[governance] RE: Human rights and new gTLDs

[Milton L Mueller]

-----Original Message-----
From: David Goldstein [mailto:goldstein_david at yahoo.com.au] 
Sent: Wednesday, September 26, 2007 9:38 AM

>And then there's cybersquatting - to me the scourge 
>of the domain name business. And then there's security 
>for companies. If I'm selling widgets at widget.com, 
>yet someone tries to copy me at widgets.sdgf, and 
>there are hundreds of TLDs, how am I as a businessman 
>to easily keep track of this? It's hard enough now.

David,
that is the question that has kept TLDs from being added for nearly 10
years now. I will try to answer your question but with one proviso: I am
surprised by the way the debate about ICANN's ability to regulate or
censor semantic content in TLD strings has been digressed into a
discussion of whether new TLDs are desirable or wheher there are too
many of them. Whatever you think about those questions, there _are_
going to be new TLDs, probably in the 10-20 a year range. That is one
unambiguous (and relatively good) outcome of the ICANN process. (Of
course it took them 10 years, grumble...) 

It's actually easy to keep track of; there are automated services that
download zone files to let you know when names that match yours have
been registered. The issue has always been whether the value-add of
additional name spaces exceeds the cost of defensive registrations and
monitoring by existing registrants. 

One answer is that having a domain name by itself doesn't attract
traffic or business, especially in new TLDs. (certain short, generic
names in .com are another matter) So someone who registers widgets.sdgf
is unlikely to take business from you unless they actively promote it
and have similar products. If they encourage confusion, passing off,
etc. then it is actionable as a trademark case. If they are in a
completely different line of business, then it's legit. There are always
going to be borderline cases. Of course, the same problems arise without
any new TLDs -- someone could register wigdets.com or midgets.com (oops,
Vittorio would censor that one probably). Shutting the door on all new
name spaces to avoid those problems is like refusing to allow copy
machines in schools because some people will use them to violate
copyright. 



Milton Mueller, Professor
Syracuse University 
School of Information Studies
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