Free The Names
Filed April 2026 / v.1.0 / Public Comment
A Petition for Internet Naming Reform

The internet's address book is being held hostage.

Forty-two million dot-com domain names sit empty — registered, renewed, and ransomed by a small class of speculators who have turned a piece of public infrastructure into a private toll road. We are calling on ICANN, the United States National Telecommunications and Information Administration, and the European Commission to put an end to it.

Addressed to: ICANN · NTIA · DG CONNECT Reading time: 14 minutes Status: Open for signature
42.4M
.com domains parked with no real use, per the 2022 TUM/Twente study
$2.1B
Annual revenue extracted by the .com secondary market in 2021
17.5%
Lower-bound share of all 334M global domains identified as parked
26%
Of secondary inventory held by just dozens of corporate domainers

Make this impossible to ignore.

One click sends a pre-written formal petition to the relevant regulator's public mailbox. Add your name, edit if you wish, and hit send.

Petition · Global ICANN Public Comment [email protected] → Petition · United States NTIA, U.S. Dept. of Commerce [email protected] → Petition · European Union European Commission, DG CONNECT [email protected] →
Each button opens your default mail client with the petition pre-filled. Recipient addresses are public points of contact published by each body — verify them before sending if formal record matters to you.
§ 01 — Preamble

A summary, in plain language.

Names are not collectibles. They are how a public finds you. Treating the global namespace like Manhattan real estate has produced exactly the dysfunction you would expect. — Free The Names · freethenames.org
§ 02 — The Scale of the Problem

The numbers are not in dispute.

The largest measurement to date

Headline figure
58.5M

An older, granular audit

Figure 1 / Snapshot of the .com namespace
What 137 million .com domains are actually doing.
137M .COM TOTAL
~33%
Genuinely active Functioning websites, mail servers, services. The internet you actually use.
~33%
Parked or speculative Placeholder pages, "domain for sale," redirects, registrar ad-farms.
~33%
Inactive / empty No website, no email, no service. Sitting on a name.

§ 03 — The Money Trail

Who profits, and how much.

Secondary market revenue
$2.1B

Concentration of holdings

Figure 2 / Concentration of speculative holdings
Who owns the .com secondary market.

The registry's structural conflict

Nearly half of every dollar spent on a new .com domain ends up in the pocket of someone whose only contribution was to register the name first and wait. — On the .com secondary market
§ 04 — Who Bears the Cost

The bill comes due for everyone else.

Startups and small businesses

Nonprofits and civil society

Non-English-speaking regions

Individuals and personal projects

The public itself

§ 05 — How We Got Here

A short history of a preventable mistake.

§ 06 — The Reforms

Five concrete steps. None of them radical.

01

A bona-fide-use requirement at renewal.

02

Progressive renewal fees on large portfolios.

03

A non-trademark dispute mechanism.

04

Mandatory transparent ownership.

05

Re-tendering of the .com registry contract.

§ 07 — Counterarguments

The standard objections — addressed.

§ 08 — Implementation

A realistic path, on a realistic timeline.

We are not asking anyone to abolish the registration of domain names, prohibit their resale, or seize a single existing portfolio. We are asking that a piece of public infrastructure be governed in the public interest. — What this petition does, and does not, ask
§ 09 — Conclusion

An address book is not a casino.

Send the petition. It takes one click.

The text is pre-written. Add your name, edit if you wish, and hit send. Each regulator's mailbox is listed below.

Petition · Global ICANN Public Comment [email protected] → Petition · United States NTIA, U.S. Dept. of Commerce [email protected] → Petition · European Union European Commission, DG CONNECT [email protected] →

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