Re:  Why is there a difference between the .com and
.net charges when they are run by the same company and
would presumably have the same cost structure?

A bit of history... ICANN approved the .net contract
with Verisign that contained major changes from the
draft .net agreement posted on the ICANN website,
without ANY public consultation -- see
http://gnso.icann.org/mailing-lists/archives/registrars/msg03117.html

This contract served as the template for .org, .info,
and .biz that set annual registration fee increases at
10%.  The .com agreement was set at a slighter lower
annual increase (around 7%) because the Board didn't
think that they could get away with a full 10%
increase.

As it stands, if .cn can charge one yuan (18 cents)
for a domain registration, it rapidly becomes
apparently that actual registration costs are going
way down (owing to economies of scale and other
considerations) and that price increases are
"justified" only to the extent that they serve to
raise additional funds for ICANN (corporate
self-interest continuing to trump the public
interest).





__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Tired of spam?  Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around 
http://mail.yahoo.com