search engine type DNS system. Or maybe websites will be more or less a sentence (company slogan) or word pair (company name)? Who knows, but I agree, machine naming is going to change drasticly someday.

Heck, what if there was enough IP space such that the ASCII codes for the letters in your site name somehow made up the actual IP. That would eliminate the need for a DNS system altogether, but would waste a lot of IP space as we think about it in our current paradigm of fixed ip lengths with groupings etc etc. Perhaps future systems will not need fixed length, perhaps not. Who knows.

Re:Um...no

[pr0c]

With deflation they are going to make a killing off of selling 100 year renewels to fools. Well that and the likleyhood of prices dropping.

10 dollars paid 100 years in advance.. think about it people.

I have a better deal!

[Atario]

I'll give you half off the already incredibly low low price of $9.99/yr when you renew for a million years! That's right, only $4.99 per year for a million-year renewal*! Think of the convenience! No more tiresome renewal reminders -- for a million years!

* All sales final. Domain names not transferrable.

Dead

[millahtime]

I'll be dead in 100 years so what good will it do me. I'm not seeing a plus to being dead and owning a domain.

Re:Dead

[AKnightCowboy]

I'll be dead in 100 years so what good will it do me. I'm not seeing a plus to being dead and owning a domain.

This is obviously aimed at companies. I'm sure IBM, GM, Ford, Microsoft, etc. have no intentions of going anywhere and $1000-$3000 for 100 years of domain registration comes out of petty cash for them.

Re:Dead

[tiled_rainbows]

Yeah, but it's like buying a house with a hundred-year lease. You might only plan to live in it for twenty years, but when you come to sell it, the depreciation in value from a hundred-year lease to an eighty-year lease is far less than that from a thirty-year lease to a ten-year lease. So, if you're buying a resaleable domain name, say www.shopping.com or www.computer.com or whatever, then yeah, I'd say a hundred-year contract would be worth it. It's the closest you can get to owning a particular domain outright, forever.

Having said that, I can't imagine that people will access web sites in fifty years (if there's even anything that still exists that's remotely analagous to a website by then) by typing text into an address bar. I don't know what they'll be doing instead, but I get the feeling that owning a cool domain name will be about as valuable as having the rights to a particularly catchy morse code callsign would be now.

Re:Dead

[corbettw]

Having said that, I can't imagine that people will access web sites in fifty years (if there's even anything that still exists that's remotely analagous to a website by then) by typing text into an address bar.

Well, in all likelihood, they'll be too busy trying to survive day by day, while keeping on the run from the zombie horde that wants to eat their flesh.

Man, this documentary [dawnofthedeadmovie.net] really freaked me out.

Re:Dead

[Throtex]

Having said that, I can't imagine that people will access web sites in fifty years (if there's even anything that still exists that's remotely analagous to a website by then) by typing text into an address bar. I don't know what they'll be doing instead, but I get the feeling that owning a cool domain name will be about as valuable as having the rights to a particularly catchy morse code callsign would be now.

You should print this comment out, put it in a shoebox somewhere (or a time capsule!) and open it up in 50 years. You'll probably have a good laugh. I'm not sure exactly what part of this will be funny in fifty years, but more than likely it'll somehow be funny. ;)

Re:Um...no

[wfeick]

Why on earth would anyone lock in a single service provider for 100 years? Would you sign a 100 year cell phone plan? I sure wouldn't, because it removes any incentive for the company to do a good job.

It also removes any opportunity for you to vote with your dollars if you don't like the behavior of the company. I used to have my domain registered with Network Solutions, but when their parent company, Verisign, started hijacking NXDOMAIN responses and sending people to their advertising instead, I moved my domain to GoDaddy as a protest.

I don't want my dollars going to a company that seems to want to use their ICANN granted monopoly over the root database to "innovate" themselves as much profit as the can, at the expense of everyone else on the internet.

Besides, the discounted 100 year price from Network Solutions is the same as GoDaddy's everyday price, so it's not even a bargain. I've also found GoDaddy's support to be much easier to get to, and much more responsive and knowledgable than Network Solutions. I'm definitely very happy I made the move.

I think they know something we don't!

[Anonymous Coward]

Maybe they are better informed than us /.'ers and everything is going to change in the near future rendering your 100 year domain useless.

Synical, me? Naaaa.

Re:I think they know something we don't!

[Saint Stephen]

As long as this happens with 30 years they come out ahead.

Makes a lot of sense for Verisign...

[iapetus]

Nice to be paid up front for a service you may well not end up providing.

For the users, it's pretty much equivalent to being able to buy your domain name for all time, with no risk of it somehow falling to a domain squatter because you failed to renew. If you've got the money to throw at that sort of peace of mind, then why not?

Snapnames

[beakerMeep]

Another interesting thing to consider -- as a recent snap names customer, (for a domain I feel I have the right to but don't own and dont want to pay ICANN $1000 to arbitrate) this would really negate the value of snapnames. In fact if the ower of the domain I want were to purchase 100 years I would certainly want my money back from snapnames.

domain name hijackers

[morcheeba]

Even if you get the 100-year renewel, Verisign could still give it away [com.com]. They've got a history of not properly authenticating transfer requests, so you're not really buying any piece of mind.

Re:Makes a lot of sense for Verisign...

[3247]

Verisign clearly says on the page linked from the story that they will be renewing your registration annually.

So if Versign dies, they won't be able to do this any longer. So you have to renew the domain (and pay for it) yourself.
Of course, if Verisign becomes insolvent, you won't get your money back either.

One Winner

[RobertTaylor]

100 year registration is plain silly. Ten year ones currently are popular but really only to those who have very valuable names or dont want the hassle of re-registering names every year.

The idea of allowing a user to specify a date for renewals is best, for example April 1st could become the date all the domains for a company are renewed, rather than scattered dates throughout the year.

My Auction: Pan Tilt Moveable Ethernet Webcam, UK! [ebay.co.uk]

Re:One Winner

[mumblestheclown]

100 year registration is plain silly.

Really? Tell me, who exactly is working at IBM, Apple, Ford, Xerox, Boeing, etc who is the single person responsible for making sure that the domain gets re-registered say 10 years from today? Such a person might lose his job and/or be easily lost in the system by that time. Constructing an internal system to keep track of this costs well more than $1000, and in fact it costs probably a minimum of $200 of people-time to do such renewals even in a medium-large sized company.

Frankly, for all the stupid and evil things that NetSol does, this is a brilliant marketing move and more power to them. Not only does it get them desperately needed up-front cash, but they get paid above the odds and lessen the chance of some embarassing squatter incident involving a medium-large company in the near future.

Re:One Winner

[oniony]

I imagine it might be the same guy who is responsible for renewing other memberships, subscriptions, patents, etc. You don't seriously think domain names are the only product or service that fall under the subscription model, do you?

Re:One Winner

[Epistax]

I think the idea of creating a product based on poor customer service is not acceptable. Any reasonable system would allow a ten year contract to go over by at least a month for renewal. Not allowing any sort of grace period is simply rude and irresponsible. It's like a bank auctioning off your possessions after one missed monthly payment. Sure, they can make more money that, but it isn't right.

Now one thing I am a strong proponent of is fair use and ownership. For exmaple you can take over microsoft

Re:One Winner

[Guanix]

Remember that you can renew domain names before they expire. Therefore you wouldn't have to remember to renew it in exactly 10 years; you only need to remember this at least once in every 10-year period.

Asset Management

[Royster]

Every large company has an asset management department. Their job is to make sure that stuff like this dosn't fall under the cracks. There isn't one single person who is charged with making sure that the domain name is renewed, there is a friggin department charged with making sure that company assets are appropriately inventoried and maintained. Any large company should list their asset management group or their purchasing department as the billing contacts for domain names.

Re:One Winner

[Tokerat]

Frankly, for all the stupid and evil things that NetSol does, this is a brilliant marketing move and more power to them.

Yea, hopefully all the companies that can afford it re-register their names for 100 years and then Network Solutions goes under in 10 years from lack of revenue since most of the Internet is locked in until 2104, heh.

Re:One Winner

[robbieduncan]

Yes (at least in the UK). If you stop paying your line rental (on a land-line) or stop your contract (on a mobile) then you loose your phone number after a while. If you reconnect you will get a different number.

Yeah, it makes sense...

[terraformer]

...for Network Solutions' bottom line. ;-) But in all seriously, this is the kind of short sighted, pump up stock crap I would expect from the MBA set. Take in a huge amount of money up front at a severe discount and then lose the regular income over the long haul. The only way this would work for netsol is if they invested most every dime of it in long term investments and were really conservative with it. The reality is, there will be a peny or two higher dividend this quarter.

Re:Yeah, it makes sense...

[bitmason]

I would be very surprised if Network Solutions can report this as lump-sum revenue in the quarter received. Like any subscription, I would assume that it has to be spread out over the length of the registration. If so, they're actually potentially giving up some nearer-term revenue for this (because there's a discount involved)--even though they're getting cash in hand.

It's not short sighted....

[raehl]

You have to keep in mind that even at a paltry 6% return rate, the value of money doubles every 12 years - or about 8 times by the time 100 years rolls around. That's why these company's love these long-term domain renewal options - even if they charge you one half of what you'd pay over 100 years, they'll still, in the long haul, get 4 times as many real dollars out of you.

In business, it's always better to get money sooner over later. 100 years early isn't a "trick", it's almost theft.

Re:It's not short sighted....

[S.O.B.]

they'll still, in the long haul, get 4 times as many real dollars out of you.

I think you forgot about inflation. All you need is one or two decades with double digit inflation like we had in the 70's and you'll be lucky if the "real dollars" break even.

Re:It's not short sighted....

[mdfst13]

No, you're missing the point. High inflation *strengthens* the argument, as it is better to get $10 now than *after* double digit inflation. After a period with 100% inflation, the same nominal $10 would be the equivalent of $5 real (using now as the baseline). It would have to inflate to $20 nominal to match the current $10 real.

What NetSol is saying is that they think that inflation in domain name prices will be lower than inflation in general (note that domain name prices have been *falling* rather than rising; remember when the same $1000 would have gotten a domain for *1* year, not 100?). As a result, they are better off getting paid now, even at a discount from their typical rates.

Note: remember that we are talking about the advantages to the *seller* here. Buyers would probably be better off with short term renewals, as they can expect domain name prices to fall relative to other products as name serving, etc. becomes more efficient. All they gain are the transactional savings of not renewing as often.

Not to mention the problem of NetSol going out of business in the meantime and leaving these 100 year domain owners stranded.

Re:It's not short sighted....

[zerocool^]

You have to keep in mind that even at a paltry 6% return rate, the value of money doubles every 12 years - or about 8 times by the time 100 years rolls around.

Well, yes, but from the perspective of the consumer, think about inflation. If it costs, whatever, say $1000 to buy a domain for 100 years, you have to also account for the cost it would have cost to pay for the domain each year for 100 years, which, no doubt, will increase. Over 100 years of inflation, a domain that starts out costing $20/yr or w

Re:Yeah, it makes sense...

[acroyear]

but in the long run, it may hurt them. To take an example from computer history, IBM gave it a run in the late 80s of having their customers buy their servers outright instead of leasing them as they had done for decades before. short term, it infused a LOT of cash into IBMs coffers in a relatively short time.

long term -- well, at some point, the last IBM leaser bought his machine, and suddenly (and the accountants simply did not predict this would ever happen) the sales bottomed out and flatlined. pret

Lamers

[optisonic]

It looks to me like they are out of decent ideas to generate revenue and also want to give the impression that this service somehow is going to be around for that time period.

Face it, the current system will not last through leaps and bounds of technology that are coming. We are still in the stone age compared to what is ahead.

It would be better to take that money and buy ten years and invest the rest so it is actually doing something useful for you.

Best,
BJ

well why not?

[gbjbaanb]

the thing is, if you're a company like MS or IBM, spending $1000 on a domain is worth the tme it would otherwise take to get it renewed every 10 years. You don't know the paperwork, the invoicing, the bills, the accounts, the 'why do we need this domain' questions... buy it once for $1k, forget about it.

and, as far as Network Solutions is concerned, they get the full money, even if the client does go bust! Its win-win all round.

Re:well why not?

[FalconZero]

Precicely. It may also be that this is a product targeted at non-technical staff within companies. I know quite a few managment types that would jump at this kind of offer without even consulting someone on the technical background.

Re:well why not?

[shione]

yea especially so for Microsoft. Who else remembers this: oh oh... [google.com]

Re:well why not?

[Foss]

Agh! Beat me to it by three minutes!

Re:well why not?

[metamatic]

Yeah, but if you're a company like IBM, it's worth $1000 not to have to do business with Network Solutions.

Renewal costs

[bitmason]

The submitter makes valid points. On the other hand, for a large company, we're really talking about very little money here and the internal administrative costs of dealing with a renewal are probably fairly significant. So , for a Ford or GM or whatever, it may well make sense to pay the few thousand dollars for their various primary domains and then not have to worry about it.

Re:Renewal costs

[bitmason]

Yes they have procedures, but it still costs money. And there have been any number of documented cases of companies losing their domains because they forgot to renew, notices weren't sent out, paperwork got snafued, etc. This isn't a service for an individual or a small business, but IMO makes a lot of sense for a large company. The financial downside of doing it is almost trivial in the scheme of things compared to some of the potential (however low probability) downsides of messing up a renewal.

Is it a good deal for the issuer as well? Hell, yes. Pre-pays are great--the longer the better. You lock in the customer and, for any of a variety of reasons, you may never need to provide the service (the customer goes out of business, you go out of business). Or registration costs could drop so far that this is the world's most expensive domain registration in 10 years.

Probably Not.

[Jexx Dragon]

I really don't think that would be useful. Not only will you be dead in 100 years, but the company issueing these names may not be. But, I guess its up to you, at least you wouldnt have to worry about someone trying to steal it.

it's a tradeoff...

[psycho_tinman]

For some people, heck for most, money can buy you conveniences.. This is just an additional service offered by them for a nice round number of years. They're just promising to take care of the hassle of domain renewal. At the end of the day, 10 year or 100 year renewal makes little difference. The person/organization which is organized won't need ANY renewal services, while others may opt for this service.

Some people pay money to buy tax software, while others hire an accountant and yet others do their taxes by themselves. It's the degree of customization and service which differs. Isn't that all there is to it ?

I'm not sure if the internet as we know it will exist in a 100 years, but then, people were arguing that snail mail would be extinct and there would be paperless offices throughout the planet. That hasn't happened yet. Let those who want this service spend some additional cash and buy themselves peace of mind, if they have the cash to spare and wish to do so.. Simple.

Where does the ownership go?

[192939495969798999]

If network solutions dies, where do those ownerships go? That's a critical question, and one that this article is really asking. Suppose Microsoft steps in and buys the outstanding interest in Network Solutions... the results could be really disastrous. On the other hand, the government could step in and regulate ownership of domain names, and then it would be like getting a business license or something like that. One last thing - it's spelled PHENOMENON.

Re:Where does the ownership go?

[Tomahawk]

One last thing - it's spelled PHENOMENON.

Do doo d' do do!


Do you really need Sandra Bullok and a few pink muppets to get the effect.

Re:Where does the ownership go?

[mosch]

phenomenon is a remake of mehna mehna that was on Muppets Tonight, and starred Sandra Bullock. God, I wish I didn't know that.

Re:Where does the ownership go?

[will_die]

They would just be treated like any other debt or obligation for any other company.
If purchased the new company would be obligated to provide service as detailed in the agreement when you pay the contract.
If network solutions went belly up and no one purchased it and its info, then you are probably in trouble like everyone else.
If the government decided to take over all control then depending on which government you might get a prorated money back or nothing at all.

Re:Where does the ownership go?

[v1]

I asked my registrar (register.com) a similar question, and found out at least for them how it works. Apparently when you pay for your domain, they forward the registration fee to icann or whoever, so your domain is registered with them for however long. From there, you can transfer your domain to any registration service, usually free of charge.

I asked the rep then what is to stop me from registering my domain at the cheapest place possible for an extended time, (10 yrs etc) and then transferring it to

I remember something similar to it

[lingqi]

Just before the Nationalists fled mainland china to Taiwan, they pre-charged everyone something like 50-years worth of taxes.

Let's just say that for everybody that paid, it wasn't a very good investment.

(That said, it's not that people had a choice in the matter or anything)

Why pay $9.99/yr when you can pay less...

[alpha1125]

You have godaddy.com [godaddy.com] which is alot cheaper. Others maybe cheaper...

With godaddy, you can subscribe for a few years, I know at least 6 years in advance. I can't remember if it's more.

With the money you tie up, you can invest, use the investment earnings to pay for more years or hosting. Or even better yet, free beer for your friends. :)

I'm not affiliated with godaddy, they're just my domain name registrar.

Re:Why pay $9.99/yr when you can pay less...

[adzoox]

I was going to say the same thing but found your post - you deserve mod points. I use godaddy too. Thery are a division of dotster - which I really don't like - but their godaddy division seems to be run better. You get lots of little perks that you have to pay extra for elsewhere.

I will add this - it would be foolish to do this for another reason - what if you are bought out? What if your company name changes? Mine has changed from Gadzooks to adzooks to adzoox.

not really realistic.

[gl4ss]

of course, if it's cheaper than the renewals for say, 4-5 years then why not grab it and see how long it lasts.

-

i think im going to register

[FS1]

I thought about registering iamanidiot.com, but found it is already registered to network solutions. Oh well should have seen that coming.

What happesn if

[Fisher99]

your one of those small scam campanies who change their name every year?

This is hysterical...

[Noryungi]

In other news today, I just found this in my inbox:

• Increase the size of your love tool!
• Cheap drugs from overseas! Our doctors will write the prescription!
• Even better than Vi@gr@!
• Win '000s of $$$ on Ebay!
• Act now and protect your domain name for 100 years!

Or, in the immortal words of P.T. Barnum: " A sucker is born every minute ".

Anything else?

[Hexydes]

Was there anything in your e-mail about bridges for sale, or maybe ocean-front property in Arizona?

Innovating new product offerings

[Que_Ball]

While the company is not one most geeks would trust I do admire this move.
Other registrars are complaining about the control and lack of innovation by ICANN yet Verisign is finding ways to intruduce new products.

If nobody buys this service then it is a failed experiment but I suspect they will do a slow but steady business selling these virtually unlimited domains. I know many companies that went out and registered their domains with the longest expiration possible at the time. If a 100 year registration

Family Names

[sandypants]

For those of us with Family names as domain names, holding that domain name for 100 years.. while debatably evil.. does become a viable use. It can be passed on from generation to generation. A legacy kinda thing.

Re:Family Names

[DjReagan]

Do you really think that in 100 years domain names will exist in any way vaguely recognisable as what they are today? Sure, you could pass it on as a legacy, but your grandkids are going to wrinkle their noses and say "What is this .com thing stuck on the end?"

Re:Family Names

[zephc]

My name is Conner McLeod.com of the clan McLeod.com

I am an Immortal. That is why i signed the VeriSign 100-year contract.

Re:Family Names

[Sandman1971]

Assuming domain names still exist in 100 years. Assuming Verisign is still in business;

I registered my last name as a domain. Assuming it gets passed down to my (i don't have yet) children. How are they going to renew the domain? I'll be long gone 100 years from now. My address, email address, etc... will no longer be valid. How will they get the renewal notice? According to Verisign, the domain belongs to me. If I tranfer the domain, I lose the remaining years on my 100 year contract. Since I can't transfer the domain, how will me heirs prove the domain belongs to them?

100 years of interest loss

[kjba]

just $9.99 a year. This is a savings of over 70% compared to paying annually

This does not even come near the truth. If one dollar that you're paying now is used in a hundred years, you would actually have $131 when taking interest into account (assuming 5% each year).

What a loss!

Re:100 years of interest loss

[boer]

In other words, the $1000 now would be worth some $131500 in 100 years assuming 5 per cent annual interest rate, so effectively one is paying $1315 per year for the registration.

Re:100 years of interest loss

[Eye of the Frog]

You're assuming that registration stays at a flat rate. What do you know you can buy today for the same price 100 years ago? Or even 10? You're also talking about $131 in one hundred years from now. That $131 will most likely carry close to the same weight as $1 does today. Compare what $100 buys you today and what it bought you in 1904.

Well you could make a great deal, look at Guinness

[damgx]

In 1759 Arthur Guinness, rather speculatively, took over a deserted brewery at Dublin's St James's Gate, moreover he leased it for 9,000 years at a rent of 45 per annum - obviously intending on staying awhile.

Source: [viewlondon.co.uk]

I guess he made a great deal don't you?

This is dirt cheap....

[Asprin]

VeriSign is selling the functional equivalent of a lifetime registration.

You know, like US copyright law.

Sure, it's not for every domain, but $1000 for 100 years of not having to rely on the kindness of others [com.com] (who may even hate you [com.com]) because the boneheads in your internet services division let your company's registration lapse is dirt cheap. It probably won't sell like hotcakes, but jalapeno poppers isn't out of the question. Speaking corporately, it's a lot cheaper than lawyers and bribes you'd need to fund to win your lost domain back. ;)

Re:This is dirt cheap....

[frostman]

Funny, I'm currently paying $8.50 for new .com/.net registrations...

...and even if I buy in bulk (100 years) Network Solutions still wants to charge me more.

Of course this is a good idea

[dave420]

Keeping a domain for 100 years is a great idea. All it does is add to the value of the domain.

If you buy a domain for cheap, build up a decent web site (profitable would help), your 100-year lease on your domain becomes one hell of an asset.

Take the property market in the UK, for example. In London, most properties are "lease-holds", which means even though they're owned by private entities, when the lease-hold runs out (about 100 years), the property is given back to the Queen (so people can't just buy up all the expensive real-estate, and keep it). Most people use a long lease-hold as a selling point to buying their house. It guarantees you the house for as long as the lease-hold. It's the same with domains. You can't just look at the obvious financial aspects, but see how it pans out over time. A guarantee is sometimes worth more than the product itself.

www.microsoft.com isn't very useful if it's only yours for 2 minutes. A 100-year lease, however, would be worth billions.

From the book of Genesis...

[slycer9]

And thus Cain rose up and slew Abel for their father had given Abel his birthright, the domain name of Abraham.Com, and witheld FTP rights from Cain.

And God said unto Cain, 'Why aren't thou using the latest kernel as they brother?'..............

E-Obsolesence

[Mulletproof]

Beyond the fact that whether the company will be around in 100 yesrs, do you think the internet will be around in a hundred years? It's very possible that what we see now is nothing but an evolutionary process that will give way to bigger and better things. Forget the company... Will .com mean anything in a hundred years, period??? 100 years is a lot of time for changes and revolutions to happen.

Re:E-Obsolesence

[phil reed]

Having just read a book by Richard Gott that discusses this sort of question, let's do a little math.

There is a 95% likelyhood that we are seeing the middle 95% of the Internet's lifetime. That means we have seen anything from the first 2.5% of the Internet's life span up to the first 97.5% of the Internet's lifespan. If we say (to make the numbers work out evenly) that the Internet was invented 25 years ago, then if we are present at the beginning of the Internet's life span, we can be 95% confident that

Of course it makes sense

[MythMoth]

The overhead of offering the option to Verisign is very nearly nil.

If some of their customers want to renew for 100 years at a stretch, it makes perfect sense to permit them to thrust the money into Verisign's pockets.

And for a company with a valuable domain name it's a lot safer to pay a relatively small amount of money up front and have zero risk of the domain expiring. Remember, Microsoft has accidentally let vital domain names lapse before now !

I loathe VeriSign as a company, but this is just plain c

Company Life?

[Tomahawk]

I don't think the problem is whether or not my company will last 100 years (or, for that matter, whether I will last for 100 years). I would ask whether Network Solutions would last for 100 years.

The max term of a domain name lease is 10 years. Network solutions provide this 100 year lease by automatically adding an extra year to your lease on a yearly basis. If Network Solutions suddenly disappear, then your lease it left at 10 years, and you loose the other 90 years that you paid for.

T.

big internet domain crash in 100 years ?

[Atreide]

in one century I do not think my corporate maintenance procedures created today will be available / archived
in one century I do not expect to be working any more, so procedures & knowlegde will be lost
in one century I do not expect to be able to find my Verising login/password neither my bill to renew my corporate domain name for another century

when you do not regularly work with nor do you maintain something it disapears from your thoughs.
In one century many corporations (if they live that long) will just forget to renew.
What happens if they do not renew in 100 years ? Do they disapear from the internet ? What can Verisign tell us ? Noone at verisign will be there in one century. There is really no engagment from a corp that will probably not be there in one century.
Besides, would you dare give your provider the responsability of calling you in one century to remind you you must pay ?
I would not dare that.

That total nonsense.

moreover, who can say if domain names will not be free in 30 years ? Therefore you would have paid 70 years more, will Verisign give you change ?

If that's serious news, it's probably more some kind of advertisement from Verisign than a real product. It means "we are confident we will be there in 100 years, you can trust us to register for any length of time".
Sorry mister VS I do not trust you.

Remember "washpost.com"

[ortcutt]

Remember a couple of weeks ago when the Washington Post lost its email connection because they forgot to renew the domain washpost.com. $9.99 * 100 = $999. That's a bit of money, but a whole lot less than it cost the WP to have no email for a day.

Here [internetnews.com] is an article on the event.

Depends how many people sign up

[vistic]

If enough people sign up for this... and the company continued to care at all about their customers... then if, at some time, the current model becomes obsolete, the company may offer some kind of resolution... such as carrying over the current registration to the new system... or if the company is taken over by a major corporation, and the product discontinued, there may be some reimbursement.

If enough people do it, then they will fear making them angry by just cutting it all off.

Aaaah

[Daath]

As foretold by Nostradamus!

(Mad props to Futurama!)

Physical lease

[gruntled]

In the United States, long-term structural businesses leases -- typically for an office or shop in any structure from a one-story to a skyscraper -- top out at 99 years, oftentimes because of state law. For instance, Alabama limits leases to a maximum of 99 years. So the 100 year domain name extension is in line with that rule-of-thumb.

The real problem.

[jellomizer]

Well the real problem of having a domain name for a hundred years can be a loss to a community. Lets say a really good shopping name like idealgifts.com [friendlyhome.com] was purchased for a hundred years. This is quite possible because the company has been around for 50 years that it is pretty solid. But what happens if it goes out of business? Because the Domain is not costing the family of the old business anything why not keep it because it is a good domain name. So say an other company comes up and can really use that

Obligatory SouthPark reference

[D4MO]

Ladies and gentlemen this is Chewbacca. Chewbacca is a Wookiee from the planet Kashyyyk, but Chewbacca lives on the planet Endor. Now think about that. That does not make sense. Why would a Wookiee, an eight foot tall Wookiee want to live on Endor with a bunch of two foot tall Ewoks? That does not make sense!

A related question then.

[/dev/trash]

I see some registars allow you to register for 10 years. It's just as conceiveable that those registers won't be around in 10 years either. So 100 years seems okay with me.

companies dont last a century..

[radja]

>Is this is a realistic investment considering most companies don't last 100 years?

families last a century. and while a company can easily change names, this is a whole lot harder for a family.

Re:companies dont last a century..

[DarkKnightRadick]

Levi and Coca-Cola have been around longer than 100 years just to name a few.

Just another example...

[jbarr]

...of responsibility being removed from people's lives. Really, how tough is it to renew a domain? If you can't manage a simple task like regularly renewing your domain, you deserve to have it snagged away from you. It's all a matter of priorities. If you don't view your domain as something valuable then you deserve the consequenses of being irresponsible with managing it.

Why not?

[joeszilagyi]

All the companies offer you long-term registrations at a slight discount. Register for one year, it's $15. Register for five instead, and it's $12 a year. Small discount, convenience for everyone, but most people won't take the registrar up on it since most people for a personal domain won't drop $60 in such a fashion outright. This is why with most services like this--including hosting, cell phones, insurances, etc., that "Joe Normal" pays by the month while "The Business" will pay quarterly or annually. It's less of a hassle for the business and a tax write-off anyway.

So why not offer 20, 50, or 100 years at $12/year? I'm sure MANY businesses will leap at this, since it's the equivalent of guaranteed online trademark protection for your single most valuable asset, your domain name and online identity.

What about WIPO removal?

[way2trivial]

I've read the comments, -- what happens if someone claims your domain and you lose?

tough deal....

have you paid for the next 98 years registration for the sumbitch that took the name away from you?

MS will bite

[stm2]

I think MS will buy this service. Some years ago the forgot to pay a domain affected to hotmail and produce an outage. It was "fixed" by a linux user who paid the domain. Isn't it ironic?
(btw, he was compesated by Ms and he resold his check at ebay).

NPV sorry for all the techies but an MBA had to..

[OlivierB]

.. answer this

I've seen a few comments targeted against MBA's in a few weeks and the one I saw today just was too much BS.
The argument that this is a stupid "gain money quickly move" doens't stand.

Well some people obviously have neve heard of NPV, or Net present Value of money.
Net present value gives you the value today of a series of cash flows to happen in the future.

The formula is as follows:

NPV = SUM(Cash Flow *(1+i)^-n) | Where n ranges from 1 to 99 in our case.

i is the opportunity rate. In a company money typically has a greater return value than the money market. IE you would expect money invested in a company to be more profitable than on the money market.
This means that if the money market rate is 5% than you would expect a higher internal return to compensate your risk (risk premium principle). Thus the internal rate of return of a company would be market rate+risk premium.
So the IRR could be 10% in a company.

Let's just imagine these guys at NetSol are a bunch of losers and will only offer the market return rate, or will simply put the money in government bonds at 4% (constant over 100 years for simplicity skaes).
Let's say also that the cost of a web name renewal will be $10 per year for the next 100 years (it's more likely to be more as the inflation cathces in, but heck let's keep it simple).

Even with these very pessimistic variables, the NPV of these cash flows is $306!!! Tha's a $700 profit for the Netsol guys.

So please, don't say they are making a stupid move doing this as you have no idea what you are talking about. This is a very profitable operation.
It is very likely to be a success as people will think " hey 100 years * 10 dollars = $1000. So I am not getting ditched and it is peace of mind. Let's take it"

BTW, if the NPV is $1000, than the discount rate is only 0.12%. Impossible.

This is antisocial

[Schlemphfer]

Just last week I took out a ten year registration on my website. And it was great to be able to do that, since every year I always had the fear in the back of my mind that I'd forget about renewing it, and lose the domain.

So when I read about the 100 year domain thing, I thought, "that would be pretty great." Just pay a relatively small amount of money up front, and you're set for life.

But then I realized that there's a pretty big anti-social aspect to allowing 100 year domains. It may not be totally fair that the dotcom domain name ownership thing was a first-come, first take lottery. But we're stuck with it, and, fortunately, nobody owns a name forever -- they have to reregister each year or two or ten. If you can't make a go of flowerpots.com, then it won't be long until it goes back into the pool of unclaimed domains for somebody else to take. Well, that's sort of true anyway. I know at least one company [ultsearch.com] has arrangements with a registrar where expired names fall directly into their hands.

But anyway, my point is that there ought to be some mechanism where the scarcest property in cyberspace, dotcom names, falls back into the hands of the public if they are not being put to full use. And it's not in the public interest to allow 100-year domain names. All sorts of people will register all sorts of useful domain names, fail at making them profitable, and give up on the domain name. However, like neglected inner city property, the domain name will stay in their possession for a friggin century, and deprive the Internet community of using it for any value.

DNS Zones, a new family heirloom

[nutznboltz]

Take good care of this DNS Zone, it's been in the family for generations.

100 year lock-in and STILL too expensive

[sirshannon]

You would think that buying a domain name for a century would score you a better price break than that. For the 100 year registration, NSI charges $9.99 a year while GoDaddy.com and other companies charge $7.99 a year for single-year registrations.

In addition to that, GoDaddy includes several services for free (domain forwarding, email forwarding) that NSI charges extra for.

Re:Hudson Bay Company

[Lev13than]

Umm... Hudson's Bay Company was founded in 1670. That makes it more than twice as old as Canada. In fact, it's older than the United States, the French Republic and (almost) every democracy currently in existence.

I suspect, however, that this is the exception that proves the rule. The only company still in existence from the original Dow Jones is GE. Everything else has been broken up or bought out [dowjones.com].