[governance] new gTLDs

Fri Aug 17 14:00:49 EDT 2012

From: governance-request at lists.igcaucus.org [mailto:governance-request at lists.igcaucus.org] On Behalf Of parminder

I am honoured to agree with the US Congressional judicial committee

Ø  I knew this would happen, eventually. Good for Parminder for being consistent…..even if consistently wrong.

Ø  For a different perspective, see http://www.internetgovernance.org/2012/08/16/us-congress-joins-saudi-arabia-in-net-censorship-extravaganza/

I especially agree that ICANN has done practically nothing to get *informed* comments from outside the largely compliant ICANN community on an issue that implicates just everyone, who deals with language and ideas that is.

Ø  I think we've gotten 13 years of comments many of them quite well informed,

Ø  and anyway how is ICANN supposed  to control the intelligence or informational

Ø  levels of the people who write into an open, public comment board?

Ø  Have you looked over the comments on TLD applications? they are astoundingly diverse.

Ø  Most of them are stupid, but they are not from the ICANN stalwarts

Ø  That's democracy, bub

By it I mean a public-place from where our commonly owned words (with all the cultural significances they hold) like love, kid, book, school etc  cannot be plucked out and handed over to some business houses as private property.

Ø  This is where you are not thinking very deeply. If these words are indeed 'commonly owned' they can be appropriated and used by anyone.

Ø  Since domain name registrations must be exclusive, and since your claim to a dns registration of a common word is as good as mine, it is just a matter of first come first served.

Ø  It is the people who want to control and regulate the use of common words

Ø  - in order to ensure that they are used "properly" or "fairly" -

Ø  who actually would usher in a crippling political battle over who has the right to the name, and how it canbe used

Ø  which would stifle the development of the name space. I am still waiting for you Parminder to

Ø  get acquainted with the idea of "permissionless innovation," which is why the Internet flourished.

Ø  You want people to ask for permission and impose collective regulation before they can use the word 'book'.

Ø  I say to hell with that.

Ø  It is only a matter of time before you join the trademark lobby in their never ending quest to

Ø  ensure that politically approved true rights holders are allowed to use specific words in specific ways

When 'trademarks' allow exclusive rights over some words to some private parties in very clearly limited contexts, and with so many pre-conditions, caveats etc, how can a private body simply hand over the *globally* exclusive use of generic words, with no trademark claim to them either, to private parties just on the highest bid !!?

Ø  they are not handing over the right to globally exclusive use of the word.

Ø  They are handing over the right to globally exclusive use of a specific character string as a top level domain

Ø  You can use the word 'book' all you like. There, I just did it: book, book, book.

Ø  I can name my website http://www.syr.edu/book/

Ø  I can paint "book" on the side of my car, or tattoo it on my forehead

Ø  I can try to register 'book' in any of the hundreds of new TLDs that will exist if you and the TM lobby don't stop it

Ø  I can open a book store, online or offline, and attract google-driven searches on the word 'book' there if people link to it

Ø  Etc.

Just think of the scenario when Amazon owns .book,

Ø  Check this out: www.book.com<http://www.book.com>

Ø  Check this out: http://www.book.co.uk/

Ø

and mind you, it is to be fully private. Unlike existing registries like .com etc amazon will not even be obliged to sell second level domain names under .book in the public market (protecting the marketplace, huh!). Quite soon, amazon may change its name, or at least its book division's name to .book... It will have a right to, since it owns that particular symbol in a very special way..... Remember, normal trademark etc law wont allow it to run its business under the name 'book', because it will be considered too generic a name, meaning it is pubic property (those good old times when laws were made to protect the public!). But with an expedient routed through the ICANN- that benefactor of the powerful, Amazon can run its business under .book, the ownership of which is 'established, or would certainly get established over due course of use as everyone will know, of course .book is amazon (and vice versa), are you kidding or what!

I am sure with some proven use and exclusivity, trademark authorities will also be compliant... As the world, especially in the use of language, goes mostly digital, we hand over our common property, the idea and the word, 'book', to a private company.... and then it is the turn of 'kid', 'love', 'cloud', .baby, .book, .eat, .family, .film, .home,  .movie, .music, .search, .beauty, .school................
I am completely lost as to what public interest does all this serve? Isnt ICANN there to serve public interest! Why couldnt we stick to relatively meaningless three alphabet gtlds like .com, .org and such, and, being most important, making it incumbent upon the registries to sell second level domains in the open market on a non discriminatory basis?? Why has ICANN taken upon itself to further privatise anything and everything that conceivably can be privatised and perpetual rents extracted for the benefit of the most powerful, in the true spirit of the resplendent neoliberal march.

I really hope those outside the wunderworld of ICANN would take this issue up in the right earnest.. I suspect, the storm would start brewing soon. I cant see how ICANN, and its compliant ICANN community, will be allowed to get away with this absolute loot of our common cultural heritage. I think this time ICANN has bitten off too much.....

parminder

On Wednesday 15 August 2012 02:39 PM, "Kleinwächter, Wolfgang" wrote:

FYI

http://www.leahy.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/8-7-12%20Letter%20from%20Senate%20and%20House%20Judiciary%20Committees.pdf

wolfgang

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