Registration Agencies must comply with the policies and technical standards established by the IDF, but are free to develop their own business model for running their businesses. There is no appropriate “one size fits all” model; RAs may be for-profit or not-for-profit organisations. The costs of providing DOI registration may be included in the services offered by an RA provision and not separately distinguished from these. Examples of possible business models may involve explicit charging based on the number of prefixes allocated or the number of DOI names allocated; volume discounts, usage discounts, stepped charges, or any mix of these; indirect charging through inclusion of the basic registration functions in related value added services; and cross-subsidy from other sources.

Revenue based on services, not data – data related to the running of the research enterprise should be a community property. Appropriate revenue sources might include value-added services, consulting, API Service Level Agreements or membership fees.