Re: http://www.icann.org/announcements/announcement-21nov05.htm Bret, there is no way to comment anything from ICANN and on ICANN's website. ICANN is just stating ex caetedra, and not willing to read or listen anymore. Sorry for using your blog to comment. "Q4.3 Under the previous .COM agreement, VeriSign agreed to expend US$200,000,000 on certain research, development, and infrastructure improvements. How did they invest it and why does the new agreement contain no similar investment requirement? " The answer is just a plein "language de bois". I have been there, and my fried Peter de Blanc as well. The US$200 million deal for R&D had have to provide free software and tools for universal whois for all TLDs, and especially ccTLDs. It was not just VeriSign's funds to be spent anyway.