[governance] Is really Bulgarian Cyrillic .бг (.bg) similar to other Latin ccTLDs?

Tue Nov 1 17:10:43 EDT 2011

On Wed, Nov 2, 2011 at 6:33 AM, Daniel Kalchev <daniel at digsys.bg> wrote:

>
>
> I have done some presentations that demonstrate the use of different
>> (widely available) computer fonts and the possible confusability of these
>> two strings.
>
>
> This is awesome and it would be great to share some of the learnings, if
> possible but if you have already posted it on a website, maybe you can
> direct me to the URL or email me offline.
>
>> How big problem that would be in practice, I couldn't say without
>> some (empirical) research (has any such been made?).
>>
>
> It was never a problem. Since 2007 until early 2010 that same string was
> presented to ICANN staff working on the suggested "Fast Track" process
> (what we have now is nothing like the original idea, but better something
> than nothing) AND as official response to the board by both the Bulgarian
> Government and the BG ccTLD manager. It was only after the actually Fast
> Track application that it was indicated it would be "confusingly similar".
>
> Rumors go, that this was indicated privately to a Government
> representative shortly before the application, but so far all attempts to
> find such documented has failed.
>
> Interesting all we can do now is comment when we have the opportunity to
> comment, I suppose.
>
>> However, visually normal people can't tell *.lt *(Italy) from
>>> *.It*(Lithuania)
>>>
>>
>>
> The official response to this is that the ISO3166 table and therefore the
> current set of ccTLD names is inherited by ICANN, but they are committed to
> avoid confusability in future. Therefore, Cyrillic and Greek are declared
> "second grade" alphabets and any hint on possible confusability is taken as
> a show stopper.
>
> No language or aphabet is second grade.Article 19 of the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights gives people the right to freedom of
expression. There is also the Convention on the Protection and Promotion of
the Diversity of Cultural Expressions 2005 and another Convention for the
Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage.

*
*

> Funny, that the IDN Fast Track process talk about the need to demonstrate
> probable confusion, not merely possible confusion

This is interesting, to find what the difference between probable and
possible is and which is the lower threshold?

> .
>
> All attempts to obtain scientific proof of this (professional, I guess)
> Linguistic Committee failed so far. I believe they already understand that
> this statement just does not hold water. But then, we don't know who
> instructed them to claim these strings are confusable.
>
We need more linguistic experts to be involved in the contributions to
technical policy processes. This is why I am advocating as much input into
the policy processes and also to comment on the Variant Report before 16th
November, 2011 and for other reports by 14th November, 2011. At least,
people have to be on record for raising issues etc etc so it can be
factored into the considerations.

>
> In the end, the question is not how confusable the proposed IDN ccTLD is
> (as long as it it not identical). The question is that this is the desire
> of one nation that was abused for someone's private (or whatever) interests.
> This is a governance issue - what sort of mechanisms should be in place to
> ensure fairness and transparency?
>
> Daniel
>
>
>
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-- 
Salanieta Tamanikaiwaimaro aka Sala

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