[governance] RE: Human rights and new gTLDs

[Kieren McCarthy]

> The whole issue with gTLDs is that these identifiers also 
> contain expressive characteristics.  And these expressive 
> characteristics are precisely what might come into play 
> in rejections based on "morality" or trademarks, etc.

> In this case, the distinction between identification and 
> expression is hopelessly blurred, and the expressive-related 
> policies could easily be extended to other forms of expression.



You know, I have given these claims about human rights and new gTLDs some
consideration and I still just don't see the logic.

Is it censorship to stop certain new gTLDs from being approved? In one
sense, yes. But only if you define censorship as stopping people from doing
whatever they want despite the clear offence that will be taken by others.

This type of "censorship" is more simply defined as the rules that hold any
society together.

Is it our "human right" to say whatever we want without regard to others'
sensibilities? No, it's not. We do have a right to not be prosecuted or
intimidated for expressing an opinion, but that is a quite different matter.



The important question to ask is: does not allowing certain new gTLDs result
in the removal or stymieing of discussion of a certain topic?

And the answer to this is quite clearly no.

This human rights argument appears to completely ignore the actual reality
of the Internet. There is actually comparatively little connection between
domain names and content and to pretend otherwise is frankly bizarre.


* Does the BBC only contain content about BBCs? Or subjects beginning with B
or C?
* Does Amazon only contain information on one of the world's largest rivers
and its basin?
* Does Facebook merely contain pictures of faces and books?


There is nothing to stop anyone from posting what they want at whatever
domain they want. At least not technically. And any rules that might apply
in different countries are going to apply to one domain name as much as they
do to any other.

The way Internet technology is moving is toward making each block of content
its own identifier - tags, search engines, RSS feeds. All the evidence
points to the fact that if something is compelling enough, it will be found
and repeated and linked to and mirrored - to the extent that many people
will read it without even knowing on which domain name it was originally
posted. 


The reason why there will be restrictions on some new gTLDs is for the same
reason you don't walk past a shop called "Shit" on the High Street. And the
same reason you can't purchase Al-Qaeda training videos in your local
supermarket.

I can't for the life of me understand why so much effort is being put into
shouting at policies drawn up and agreed to by large sections of the ICANN
community over several years when the really important discussion to be had
is how exactly the inevitable policies are implemented.



Kieren


____________________________________________________________
You received this message as a subscriber on the list:
     governance at lists.cpsr.org
To be removed from the list, send any message to:
     governance-unsubscribe at lists.cpsr.org

For all list information and functions, see:
     http://lists.cpsr.org/lists/info/governance